David and Cheri Howard's Sailing Stories

Cheri and I came down for several days to spend time at the boat while our kids are off on Spring Break. We normally all go together somewhere but this year we could not get our schedules to work out. After spending Easter with the family on Sunday, we packed up Monday morning and came down to the boat for some R&R. Unfortunately, it included bringing our dogs. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, but placed within a confined area is not my idea of fun. Not to mention the quarter mile we had to walk down the dock and across the marsh every time we had to walk the dogs, which was three times a day; But enough about that. We got in Monday evening, unloaded our gear onto the boat and headed straight for dinner at the Silver Star. The steaks were great. We came back and watched a movie. On Tuesday, we woke up and decided to head to the beach on Amelia Island. We, of course, took the dogs so that they could run around in the waves. The beach was more crowded on the North end than usual being that it was Spring break, but it was fun. Years ago, Cheri and I owned a place on the beach here on Amelia so we stopped by to look it over. It has stayed in great shape. Although the constant salt water spray and sand can wreak havoc on these beach houses as we can attest. It seems that every time we came down, we were doing repairs instead of enjoying a relaxing time, hmmmm, sounds like our boat! After the beach, we headed back to St Marys and had a nice dinner at Seagles. We headed back, walked the dogs, errr, then watched another movie. On Wednesday, we left the docks at low tide and headed over to Cumberland. It was an easy trip there and we dropped the anchor, loaded one of the dogs, Spunky, our Jack Russell, onto the dingy and motored over. We tied up and trekked over to Dungeness. There were lots of folks there on Spring break. Spunky really enjoyed herself chasing armadillos. She pulled on the leash until my hand hurt. We spent about four hours there. We then headed back to the dock, stopped and spoke with some folks who were there camping all week, then proceeded via the dingy back to the boat. I brought up the anchor, which was fun, since we do not have a windlass, and headed back to St Marys. At the suggestion of the Captain of Susurru, docked at the north end of the dock, went to the Mill for dinner. Wow, was it good. We really enjoyed our meal. Thursday morning, we cleaned up the boat, packed up the dogs, and headed home to Marietta to meet our son who was coming back from his skiing trip in Colorado with his high school buddies. Overall, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable time. Until next time... Fair Winds, David