MV Cheers

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Port 32 - Jacksonville, FL

We ended up staying at Port 32 in Ortega Jacksonville for two months. With the holidays and an unexpected turn of events, we extended our stay to January 11th.

First, our beloved Roxie crossed over the heavenly rainbow to join mom Nov 13th. We noticed that she had not been herself and was having problems walking, not eating and sleeping all the time. We took her to the vet who upon examination found she had multiple enlarged lymph nodes. He indicated that at her age and with the symptoms she was having he was pretty sure that she had lymphoma. It was so hard, but we decided it was best to let her go.

We ended up going home to Ohio for Thanksgiving, which was a good distraction. Once back to Jacksonville the doctors appointments started, as well as referrals and follow-ups. Our good friends Trish and Paul live in Jacksonville, so we got to see them several times while we were there.

It just so happened the Trish and Paul were going on a cruise out of Port Canaveral the 2nd week of December and we had no doctors appointments, so we took a last minute cruise to St. Maarten, St. Thomas and the Royal Caribbean's private island Coco Cay. We had a great time but came home with colds!

We had a week to recover from our colds before our friends, Pat and Stephanie drove down from Ohio to spend Christmas and New Years with us! A couple of trips to the beach and days at the pool is a great way to spend the holidays!

Pat and Stephanie tried to teach me the art of finding sharks teeth.....they found several....I found none on my own....lol! Pat planted one for me to find toward the end of our last visit. He's working working on his grandpop skills!

January brought the winter to Florida with lows in the 30's and highs in the 50's. With doctors appointments wrapping up and the cold coming in, it was time to get out of dodge and move south!

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Savannah GA to Jacksonville FL

Friday 11/01 we departed Savannah very early and anchored in the Crescent River around 4:30, got Roxie to land and was back in the boat just before the noseem's attacked. Never had them that bad. It was crazy!

The next morning we made our way to Jekyll Island where we stayed in Jekyll Harbor Marina for 2 nights. We spent our time here cleaning, doing laundry, working on the dingy and changing the engine oil.

Monday morning 11/3 we left Jekyll Island and made our way to Cumberland Island. We anchored there for 2 nights. We really enjoy the National Park, which includes the entire island. The Dungess Ruins, wild horses, dear and many other critters. In addition it appears the anchorage is popular with the juvenile dolphins! They were playing everywhere!

The Dungeness Ruins are the remains of a mansion that was built in 1896.

The next day we walked across to the other side of the island to the beach. What a great walk! Any we got up close to a few horses!

As we were walking back from the beach there was a rustling in the bushes....it was hoses coming to the creek for water!

Wednesday we had a short ride to Fernandina Harbor Marina on Amelia Island. We stayed two nights.

After leaving Fernandina Harbor we went to Port Consolidated and took on another $300 gallons of fuel. We had a short ride to the free dock at Sister's Creek where we stayed another 2 nights.

Casualties along the way.

Sunday morning 11/10 we left Sister's Creek headed up the St. John's River toward Jacksonville.

We made it past the football stadium and downtown and anchored just outside of the Jacksonville Baptist Hospital for the night. There was a YMCA just across the river that had a dock which was great for getting Roxie to land.

The next morning we made our way to Port 32 where we will stay for a month, then on to Key West and the Bahamas for the winter!

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Charleston NC to Savannah GA

We came into Charleston Friday afternoon but waited a bit to go into the Safe Harbor marina due to the current. We hung outside and came across these two, who look to have been there for awhile.

We were docked toward the end of the original mega dock (pier), which is a half a mile walk to get to land. Safe Harbor offers happy hour every Friday and Tuesday from 5:30 to 7:30, free food and drinks. Very nice!

The marina also offered free shuttle service anywhere on the peninsula. We stayed 2 nights. Friday was a relaxing evening on the boat. We did go into town Saturday night and had dinner at Virginias on King, specializing on low country cuisine.

Charleston is home to may colleges and many of the kids were out, all dressed up and headed to parties. Very fun seeing all the costumes!

Found something fishing off the back of Cheers on our way back from town!

We left Charleston Sunday morning under cloudy skies and 69 degrees.

We traveled with 3 other trawlers south toward Beauford SC. We had 5 dolphins riding our wake for about 10 minutes.

We anchored in Steamboat Creek, about half way to Beaufort. The anchorage was quiet with a boat ramp just around the bend.

This is a oyster farm just inside the mouth of Steamboat Creek.

The next morning 10/28 we moved on to Beauford, SC. We anchored there for 2 nights. There is a very nice town dingy dock with a large park and just past that was the historical section with many shops and restaurants. Tuesday night we had pizza at Hearth Wood Fired Pizza. Delish.

We left Beauford Wednesday morning making our way to Savannah, GA. Yea! Another state closer. We were looking forward to staying down town right in the middle of the parties and events for Halloween on Thursday. We plan on being there until the end of the weekend. I nice travel break.

Savannah didn't disappoint! The historic waterfront was busy with tourists enjoying all the restaurants, shops and pubs. Not to mention the busy river!

Roxie liked it when the tide was high because she could hang out on the bow and watch the folks in town.

We went for a nice long walk just beyond the historic district and found a historic cemetery, trees covered in moss and beautiful church.

We had dinner at the Boars Head Grill and Tavern established in 1958. It is located on the first floor of the former King Cotton warehouse that dates back to 1858! It is the oldest restaurant on River Street.^[