Florida

 12/11- We got slammed last night. After the squall line came through yesterday afternoon the rain kind of let up. Then around midnight another squall hit and pinned the boat against the dock. This time the wind only let up slightly and kept the boat grinding against the dock. All night long I could hear the squeak of the fenders on the dock and the slap of waves hitting the hull. Then there was the boom of the transome getting hit with a wave. It was not a restful night. 

   It was pretty much like that when we got up and we discussed how we were going to get off the dock. There were boats in front and behind us. I watched as the guy behind me managed to get off but I wasn’t sure that way would work for us. Then Ben, one of the dock hands came to the rescue. I decided he knew more about how to do this than I ever will so we decided to listen to him. With the wind blowing us on to the dock and the current peaking Ben devised a plan. We took off all the lines except one spring line. The stern of the boat swung out into the river and we applied reverse. Once we started moving he tossed us the final line and we were away. Of course it couldn’t be that simple as the boat was just turning in a slow circle. At least we were away from the dock and other boats so once we got the boat lined up with the current we put her in forward and spun around again. It maybe didn’t look too pretty but it worked like a charm. 

    The rest of the day was quite nice. We had decided to skip Cumberland Island as we just spent 3 days on Jekyll. It took quite a while to get by Cumberland as we hadn’t realized how big it was. We did manage to see some wild horses on shore though. 

   We pulled into Fernandino Beach Florida! hoping to pick up a mooring but they were all taken so we dropped the anchor. We are hoping one will free up tomorrow as there is some nasty weather coming. 

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