Well today we’ve been on the move at last – but only for about 300 metres while we moved Amanzi two docks over! If you look at our tracking you can see where we are – very close to the office, the restrooms and most importantly the workshop. Walter, who is installing our watermaker has found that he’s had to go up and down to the workshop several times a day. This will save him heaps of time – which is always good for our bottom line!
It wasn’t just an easy jump on, start up and let’s go though, as Lance still had the anchor chain and line lying on the dock while he waited for a part to arrive for the anchor winch. You can’t just throw 200 feet of chain on board, so he first had to assemble the anchor winch (the part arrived at lunchtime), then feed the line and chain down through the opening into the anchor locker.
There was quite a wind blowing and the tide had just turned, but with Mike and Mary’s help (www.paradiseyachtsales.net), and Walter assisting with the lines, Lance did a great job and we moved easily enough to our new dock.
We feel like we’re now in a whole new place – we’re just around the bend in the creek so we no longer look out at the ICW but instead can watch the comings and goings in the yard and the boats being put in and hauled out.
There are quite a few transients here at the moment - but all on the hard apart from us – so a visit to the restrooms becomes quite a social occasion and takes a lot longer that it would usually!!!! But it’s always interesting! 
The watermaker installation is going well and Walter’s doing a great job. We’ve needed to order in extra tubing though as its a modular unit and the distance between some of the parts and the water tank are more than usual – the system is apparently designed for sailboats.
But you know you might cross one thing off the list and suddenly two more appear!!! It looks like we may need a new battery after all – the weekend in Mile Hammock Bay is coming back to haunt us and the brand new dinghy appears to be losing air from one of it’s chambers! As Lance had a few things on the go, it was my job to call Aaron at the retailer in New York – we bought both the Mercury dinghy and the Mercury motor from them at the Annapolis Boat show.
Anyway it turned into a very interesting exercise – well for me anyway! He told me to take a spray bottle with some soapy water and spray around the valve and all the seams etc and watch for bubbles. Well sure enough at the edge of one of the handles there was a slow stream of bubbles forming. I then had to send him photos of this so that he could send them back to Mercury for advice. He’s now trying to find someone nearby to help us.
Of course it’s extremely frustrating that this brand new dinghy has a leak – we’ve not even used it yet – and now we have to go through the process of getting it repaired. It’s not good. 
CaptionBubbles forming indicating the sight of the leak
CaptionMamiko & Arthur from Matane (the other NZ boat)
CaptionFernandina Beach town centre
CaptionFernandina Beach town centre
CaptionFernandina Beach town centre
CaptionFernandina Beach town centre
CaptionHorse & Carriage tour in Fernandina Beach
CaptionDo you think we've got enough toilet rolls and paper towels?
On a happier note though we managed to meet up with our friends, Linda and Steve (Yesterday’s Dream) again. http://steveandlindafranko.blogspot.com/ They went west for Thanksgiving and were then flying out on Wednesday morning to visit family for the Christmas holidays. We enjoyed another lovely dinner on their boat. Now we really have no idea where we might meet up again. By the time they get back to Florida, we hope to be in the Bahamas.
We spent a great day in Jacksonville yesterday with Mary and Mike – first with some retail therapy at the marine store and then a lovely ‘island’ lunch at Caribbean Breeze.
Last weekend we went with Arthur and Mamiko, from Matane the other Kiwi boat, to the Fernandina Beach town centre and had some coffee down at the main marina. They are still here trying to find out what their problem really is and are now spending the time cleaning, waxing and installing some new electronics.
This week has also been an exercise in logistics – that’s another name for provisioning and that includes the no mean feat of finding a place to store everything! As Lance says, Amanzi has definitely sunk a few more centimeters into the water – but we don’t want to run short of food do we?
9 December 2011 – Au Revoir Fernandina Beach!
Yay! Tomorrow we’ll be on our way south again – next stop St Augustine Municipal Marina. There we’ll be catching up with a fellow Bayliner owner, Tom, who Lance has ‘met’ through the Bayliner Forum.
The watermaker is in, (it’s really quite amazing), the dinghy has had something of a repair [thumbs down Mercury Marine - we're giving you a very poor rating for not yet coming to the party!
], the new anchor is all ready to be used and a few other odds and bobs have been sorted out.
We’ve got our wetsuits, snorkelling gear, fishing rods etc and almost all the provisioning is done. Although we do of course still have to eat everyday so I’ll have to keep replenishing where I can!
Last night we enjoyed another lovely dinner with Mary and Mike from Paradise Yacht Sales. http://www.paradiseyachtsales.blogspot.com/
They have been wonderful during our 3 week stay here and they even ran me up to the grocery store yesterday for a few last minute items - we’d returned the rental car the day before. We’ll certainly miss them as we move on but we’re planning to store Amanzi here when we return, so we’ll get to catch up again in March. Meanwhile they’ll continue to read our regular blogs which we’ve promised to keep going. (I can hear you all saying YAY!) Of course once we get to the Bahamas our internet access will probably be severely curtailed and I’ll no doubt have severe withdrawal symptoms.
We’ve said goodbye to Arthur and Mamiko – they will be following us early next week – so you never know, we may just meet up again somewhere down ‘the ditch’ (no, not the Tasman – it’s actually another name for the ICW).
Meanwhile though we’ll go and join the hordes of boaties that are waiting for a good weather window to cross to the Bahamas. We’ve heard that the further we go towards Miami, the narrower the waterway becomes, the more boats there are out and about and that well mannered boaties are in very short supply! Many power boats will apparently think nothing of buzzing past at great speeds creating large wakes. It surely can’t be worse than heading out of Auckland Harbour – or can it? At times that used to feel like being in a washing machine – although I have to admit that was during the Americas Cup when every boat of every description seemed to be out on the water!