Cumberland Island, GA

Weather: The temp range was 55 – 77 degrees, but it felt cool on the water; we enjoyed another bright, sunny day with nary a cloud in the sky; the wind was out of the south and southwest @ 12 – 15 knots; there was a light chop on the waterway.

Comment:
It is 2030 and dark in the anchorage at Cumberland Island. The wind is humming through the rigging; the water is churning below the bridge-deck. It sounds ominous and it sounds cold!

We arrived at the anchorage at 1330 hours. The wind was about 15 knots and the tide was rushing in. We spent the first hour enjoying lunch while watching the anchor set, wanting to be sure that we were firmly attached to the bottom before hopping into the dinghy to go ashore. We took the time to watch several wild horses roaming the beach just about one hundred yards off our transom.

After a bit, we lowered the dinghy off its davits and readied it for a trip to shore. The dinghy fits nicely on the davits and is very easy to deploy and retrieve. We have developed a procedure yhat allows us to easily transfer the outboard to rhe dinghy. We took the three-quarter mile ride to the ferry/dinghy dock. Almost immediately after our arrival, we saw three wild turkeys walking down the bayside beach.

As we were setting off to walk to the beach, we (Anna Marie and me and the crew from “Kallista”) met the crews of “Reflection” and “Tally Ho” who were just returning from their walk to the beach. They were on their way back to their boats but stopped for a brief exchange of pleasantries. We walked the one mile trail to the beach marveling at the beauty of the live oak and palmetto forest that we transited.

After our exploratory walk, we visited with the gang aboard “Tally Ho,” and enjoyed another in a long line of gams.

The day started when the alarm sounded at 0530. The plan was to leave the Fort Frederica anchorage at 0700, but I knew everyone was a bit nervous about navigating Jekyll Creek on a falling tide. I suspected that they would be leaving at first light. Sure enough, “Tally Ho” was already underway at 0630 and the other two boats were just breaking up their raft. We were right behind the crowd and motored out the south end of the Frederica River into the main channel of the ICW on the MacKay River that led to St. Simon Sound where we unrolled the jib and immediately increased our speed from 6.5 to 8.0 mph. As we were able to bear away, our speed increased to over 9 mph. It was a great ride but when we turned to head up the south side of the sound toward Jekyll Creek, the wind and current were on our nose and we had to roll up the jib and proceed along at about 5 mph.

We hit Jekyll Creek at about two hours after high tide. There was plenty of water. “Tally HO” and “Reflection” reported that the “skinny” section by mark “19,” was a “no-brainer.” Indeed, none of us had any problems in the “shallow” area.

We aren’t stopping at Jekyll Island today, even though it is one of our treasured stops. We plan to dock there on the way back north in the spring.

On the south side of Jekyll, we unrolled the jib again and enjoyed a fast motor sail through St. Andrew Sound. As we motor sailed down the Cumberland River, observing the west side of Cumberland Island, Anna Marie spotted about five wild horses. The sighting was a nice treat.

Turning west, we navigated through Cumberland Dividings into Kings Bay and then Cumberland sound. We unrolled the jib in Kings Bay and motor sailed about 6 miles to the anchorage. The wind was blowing at about 15 knots; our speed, with the jib out, was close to 10 mph! during this stretch, we passed two sailboats that had been miles ahead of us. Both entered the anchorage after us.

“Reflection” and “Tally Ho” got a bit confused by the chartplotter and marks in the Cumberland Dividings around mark 60. “Reflection” reported that they made temporary contact with the bottom before they figured out the marks. Other than that, it was an easy day.