THE VOYAGES AND ADVENTURES OF M/Y INCOGNITO! : St. Augustine & Amelia Island

Morning key drop as we departed Melbourne, FL four days ago.

The port captain had forgotten to get our marina keys from us, as we had forgotten to give them to him. He stuck out a pool strainer... That clever fellow.

The beauty of the Intercoastal.

You never know what you're going to see

We arrived in darling St Augustine which just oozed charm. Our slip was just across from an old Spanish Galleon ship.

And local characters abound!

St Augustine is the oldest city in the nation.

Brad and Sid ditched me for the Golf Hall of Fame right after we docked...wah wah.

And I happily perused the town on my own. It's absolutely charming and chock full of history!

This old little cottage had a "to go" window with fresh thin mint bars just sitting in the window. Nom nom!

And then I had to investigate what "man crafts" were. I walked out with two handmade slingshots for the grandkids. They will have fun playing manly war games with them...

And then if you want an authentic souvenir to take home... How's this for roadkill?

Here's Brad modeling in the oldest town square in the US.

We spied a mini golf course at the marina. Made a mental note for evening excitement.

Sid was working on his moves...

Sailboats were flying their signal flags as the local junior sailing club was having a fundraiser. Love the local color!

Hard to believe we are in Florida!

We found a charming restaurant for dinner and enjoyed their southern hospitality.

But then it was time for a mini golf showdown. We all tied on the back nine.

And the junior sailing fundraiser was running at full steam... Such great music adjacent to the mini golf course that night! There was so much live music at every turn in this town that we'd have thought we were in Austin, Texas.

We returned after the "showdown" and had the pleasure of seeing the old galleon cloaked in a blanket of light.

We departed at 7am the next morning in order to be first in line for the 7:15am bridge opening.

Below is a view of the old fort from the water...

And the marina...

We made the bridge opening as planned and boats stacked up behind us. We wanted to make high tide as we headed through the Georgia waters which are famously shallow.

It was a spectacular day out!

And the scenery reminded me of my childhood vacations in Sunriver, Orgeon.

Everyone along the water had their own boat house and some even decked theirs out with bars and fire pits. I noticed that most of them had new roofs on them, albeit from a recent hurricane

Our morning view from the pilot house.

Gorgeous estates as we neared Savannah.

We passed many bridges, and most of them had great architecture such as this:

We came upon a HUGE shipyard and they were building not just yachts...

But Superyachts!

Below is a railroad crossing that opens up for bridge crossings and lines up vertically.

It switches back when a train approaches

Below is the welcome wagon of Amelia Island.

This gives you an idea of it's location.

Shrimp boats waiting for their midnight runs.

We had a fantastic dinner at the marina restaurant with no craziness at all. Ha! It was our last night with Sid (Suz previously departed to tour Perdue with their son) and our friends Nancy & Buddy had just arrived. Too much fun!!

The next day we had an 8am departure and we're off heading toward Savannah.

Can you spot the nuclear submarine?

And then, this happened...Brad, Nancy, Buddy and I were in hysterics.

And like a scene from a Hitchcock film, we were followed by these seagulls for miles.

We found a great spot near Dickinson Creek to anchor for the night which was right off of St Catherine's Island which serves as a refuge for endangered species from around the world. The entire history of this island is extremely fascinating, but much too long for my tired typing fingers. Here's the link if you'd like to check it out...