New England – Week: 01 (On The Water Again!)

June 5 - 8, 2026

We are back on the move with our new Outback Yachts 50! Our goal is to reach New England, at least to Portsmouth, NH. Brenda and I grew up and lived in New Hampshire before we moved to South Carolina, and eventually Palm Coast, Florida. We’d like to bring the Frog back to our old stomping grounds.

If time and weather allow, we hope to cruise up the coast of Maine to Bar Harbor. We shall see how all that goes. Our first week has been great! We’re still getting used to the boat, as it handles differently, but so far we haven’t hit anything and have docked on the first try every day.

Day 1 – Wednesday, June 5th, 2026 – To: Jacksonville Beach, FL
Palm Cove Marina

• From: Palm Coast, FL
• To: Jacksonville Beach, FL – Palm Cove Marina
• Start Time: 9:20 am
• Dock Time: 3:15 pm
• Time Underway: 5 h 55 m
• Miles Traveled: 48.7 NM (56 statute miles)
• Average Speed: 8.3 knots (9.6 mph)
• Draw Bridges Opened: 0 Locks: 0
• Weather: 77°-75° – Mostly Sunny
• Winds: 6-30 mph – Waves: 1-2 ft

Wednesday morning, we brought the rest of our stuff to the boat—pillows, computer, and food from the freezer. At 9:30, we started our engines, dropped our lines, and pulled out of the slip to head North! We are taking it a bit easy and giving ourselves shorter days so that we can run a bit slower and get better mileage. With Marine Diesel averaging around $6.00 a gallon, we want to get the best economy that we can.

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Our goal for the day was Jacksonville Beach, about 56 miles away. The wind had really picked up, blowing at about 20mph with gusts to 30 mph. The boat handled the winds well, and because we were in the ICW with houses and trees along most of the shore, it was a smooth ride.

We had two draw bridges to deal with; the first was the Crescent Beach Bridge. Our old boat needed 24 feet with the mast up. Our new boat only needs 22 feet, so we were pretty sure that we could make it under without opening it. About a mile from the bridge, a larger cruiser passed us. He needed the bridge opened, so we snuck through as the spans were going down. In St. Augustine, the Bridge of Lions is only 18 feet wide when closed. They open on the hour and half-hour, except that they “need not open” at 8:00 a.m., noon, and 5:00 p.m. due to traffic. At 11:30, I tried calling to see if there would be a noon opening, but didn’t get an answer. We heard the cruiser ahead of us call the bridge and be told that the next opening was at 12:30, which would mean about a 45-minute wait. So, while Brenda drove the boat, I went up to the flybridge and lowered our mast. With our mast down, the highest point is our new Bimini, which is only 17 feet above the water. So, with 18 feet of clearance (20 at the center), we were able to sneak under without it opening. The cruiser went to the fuel dock next to the bridge to fill up and wait. Once we were clear of the bridge, I went back up and raised the mast again.

On our old boat, we needed a come-along, and lowering and raising the mast took about 30 minutes each way. On the Outback, it’s one pin, two thumb screws, and the mast is just light enough for me to raise and lower it on my own. The whole process of raising or lowering is only about 30 seconds! The mast has our radar, running lights, VHF Radio Antennas, and our video cameras. Aside from reduced range on the radios and no video looking forward or backward, on a good-weather day we don’t really need it raised. When we brought the boat home from Fort Lauderdale, we lowered it for the first day, which saved us waiting for 5 of the 10 bridges along that stretch of the ICW.

We have done this section of the ICW so many times that we know the turns by heart. The rest of the trip was uneventful. When we reached Jacksonville Beach, the wind was howling at a steady 25mph. I was a bit worried about docking because the marina has little protection. But they gave us a slip that was pretty much straight in, and we docked easily. The thrusters on the Outback are much stronger than those on our Beneteau, making it easy to get in and out of tight areas.

Once we were tied up, I went out and tried to rinse the salt off of the boat. It was okay on the side blocked by the wind, but on the exposed side, the wind just carried the water away! In the evening we went to Marker 32, a great restaurant right at the marina, and one of our favorites. We had an excellent dinner, then went back to the boat and relaxed. Once the sun went down, the winds calmed some, so we didn’t have much wave slap during the night.

Day 2 – Thursday, June 4th, 2026 – To: Fernandina Beach, FL
Fernandina Harbor Marina

• From: Jacksonville Beach, FL
• To: Fernandina Beach, FL – Fernandina Harbor Marina
• Start Time: 9:20 am
• Dock Time: 1:30 pm
• Time Underway: 4 h 10 m
• Miles Traveled: 27 NM (31 statute miles)
• Average Speed: 6.7 knots (7.7 mph)
• Draw Bridges Opened: 1 Locks: 0
• Weather: 75°-80° – Clouds
• Winds: 10-30 mph – Waves: 0-1 ft

Thursday morning, the winds were down a bit when we left Jacksonville for Fernandina Beach just before 9:30. We left just before high tide and had a pretty good current to push against. A little over a mile past the marina, there is a bridge where the river chokes down, and the current is always strong. We’ve been through when it looks like a white-water river, and controlling the boat is a bit white-knuckle. Not knowing how the new boat would react, we were on our guard. The flow was pretty strong, but the extra weight of the Outback made staying in the middle of the channel pretty easy.

We only had about 30 miles to Fernandina, and we were in no hurry, as check-in time at marinas is typically after 1:00, so we took it slow again. There was a bit of traffic heading north, and we were third in line behind a group. A few boats passed us going fast, but all were courteous and gave us a no-wake pass.

Just before Fernandina, there is a railroad bridge. We’ve never seen the bridge closed, but as we approached, we saw that it was! The first boat had made it through, but the boat in front of us had to wait. We slowed down and just crept toward the bridge. A boat came up behind us and asked if they could pass. We said, “Sure, but be aware that the railroad bridge is closed.” The train came, and it was fairly short, only about 25 cars, and the bridge swung back shortly after it crossed. We arrived in Fernandina Beach at 1:30 and had to wait about 10 minutes while they got the boats in front of us docked; then it was our turn. We had an easy in on the face dock behind a Super Yacht.

Once we got settled in, I rinsed down the boat, then we walked into town and browsed through the many shops that line the main street, and stopped for a snack and a drink at an outdoor restaurant. Aside from the wind, the weather has been great, and we are enjoying temperatures in the 70s rather than the 80s and 90s we’ve had for the past few weeks.

When we got back to the boat, I worked on the blog until dinner time. We went to the Salty Pelican across the railroad tracks from the marina for dinner. When we got back, we relaxed on the back deck and watched the sunset. Fernandina Marina has a great view across the St Mary’s River toward Georgia, and at sunset people line the docks to watch it.

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Day 3 – Friday, June 5th, 2026 – To: Jekyll Island, GA
Jekyll Harbor Marina

• From: Fernandina, FL
• To: Jekyll Island, GA – Jekyll Harbor Marina
• Start Time: 9:05 am
• Dock Time: 12:25 pm
• Time Underway: 3 h 20 m
• Miles Traveled: 28 NM (32 statute miles)
• Average Speed: 7.9 knots (9.1 mph)
• Draw Bridges Opened: 0 Locks: 0
• Weather: 78°-79° – Sunny
• Winds: 0-7 mph – Waves: 0-1 ft

The wind had finally died down, and when we left Fernandina Harbor, we only had a light breeze. Again, there was a row of boats heading North, so we fell in behind two other Loopers and just took our time. 15 minutes after leaving, we crossed into Georgia! Our insurance says that we can not be in Florida from July 1st to November 1st, because of hurricanes, so we made it out before the deadline.

A few miles up the St. Mary’s River from Fernandina is the Kings Bay Submarine Base. Each time we pass, security boats keep pleasure boaters from getting too close. The facility is HUGE; you can see it for miles in every direction. Yesterday, as we were coming into Fernandina, we could hear the security boats calling to pleasure boats and herding them out of the channel while a submarine was coming up the river to the base. This morning, they departed, and as we made our way toward the base, Coast Guard and Navy Security boats passed us coming back from escorting them out to sea.

When we got to the base, only one submarine was visible. There are three large hangar-like buildings that hide the subs while they are being worked on.

The rest of the 30-mile trip to Jekyll Island was easy, just following the other boats. When we got to the open channel between Cumberland Island and Jekyll Sound, we had some 2-foot rollers coming in from the ocean. We went up on plane (23mph) for the crossing to smooth out the ride, and the boat (and crew) handled it well. We got to Jekyll Harbor Marina around 12:30, and it was another easy docking on the long face dock.

I did some more work on the blog, responded to a few emails, and updated the maps and software on the boat.

At dinner time, we walked up to the restaurant at the marina for a burger. Again, when we got back, we sat on the back of the boat to watch the sunset and chat with the other boaters. Usually I’m in bed by 9:00, but sitting on the back of the boat, I’ve been up until 10:00 the last two nights!

It was another fine sunset. The view from Jekyll Harbor is not as good as Fernandina’s because the bridge blocks part of it. However, we got a treat as a barge came cruising past with its nighttime blue lights.

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Day 4 – Saturday, June 6th, 2026 – In: Jekyll Island, GA

We stayed an extra day in Jekyll. Saturdays are very busy on the ICW, so we stayed off the water. In the morning, Brenda cooked breakfast on the boat. We had leftover steak from our dinner in Fernandina, along with eggs. Around 11:00, we borrowed one of the marina golf carts and drove to the other side of the island (about half a mile) to the shopping village. We browsed around the General Store and a couple of the gift shops and boutiques. We got a couple of muffins for tomorrow’s breakfast. We then drove over to the Jekyll Island Club hotel and drove through the grounds, looking at beautiful old hotel buildings and the large vacation “cottages” built by the Rockefellers and Carnagies back in the 1920’s.

When we got back at 12:30, our BOAT WAS GONE! As we were leaving the dock, the dock hands asked if they could walk it back down the dock to make space for today’s round of arrivals. We said fine. Maybe we’ll get a better view of the sunset from this end of the dock!

I rinsed the salt off the boat from yesterday’s run, cleaned off some of the bird graffiti, and topped off our freshwater tanks. For the rest of the day, we pretty much just relaxed on the boat. In the evening, we had our first BBQ dinner on the boat using our new electric grill. It worked great!

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Day 5 – Sunday, June 6th, 2026 – To: Thunderbolt, GA
Thunderbolt Marina

• From: Jekyll Island, GA
• To: Thunderbolt, GA – Thunderbolt Marina
• Start Time: 9:30 am
• Dock Time: 4:30 pm
• Time Underway: 6 h 59 m
• Miles Traveled: 88 NM (100 statute miles)
• Average Speed: 12.4 knots (14.3 mph)
• Draw Bridges Opened: 0 Locks: 0
• Weather: 76°-81° – Partly Cloudy
• Winds: 6-17 mph – Waves: 0-1 ft

Sunday we broke one of our rules and traveled on the weekend. It wasn’t too bad even with the nice weather, much of this route is through the tidal marshlands of Georgia, so there isn’t much small boat traffic.

Just as you leave Jekyll Island Marina, you follow Jekyll Creek, which is notorious for its low water. Low Tide was at 7:30 a.m., so we waited until 9:30 to leave, allowing the water to come up a bit. With our Outback, we now have a 3-foot, 2-inch draft. Our Beneteau had an “advertised” 3-foot, 6-inch draft, but it was closer to 4 feet. We went slowly and aside from one spot that we were warned about by the dock hands, we saw at least 4 feet below us.

The dock hands had warned us about Marker Green 19, and we started seeing only 2 feet below the boat; just then, an engine alarm came on! What timing! I checked, and it was high temperature on one of the engines. I knew immediately what it was. I had cleaned the strainers on the engines that morning and forgot to turn the water handle back on! I had Brenda take the wheel, and I popped down into the engine room and threw the handle. The alarm was gone by the time I got back to the helm. Phew! The depth sounder read -0.5 ft once as we rounded the marker, then went right back up to 2 ft (below the boat). The bottom of the creek is 3-4 feet of soft mud so it’s easy to just push through. The big tows that need 5 and 6 feet of draft frequently just plow through when the water is low.

Once out of Jekyll Creek, we were in St. Simons Sound, and from then on, with a rising tide throughout the day, we had plenty of water. We made pretty good time for most of the day, running at between 10 and 16 knots (11-18 mph), going from one end of Georgia to the other.

We passed a few other boats (mostly Loopers) and wound our way back and forth, back and forth through the creeks, rivers, and sounds that make up the ICW through Georgia. As the crow flies, Jekyll to Thunderbolt (on the outskirts of Savanah, Georgia is 71 miles. We traveled 100 miles due to all the twists and turns.

We passed Kilkenny Creek and the Kilkenny Marina, one of our usual stops, and reached Hell Gate, a shallow cut just at high tide. It was an easy passage with plenty of water. From there, it’s about 20 miles to Thunderbolt. The last 12 miles are the suburbs of Savanah and quite built up, so it’s a frustrating series of no-wake zones. It was a nice Sunday, with lots of small boats out and lots of law enforcement making sure boats weren’t speeding, so it took us almost 1.5 hours to cover the last 12 miles.

When we reached Thunderbolt, we had to wait a bit because three other boats had just pulled in. We needed fuel (our first fill-up of the trip) and a pump-out of our black water tank. We took on 253 gallons of diesel and pumped out, then the dockhand walked us back to our mooring spot just down the dock from the fuel pumps. By the time we finished paying for our fuel and shutting down the boat, it was almost 6:00.

We walked up the street to Tubby’s Grill for dinner, a local favorite we’ve visited before.

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Weekly Recap

Our first week on the trip, and our first real travel with the new Outback Yachts 50, went very well. We are getting used to the boat’s performance and quirks. We’ve gone 218 miles (190 nautical miles) and made it to the border with South Carolina.

Next week, we have a stop in Charleston to have our engines checked for warranty, then go back to our old home area in Murrells Inlet and Georgetown to visit with some old friends.

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Thanks For Visiting! – Tom & Brenda