Sanford to Savannah – First Two Weeks Back to Cruising, and Rejoining the Great Loop Route

It’s hard to believe it’s only been a few weeks since we left Sanford in our wake, resuming our active cruising lifestyle.

I originally thought I’d do one post wrapping up our segment up to Charleston, our turn around point of our first attempt at the Great Loop.

But we were already starting to forget things we’ve experienced, so thought breaking this up into two posts would be more prudent.

So, I present you – our first two weeks back to boat life.

Our adventures up to Savannah!

It was 302 nautical miles, traversing our beloved St. Johns River and officially returning to the Great Loop route along the ICW.

First, the video version:

Stop 1: Hontoon River Dead River Anchorage

Our first day back on the water was an absolutely perfect first cruising day down the St. Johns River!

We puttered about 18, now in very familiar, miles and tucked down the Dead River behind Hontoon Island for the night.

It’s a long time favorite anchorage that we’ve been to many times over the years – and we could have easily convinced ourselves to just stay here for a while and decompress.

Instead we enjoyed a special bottle of wine from Y-Knot Winery that we picked up in Idaho last fall on our van trip (yes, we really can keep bottles of wine around!)

But we were ready for new territory, so we weighed anchor in the morning to continue northward.

Stop 2: Palatka, FL

We have now cruised the St. Johns River multiple times over the years (see our entire St. Johns River collection of posts), and usually take 7-14 days each time to experience many of the amazing anchorages, springs and small towns.

But this time, we were ready to move on and made it a shorter trip. So our second cruising day was an all day one of nearly 8 hours of cruising time cover 63.3 nm to Palatka.

We zoomed across Lake George in near perfect calm conditions, and then made some stops in Welaka.

First was in the Mud River Cove to dingy into Mud River State Forest for a hike and a cooling soak in the springs (no mud!). And then near the town docks to get ashore for lunch at Shrimps R Us.

We then made the final miles to downtown Palatka and had the hook down by sunset. In the morning, we took the dingy to the town dock (which now has a keypad on it – you have to get the code from a city official) for a morning run over and around Ravine State Park.

You’re going to notice a theme in these posts – we plan around runs and fitness a lot these days!

In fact, you might notice we now have our stationary bike setup as the helm chair in the pilothouse – allowing one of us to appease our Apple Watches on long cruising days while the other is at the upper helm.

Stop 3: Downtown Jacksonville

Another long and lovely cruising day – covering 48.5 nautical miles into downtown Jacksonville.

We needed a new propane hose and remembered there is an Ace Hardware store in Green Cove Springs near the Governor’s Creek public launch. So we dropped the hook and took the dinghy ashore. Always fun to have boat up provisioning! There may have also been an ice cream treat (we did run 7 miles that morning afterall!).

Made the final push to Jacksonville and set the hook right downtown in another favorite anchorage off of Baptist Medical Center.

We love anchoring downtown Jacksonville between the Acosta and I-95 bridges.

The lights at night are just mesmerizing.

The dolphins play and feed all day long.

Watching trains pass by delights us.

Jacksonville has done an amazing job opening up free public docks to get ashore and explore the Riverwalk. The closest is in front of the YMCA, giving us access to shopping, dining and the Saturday RAM art festival under the I-95 bridge.

Saturday evening, we grabbed tickets to the Jax Symphony and walked less than a 1/2 mile for a glorious date night out. We were tempted to stay longer and catch a play and a musical too.

And of course lots of walking and running access around the river. For Sunday Runday, we did a nice leisurely 1/2 marathon around the riverfront (leisurely half marathon – who are these people??)

At current time, the free marina by the stadium is shut down with the building of a new hotel. So the anchorage was a little more crowded than previous visits and we had to anchor a bit more west than usual.

We did end up getting our anchor chain snagged a bit .. but a little finagling and we got ourselves free after two wonderful nights. It was great to just generally catch up after a hectic few weeks of preps.

Stop 4: Broward Creek Anchorage

When I looked back seven years on our calendar and noticed that we set off on our original Great Loop on April 28, 2017 – I filed that date in the back of my mind.

Today was April 28, and wouldn’t it be kinda fitting to officially join back up with the Great Loop on our Loop-aversary? Ok, totally dorky – but thankfully Chris is equally dorky.

So when we saw the falling tide would put us on the ICW just before sunset, we decided to do it! (And you totally want to time this transit with the tides, or you’ll be pushing a lot of current!).

We were originally aiming to set the hook at Sister’s Creek, which is right where the St. Johns River and Intracoastal Waterway meet. But the anchorage was pretty full with several boats awaiting weather windows to transit ‘on the outside’ (ie. ocean).

So we continued north a bit to the next marked anchorage of Broward Creek and enjoyed a lovely evening. It was indeed just before sunset, and we did a spontaneous short YouTube live to mark the occasion if you’d like to share in our dorkiness:

Stop 5: Ferndandina Beach

Broward Creek is just a little cove off the ICW, and in the morning we were reminded of wake as we were awoken to the boat rocking.

We’ve been pretty spoiled in protected waters in Sanford and the St. Johns River.

So we got an early start and made our way to our next stop – Fernandina Beach – for fuel. We actually spent 4th of July weekend here last summer on our little 3-month cruising sojourn.

On the way, we were waked a couple more times for good measure.

We planned our approach to Port Consolidated Fuel in Ferndandina Beach (only $3.42/gallon for diesel) near slack tide for minimal currents. But we had forgotten to take winds into account, which were at about 15-20 knots directly off the dock.

Having not really done much docking anywhere but at our little protected marina in Sanford in four years, we definitely did not dock like the 7-year boat owners we should be. After several attempts, and a patient dockhand (who admittedly wasn’t as helpful as he could be) – we got docked after swinging away in the wind a couple of times.

We took on 230 gallons and then went to find a spot to anchor outside the mooring field.

Just as soon as we got the hook set, comfortably over 400′ from the nearest boat – a guy in his dinghy putters over to inform us he feels we’re too close to his sailboat which had 180′ of line out in 18′ water. We only had about 100′ out ourselves for the conditions.

While we knew we were totally out of his swing circle even if some bizarre tide vs wind condition happened to have us going opposing directions fully extended on our rodes – we agreed to move.

But no sooner than he was thanking us, his partner back on the boat started screaming obscenities at us!

Absolutely batshit crazy.

So we tucked up Bells River instead to lick our wounds, well out of eye and ear shot of that toxicity.

But after a snagged anchor, a crowded anchorage, getting used to being waked again, challenging docking and being screamed at – gotta say, we were a bit on edge ourselves.

Sometimes, ripping the velcro off the familiar has a whiplash effect. And we were feeling it as we were getting our sea legs back.

We did get ashore in the morning, after paying the marina $5 for dingy dock access, for a stroll and lunch.

Stop 6: Cumberland Island

We moved a bit further north after lunch, and spent two nights at anchor off of Cumberland Island National Seashore. It’s a beautiful place to anchor – lots of room off the dock up and down the cove (just mind the huge shoaling that emerges as land at low tide), and a pod of dolphins that play off the boat all day.

Going ashore with the dinghy is easy – but as this is a National Seashore, it is a fee area of $15pp. However, our national park pass covered us.

We typically time our shore leave to before the first tourist ferry boat arrives at 10:30a, and after the last leaves at 4:45p. That gives you a blissful experience of the island mostly to yourself except for fellow boaters and campers on the island.

We enjoyed a run through the majestic trees, and several hikes. We did walk the beach but opted not to swim as there were swarms of cabbage head jelly fish (which aren’t overly harmful to humans.. but.. still.)

Sadly, aside from seeing some horses on shore when we arrived – we did not encounter any on the island this trip.

Our third visit to the island.. and certainly not our last. The stop recharged our souls.

Stop 7: Jekyll Island, GA

Got up at the buttcrack of dawn to raise the anchor after a rainy overnight at Cumberland Island and puttered past a submarine in port at Kings Bay. That always brings such warm memories and pride for my father, a submarine vet.

Our aim for an early departure was to cross St. Andrews Sound in ideal conditions.

On our first crossing of the sound five years ago we didn’t time things as well – and we hit some pretty big swells.

They freaked us out a bit. Well, freaked ME out at least (Chris is much harder to shake). I was at the helm and stayed steady while my adrenaline rushed until we made the turn to more protected waters.

So I had a lot of fear building in my gut for this crossing, and we had the back way plotted out just in case.

But things looked calm ahead, and it was indeed a beautifully smooth crossing. Hooray!

We arrived to Jekyll Island at slack tide, had a perfect docking at the lovely Jekyll Harbor Marina – a place we had continually heard high praise for.

Well maintained, friendly & helpful staff, loaner bikes, pool, hot tub, laundry and onsite restaurant. And of course, access to Jekyll Island.

We were most looking forward to the extensive network of biking trails across the island – and spent a lot of time on them exploring on our new Specialized Turbo Vado SLs (neither of us used the electric!).

The trails get you to all the amazing places – from historic ruins, grounds, Driftwood Beach, dining and the Village for shopping. We were able to get some limited overpriced fresh produce too at the market.

Not pictured, because we totally were having too much fun to snap a pic – was a lovely evening spent with long time followers Sue & Mike.

At $2.50 foot ($134/night with electric for us) – it was a worthwhile splurge for some quality shore time, refreshing the tanks and indulging in some AC.

Stop 8: Sapelo Island, GA

Next up – a very special rendezvous with dear friends Ann & Elliott. They started out in 2009 as our very first blog stalkers turned friends. We’ve had many adventures over the years together!

This time, they brought their lovely sailboat Kathryn down the ICW to anchor with us off of Sapelo Island.

We enjoyed a couple days chilling, sharing in meals, gaming and running the island together.

Sapelo Island is only accessible by boat (by ferry you need an invitation, but anchored boats are welcome to use the dinghy dock) full of rich history with one of the last remaining Gullah communities. And lots of marine research by the University of Georgia too.

Always special times with these two!

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This Post Brought to you by FLIES!

FLIES! Big giant will eat your head BITING green FLIES!!!

Once we left Jekyll Island heading north, they started coming aboard just south of Wolf Island. And kept coming aboard until we reached Savannah. That’s over 60 miles!

They buzz around. They land on you. And they take a chunk of flesh when they sink their fangs into your skin.

Now we know why the top deck is called a Flybridge!

It was all hands on deck for the weapon’s officer (did you know you need one on a boat??) with the fly swatter to keep the helms-person from losing too much blood.

We finally relented, and moved to the pilothouse – which we rarely do. But we just might more often, as we found it quite comfortable to pilot from inside.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.

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Stop 9 & 10: Savannah, GA

After leaving our meetup in Sapelo Island, we did a long 52nm cruising day into Savannah. We anchored just off the channel for the night off Skidaway Island, allowing us to weigh anchor at daybreak.

We wanted to time our arrival on the Savannah River at slack tide – as we would be docking right smack downtown!

A new location for us, but an adventure we’ve been yearning for after seeing friends dock here before us (thank you Sean & Louise!).

We had chatted with some other boaters on Nebo (kinda the RVillage of the boating community) who were already on the dock – and knew the first come first serve dock would be wide open in the morning.

We timed our docking perfectly.. and then went to pay.

The city has had variable collection of the $1.50/ft dockage fee ($70.50/night, including electric is a bargain to stay in the center of it all) over the years. But the scuttle was as of March, they were back to collecting.

So we followed the posted directions and headed across the way to the Mobility & Parking office to check in.

It’s a very ‘formal’ process now – they have you scribble your boat name, phone number, vessel length and e-mail address into a generic pad of paper.

At first, the agent said we were set after doing all this tedious paperwork.

And then we said ‘don’t we need to pay?’. Oh yeah!

We were told to check our e-mail for a link to pay online.

Later in the day, a warm welcome to Savannah e-mail with a link and directions came – to our surprise, to the city’s parking citation site!

Apparently, this is how they figured out how to charge overnight boaters – issuing a citation. You even have the option to appeal.

Hahaha. Kinda hilarious. But we happily paid our ‘citation’ and set off to enjoy all that Savannah has to offer.

Savannah is such a gorgeous city, and we’ve visited multiple times during our years on the road and water. But we’ve never had the opportunity to stay right downtown.

We had easy access for lots of walking, run-sploring and getting the bikes on the ground.

We enjoyed dining out (yummy Indian, Thai and TexMex – I know, not really local – but local here doesn’t tend towards GF and veg!). We took the bikes on dedicated bike lanes to a Kroger grocery story just a mile away to restock the fresh produce.

And, we got to meet up with fellow RVing nomads Miranda & Jeff of NomadicTrekRV for a lovely evening together.

If it wasn’t for the constant bashing of high wake from passing large vessels – we could easily have stayed longer than two nights. But with an approaching big storm line, we decided to continue on to a more protected location.

But that departure was not without challenges of the mechanical kind. We were able to safely get to a protected anchorage before the storm, and have a game plan. Nothing show stopping, and something we should be able to handle with some YouTube University and parts awaiting us at our next planned longer stop in Charleston.

We’ll update later on that..

Whew

Sorry for the long post, but a lot to catch up on. Can’t believe I thought we could do just one post for our entire trip to Charleston (where I write this from).

We have a week long stay planned here in Charleston, and then we officially resume our Great Loop when we depart and continue northward.

We will be slowing the pace down from here.. so hopefully these posts can be less of a doozie to assemble.