Hooray for Farmer’s Markets!!! We got a bunch of fresh organic veggies, whooo hooo!!
We were more than pleased with our excursion to the Fernandina Farmer’s Market this morning. After over a month of eating whatever we could find in whatever random mini market or grocery store that happened to be within walking distance of a dinghy dock, we have been craving some quality fresh organic produce. That has been overall one of the bigger sacrifices of moving onto the boat — we have more limited access to food and that has often translated into eating less healthy food than we would have otherwise chosen. For some people, this is no big deal, like the two guys we talked to a few weeks ago who were just about to venture out on a one week ocean voyage. I asked them if they were all stocked up with food, and they said “yeah, we got some bologna and rice, and lots of beer…what else do we need?” Well, I need vegetables. And fruit. Preferably fresh and not canned! And preferably not shipped in from South America. Last year when we were in the Florida Keys all winter I had the hardest time finding even local citrus fruit. (I know there was a killing frost in some parts of Florida last year, but still…) Usually when we have hit a town that happens to have a farmer’s market, it always happens to be the day before we arrived, we almost never manage to land on the town the day of the market. But today was our lucky day! We were like two kids in a candy store….I was literally jumping up and down and squealing and drooling. What a great market — they had all the bounty of produce of a northern market in the middle of the summer — and it’s November! Fresh greens, tomatoes, zuchinni, potatoes, and onions. Local honey and grass fed beef. Fresh baked goodies galore! We even got a couple of potted herb plants that we are going to try growing on the boat. And live music to top it all off. We even got a big container of fresh squeezed orange juice to celebrate our arrival in Florida!

So here is another suggestion to anyone cruising down the east coast. Try to time your passage through Fernandina Beach, Fl on a Saturday so you can catch the Farmer’s Market. It’s well worth it, and it’s only a few blocks walk down the charming historic main street to get there. Fernandina Beach seems like a great town, if it only weren’t for the obnoxiously smelly factories on the waterfront. But otherwise it’s adorable, and they even have a shrimp statue!

I know this is dorky, but I couldn't resist

Today is a great day. The wind has died down but has not died, it’s a lovely 10-15 out of the NE. It’s sunny and warm and we are in good spirits, except for the disgusting fact that our toilet is not really flushing. Damn. Oh well, another day, another thing to fix.

We are about to set off for our two day passage to Fort Pierce, we are just hanging out awhile making food for the voyage with our new produce and waiting for the tide to change. We’ll check in when we get to Fort Pierce. Bye y’all!