Crew Log for December 4th – 6th, 2022
Trip Summary:
• Lanier Island (St. Simon) – Cumberland Island
• Trip Distance of 37.7 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 2,223.9 NM
• Departed at 07h00, arrived at 13h40
We were headed to Cumberland Island, the last undeveloped barrier island on Georgia’s southeast coast, just north of the Florida – Georgia Line (the border, not the country band). Cumberland Island National Seashore has a series of protected beaches and unique maritime forests. We had heard a lot about it, and it sounded like our kind of place. We also were meeting up with fellow cruisers on Teliki and Onalee, who we last saw back in Annapolis, Maryland.
Leaving our anchorage we entered St. Simon Sound, which opens to the Atlantic. Our route took us out into the mouth of the Sound, eventually looping back into the Brunswick River and Jekyll Creek. We had been so excited to be headed to Cumberland Island, we didn’t really spend a lot of time researching the route. I casually texted the crew on Teliki to let them know we were on the way and they inquired if we were planning to route around Jekyll Creek. The day before, they bumped on the bottom a couple of times going through the narrow ditch behind Jekyll Island.
Jekyll Island used to home to an exclusive club that included the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and Morgans. The Crane (the plumbing fixture company) family built a home on the island prior to the 1900’s that reportedly cost a half a million dollars. The island is now accessible to regular folk. In fact, we had initially reserved a spot at the Jekyll Marina, but cancelled it, although I can’t remember why.
Teliki advised us to time our transit through Jekyll Creek between mid and high tide. We had a casual start to the day and didn’t think there was any urgency given our trip was less than 40 nautical miles. We would be reaching Jekyll Creek on a falling tide, which wasn’t ideal, but there still should be adequate depth for us to get through. Thankfully, we negotiated our way through the narrow passage without incident and out into Jekyll Sound, where we exhaled. We eventually entered the Cumberland River, on the northern end of Cumberland Island.
The rest of our day was like the previous days on the Georgia ICW, winding through a mass of creeks, connecting large sounds. As we neared Cumberland Island, we passed by a US Navy submarine base. The base was a “degaussing” facility. We had never heard of degaussing before. It sounded like it was a demagnetization process that helped keep submarines invisible. Whatever it was, if you ventured in for a closer look or even slowed down, you could expect a call from the military on the radio or a visit from the military police.
We dropped the anchor in the Brickhill River, right next to the Cumberland Island National Seashore. The island is only accessible by boat or a small passenger ferry used by campers and day visitors to the park. The island is over 17 miles long and is 36,400 acres, including 16,000 acres of marshes, mudflats and tidal creeks. In addition to the salt marshes, there live oak trees covered in Spanish moss and palmetto plants. The main attraction is a beautiful sand beach that stretches for 17 miles along the length of the island on the Atlantic side. The area is also frequented by the endangered right whales, along with sea turtles and dolphins.
The island is home to white tailed deer, squirrels, raccoons, nine banded armadillos, wild boar, American alligators and other marshland inhabitants. There is also a herd of feral horses that freely roam the island. There are a few permanent and part time residents, although the majority of the island is protected from development.
The island was inhabited by many wealthy families over the years, including the Carnegies. In the 1880’s Thomas Carnegie and his wife Lucy bought a large section of land on southern Cumberland Island for a summer retreat. While Thomas died before it’s completion, Lucy and her nine children continued to live on the island in their 59 room “castle”. Dungeness castle also included a pool, golf course and over 40 outbuildings that including housing for the 200 servants.
The family moved out of the castle after the stock market crash and Great Depression, reportedly as a cost saving move. The home was destroyed by fire in 1959, the result of arson. The ruins of Dungeness are still evident today. The shear size of the remains and surrounding property leaves little doubt as to the ostentatiousness of home. Several other homes were built around the island for the Carnegie offspring who chose to marry, including Plum Orchard which is part of the National Park Service. The Carnegie family eventually sold their portion of the island to the federal government and it became part of the National Park Service in 1972.
Once the anchor was safely set, we lowered the dinghy and made our way to shore to explore Cumberland Island. Hurricane Nicole had damaged the docks at Cumberland and so we were initially greeted by NO ENTRY permitted signs. Judy refers to them as “American Welcome Signs”. We were “allowed” to land the dinghy 100 feet on either side of the dock, wade through the mud and crawl up the bank, to gain access to the island.
We made our way through the gnarled live oaks covered in Spanish moss across the island to beach. We were excited to get a glimpse of an armadillo, wild horses and a collection of “beachy” birds. It was so nice to wade into the water, although we didn’t brave going much above our knees. Back at the boat, we were very excited to be reunited with the crews of sv Teliki and sv Onalee.
The following morning we made our way back to the island and hiked over to the Dungeness ruins, passing by lots of wild horses and armadillos that seemed to be oblivious to our presence. We also past by a former duck pond that was posted with an alligator warning. It wasn’t surprising that there were no ducks in the pond. It is almost impossible to fully appreciate the size and scope of the original Carnegie property, even when exploring the ruins. It is even more difficult to comprehend how the family could just walk away from the home.
We crossed over the island and made our way up the beach, where we met one of the Park Rangers out on her “daily patrol”. She was the only Park Ranger that lived full time on the Island. She was strolling the beach, albeit in full Park Ranger garb, including steel toed boats, carrying a bucket. She was collecting shells and other natural trinkets, that would eventually get made into Christmas decorations and gifts for family members. Judy commented that she had a pretty sweet gig, getting paid to beachcomb, although we were sure the job had its challenges just like any other.
We were pleased that our “long time” friends from sv Adanaco arrived later in the day from an overnight sail down the coast from Isle of Palms, just north of Charleston. If you have been following these posts from the beginning, you will know that we have crossed paths with Adanaco many times, and we are always excited to see Steve and Judi. While they recovered from their passage, we hosted the crews from Teliki and Onalee for a sundowner and appetizers on Elizabeth M.
We had been on anchor for a while now and started to run out of things so I started to make bread in the morning. Just before I set it aside to rise, Steve and Judi dropped by to see if we wanted to join them on a hike with their “buddy boat friends”, James and Jacqueline on sv Esmeralda, a 2018 Bavaria Vision 42. Judy decided to join them while I stayed back to “watch bread rise”. While I waited, I decided to make a batch of pitas to help past the time. I eventually joined the rest of the crew for the remainder of the hike and follow up debrief on the deck of Adanaco.
As I write this, we have been in the Bahamas for less than 24 hours and so my impressions of the trip will undoubtably change. However, our visit to Cumberland Island is likely the biggest highlight of our trip so far. While we occasionally like to directly step off the dock and visit historic streets lined with unique shops and restaurants, we are more in our natural element waking up in a peaceful anchorage with wild horses roaming through the live oaks and armadillos quietly foraging for bugs on shore. Cumberland Island was also where we reconnected with some familiar faces and made some new friends, who I am sure we will cross paths with somewhere down the way. We will definitely be back here.
However, we haven’t provisioned since we left Charleston and we were starting to run out of fresh food and more importantly, water. A popular stop for most cruisers was Fernandina Beach, just across the state line. However, like a lot of this area, Nicole was not kind to Fernandina, and there was a lot of damage to the marina and infrastructure. Add in the fact that there are as many as 3 times the normal number of cruising boats due to the Covid restrictions over the past couple of years, means that mooring fields and anchorages were at capacity.
We were off to Jacksonville, our first stop in Florida.
But more about that, next time.
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