Lee and Peter Sailing Trip was for Four not Two Years. Now an Italian adventure

We crossed the St Mary River to Fernandina Beach, the first town in Florida, hurray we have arrived and this is the scenery, what a welcome.

We continued to Fort George Island where we met up with Layla and Odyssey. We, all three boats, met in an Anchorage, Fort George River, as planned to have a belated Thanksgiving dinner on our Boat.

Everybody liked Korean Barbecue by us and Shortrib cooked by Miriam. We stayed up late talked about Slavery, Religion, Healthcare and History. The plantation, now a State Park, has a history of a slave owner who openly married one of his slaves. Needless to say it is a colorful story. We went to the park next day.

Marylu and Mike are going back to Canada to spend Christmas with their family and return in the New Year. They are leaving their boat in Florida.

We visited the Kingsly Plantation in our dinghy and the house tour was indeed interesting. The owner married his 13 year old slave and  had five other wives ( or at least mothers of his children), as long as you were Catholic everything was OK in those days.

We walked out to the estuary and a lot of folk were fishing, considering our lack of success we asked what they were using. Live bait, little fish, a kind woman gave us some bait and a special half submersible bucket to keep them in, the kindness of strangers. We used the bait and caught two fish, from the herring family a bit like trout, American Shade we think.

Next day we took the dinghy to Little Talbot Island and walked to the Atlantic. Have you been on a deserted beach? In this beach, you get a feeling of deserted Forest and beach. The seagulls are  settled down relaxedly on the beach without being threatened even by us.

At Jacksonville we tied up to the free dock right in the heart of downtown, Jacksonville Landing. Pubs, clubs, Christmas Tree and dancing girls, a children’s dance school performance, just outside the boat. A blue boat also arrived at the same time. We said hello and talked, we met them what seems years ago at Dismal Swamp, they went one way and we went to the Outer Banks and here we were next to each other again. Strange how we keep bumping into the same people.

We went to a book store that competes with the Strand in New York, miles of secondhand books, Lee got “A Beautiful Question” there and Peter got “The History if PI”.

There was a street festival in the evening and the Contempory Art Museum had free entry. The exhibition was wonderful.

We went to the Cumming Museum and Gardens, lovely Gardens.

Good City Jacksonville.