Current, Shoaling, and Tide - Oh, My!

Ever since George Alexander was a little boy, he has come to Fernandina Beach.  His family had a house on S. Fletcher, and they came every summer.  One of his earliest memories is of knocking on his parents'  bedroom door in the dark, waking up his father, so they could go fishing from the pier.  "Louis," he would hear his mother say.  She knew this little guy was standing outside, ready to go.  They could fish all day for a dollar each.  He has always loved this place, and now we are here! Such a sweet day for us.

When we came under the A1A bridge, we took a photo of the old Down Under Restaurant, where we ate many delicious seafood dinners with big family groups.

The Down Under has seen better days.

When we took our walk around town, this fellow was out in the street.  He reminded me of the dog that's always lying in the road in Dudley, GA.  Everyone knows just to drive slowly around that dog.  

We admired the new restaurants and shops downtown.  We haven't been here since 2013 due to buying Aunt Aggie and starting the Loop.  Some things have not changed.

There is still a shop with koi out front.

The Palace Saloon is still a high point of the tour.  My sister Susan loved to come here and have a 

strawberry daiquiri.  How I wish she were with me today!

Here is the view from our kitchen window of sailboats in the mooring field.  Every year we would walk to the docks

and look at boats and dream of having our own boat.  

Happy Captain!

I was going to tell you all about the current, shoaling and tides that we worked through on our way here today.  Somehow, once we tied up at the marina, all that stress went away.  Let's just say that there was shoaling at many points in the curvy rivers. We read the warnings on Active Captain and moved accordingly and did not run aground.  The current on the St. John's River was powerful, but we were prepared.  The funny part was that we were watching some shoaling before the river and didn't realize we were there until we saw the current.  We left at 11:15 am today to hit a couple of bridges at low tide, so that would not be a big factor.  We had to pay close attention all day.  It was worth all the work.