Our incredible journey came to an end (for now) on Wednesday, November 4. That morning after a stunning dawn, we left our beautiful anchorage next to Cumberland Island for the relatively short cruise to Jacksonville.
Our first decision was whether to travel on the outside (the Atlantic Ocean) or take the ICW. Jonny was inclined to do one more outside journey but as we listened to the weather, we decided not to. Although the wave heights were not too big, the interval or time between waves was only 4 seconds which makes for a very bouncy and often uncomfortable ride. The downside of taking the ICW route was the frequent shoaling and the fact that we would be traveling at low tide which makes traversing those shoals more nerve-wracking.
The weather on this last day was stupendous – sunny skies, warm temperatures, very little wind. A perfect way to end our trip!
We left bright and early at 7:30 and threaded our way along Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island.
We passed some cranes by Fernandina Beach that looked like giant metal dinosaurs!
We encountered the anticipated shoaling, In only one spot did we bump the bottom but we were able to plow our way through to deeper waters.
As we got closer to Jacksonville, we crossed the St. John’s River and were getting increasingly near to our final destination.
Still, we had some wildlife to welcome us as we drew closer and we passed by some of the beautiful watery lowlands.
We arrived after lunch at the Palm Cove Marina where we’ll keep the boat until Sunday.
It was with mixed feelings that we arrived – it seemed like we got home more quickly than expected and we weren’t quite prepared for the transition! But the folks at Palm Cove were very accommodating and we were tied up and secure in no time.
We had just enough time to wash down the boat (and ourselves) when our friends Natalie and Alex Costas arrived.
We had invited them aboard for a celebratory bottle of champagne to toast the end of our journey. Many thanks to Lynn’s work colleagues, Deb and April, who had given us two great bottles of champagne as a bon voyage gift – one to drink upon our departure and one to celebrate our safe arrival home. And celebrate we did with a delicious tuna tartar appetizer courtesy of Natalie!
That evening we were all invited to the home of Nick and Alixe Stam for dinner. They had recently moved to a new home in Ponte Vedra Beach. We had a lovely time with them enjoying a vegan dinner prepared by a chef they had brought in for the occasion. It was so much fun catching up with everyone and sharing stories!
For those who are interested in a few facts about our adventure, here is some of the information that Jonny has been tracking each day. He has a lot more information about costs and engine hours, etc. which he’ll be happy to share with anyone who is interested. But here are a few tidbits that may be of general interest:
- Number of travel travel days - 210
- Number of nights – 209
- % of time staying at marinas - 67.5%
- % of time anchoring or staying at free docks – 32.5%
- Travel days – 130
- No travel days – 80
- Nautical miles traveled – 4,913
- Gallons of diesel consumed – 2,164
- Biggest expense categories – 1. marinas and 2. eating out
We exceeded our budget by about 10% but we don’t regret a single decision we made. We had anticipated staying at anchor 50 percent of the time which we didn’t do primarily because we had some extended stays due to family obligations and also because we were new to this cruising lifestyle. Going forward, we are likely to increase the percentage of time at anchor because we have grown to love that part of the travel and we’ve become much more comfortable with that option.
Our plan for the next few weeks include picking up our two cats and driving down to Miami. Once our furniture is delivered, we’ll set up our newly renovated home in Miami Beach. And we’ll collect our two dogs and bring them home as well.
We want to thank the many people who helped us make this journey possible - Andy and Ed for caring for our dogs and Holly for taking care of our cats; Ken and Fred, Zendo’s previous owners, who patiently helped us trouble shoot any little issue that came up during the trip; Duane and Diane for buddy boating with us during the big waters of the St. Lawrence and the Maritimes; Robbie for joining us to cross the Bay of Fundy; Barbara and Barry and Jim and Danette for sharing their experience and guidebooks with us. We are grateful, also, to those who we visited during our travels and those friends and family members who joined us on portions of the trip. We also greatly appreciate the positive feedback and encouragement from those who followed our blog and always cheered us on!
We plan to bring Zendo down to Coconut Grove before Christmas where she will live at a marina there. We look forward to many more adventures on her in the future! She has certainly served us well!
