I'll get back to our shakedown voyage tomorrow but today I'd like to give you a glimpse of our current life on board S/V Blue Star at the dock here in Green Cove Springs FL. I plan on doing this from time to time whenever something interesting occurs here.

Saturday we went up north to the Shrimp Festival at Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, FL. Now I'm not a great one for shrimp. It makes me a bit sick in fact. But you don't have to like shrimp to appreciate this festival.

We actually tried twice to get there. We aborted our first attempt, around 1PM, because traffic was blocked up from I95 all the way to Fernandina Beach. So after visiting the Pecan Park Swap Meet, we decided to try again around 3:30 PM. This time we succeeded and even found a $5 parking space within easy walking distance of the festival.

Once on site we quickly learned where all those cars we'd seen earlier had gone. Arts and crafts, not shrimp is the mainstay of this event. Thousands of people perused the hundreds of art-filled booths lining the streets which were all closed to traffic. Rather than the usual knickknacks that you usually find at these things, these were artists and craftspeople of the highest caliber. Wall art was made of everything from oils and acrylics to wood and metal. Sculpture of all kinds was well represented also. Every known craft was represented by more than one booth.

One neat thing about living on a boat, in my opinion, is that I can go to an event like this and really appreciate the items on sale without ever being tempted to purchase an item since I'd have no place to put it. That's not to say I wasn't tempted by the guy selling hand-carved frogs with serrated teeth on their backs and removable sticks through their bodies. The idea was to rub the stick along the teeth, producing a sound eerily like...a frog! He had crickets also. Just the thing to annoy our cat, Sunny.

Yes, there was shrimp cooked every way possible including fried, which Charlie pronounced excellent. Many other types of food and drink were also available in mass quantities. Several side streets were lined with antique and swap meet dealers, but we didn't feel the need to browse these after our earlier visit to Pecan Park. Live musicians played everywhere, including one guy that I could have sworn was an old delta bluesman until I saw him. He was white and probably only in his 20's. Quite a performer.

Next year we'll go up on Friday when there will be fewer people. The crowds made it really difficult to see things.

Some of our long-time cruising friends are coming in this week and more will arrive in June and July. Seems everyone ran out of money at the same time. A 30-knot wind suddenly blew in yesterday causing one of our canvas hatch covers to blow off into the water. According to Weather Bug, these northerly winds won't let up until Wednesday so we'll be bouncing around a bit until then.