Day 69-70 Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island, Florida

Yesterday morning the anchor came up at 8:30 and we were heading south again. This time only for 5 miles to Fernandina Harbor Marina. This is part of the resort area of Amelia Island but the waterfront is a "working front". The marina is in downtown Historic Fernandina Beach wedged between a paper plant and oil refinery. At first it is very intimidating but if you don't look at them there is no noise or smell. This is the birthplace of the shrimping industry so there are shrimp boats everywhere. In fact, when anchored, we have experienced constant snapping sounds under the hull since Beaufort, NC, and have been told it is tiny shrimp eating the bottom growth on the boat!! Apparently Amelia Island was also a gathering place for pirates and smugglers. There are enough of those around on the streets to remind you of this!

After the laundry was done we walked around this charming town. Lots of shops with Christmas decorations already in place. We browsed in a wine store and found a bottle of our favorite, Frank Family Chardonnay, and a new one, Choco Vine. This is a combination of red wine, dutch chocolate, and cream. We first tried it in Elizabeth City with s/v Witchcraft, a boat from Canada. We are still looking for Cruzan Rum Cream which s/v Persephone introduced to us but no luck yet!

Today it's grocery shopping for Thanksgiving! While waiting to get to the grocery store Peter spotted a sailboat with large Irish flag flying and rushed to hang our own large flag from the spreader. The boat, s/v Safari of Howth, came from Dublin to NY Harbor a year ago. The couple on board have been cruising around the US and Caribbean and are now headed to Cuba. We invited them to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow also so now we will have 7 people and a dog for dinner. With that in the works we got busy this evening. Peter made cranberry-orange relish, port wine cranberry sauce, and Irish trifle. We could not get Bird's custard powder (Irish product) so he made a custard sauce from the Internet. Jane will make stuffing in the morning and roast a full turkey breast in the afternoon.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends from the marina, from Tri-County, and anyone following our blog. We hope your holiday is a happy one. Hello to our Franklin friends tonight who are having fun at Pete's stuffing party. We will miss our girls and family but are happy to have friends to share the holiday with. Both of the girls are working at their restaurant jobs tomorrow so they will celebrate when they can. This is a new experience for them but in the long run it will make them more thankful for their family traditions established for so many years. They are already skiing/snowboarding in Colorado and having fun.