We left Fernandina Beach today, witnessing more sad boats that had either sunk or were up on land from the hurricanes.

Having left a little later than we intended,it was getting close to low tide. There were areas along the way that were really shallow and we passed a sailboat being helped by some fishermen, as they were grounded. They wished us good luck because they said they drafted only 6" more than our boat.

The Captain navigated masterfully through the shallow areas, with guidance from me and the various books and on-line blogs that point out the most difficult waters.

After about 3 hours in the ICW we entered St. Johns river and got a glimpse of the large boat building sites. We had to slow down at the entrance to the river because Manatees migrate there at this time of year. We didn't see any:(

We continued slowly through the next section of the ICW because it was heavily populated with homes and double/triple story boat houses.

We joined a handful of cruisers at Pine Island to spend the night.