Friday 3/16/12. I have heard that God watches over drunks, children, fools and sailors. Well, I’m sober as a judge, and at 63 years, I’m not a child. That whittles things down a bit. I also understand that some sailboat drivers feel that powerboat drivers are not bona fide sailors. Looks like I’m out of options. Anyway, God must have had a hand in today’s events.
I spend from one to three hours each evening on the blog. Last night the camera would not download any of the pictures. I tried for three hours and nada! So I went to bed. This morning I started the process again and it worked perfectly. Linda said “Since we got up early, to put in a big day, go ahead and finish the blog, then we’ll head to the fuel dock.” So I got started around 7:00A. At 7:45 Linda noticed fog in the distance coming from onshore. By 8:00 we were absolutely socked in. Had the blog been completed the evening before we would have probably been under way and caught in the pea soup. The visibility was less than 100 feet.
Around 9:30 it cleared as quickly as it came. We pulled anchor around 9:45 and headed to the Fernandina Harbor Marina for fuel. Leaving the marina there is a long no wake zone, so it was about 11:00 until we made Cumberland Inlet and turned north into the Cumberland River. Now we are in Georgia.
The next order of business is the Kings Bay Nuclear Submarine Base. About three miles before reaching the base, a message came across the VHF that two tugs would be pulling a deep draft vessel outbound on the Cumberland River. They apparently were getting ready to haul one of the subs out to sea. Sometimes they stop all traffic on the water for as long as an hour, keeping all vessels a long distance away. We didn’t get to see the actual moving of the sub but there were about a half dozen security boats crossing the entrance to the base as opposed to only one when we came through in mid-December. Also in the background there were seven Coast Guard patrol boats.
On the north end of Cumberland Island Linda spotted two wild horses on the shore. It is said there have been wild horses here for centuries. They are thought to be decedents of horses brought by the Spanish in the 1500’s plus others left behind by plantation owners.
The next bit of excitement was the crossing of St Andrews Sound. This is the sound where you all but enter the Atlantic Ocean to navigate around a shoal in the middle of the sound. There was a green buoy 34A washed up on the shore. It must have broken loose of its anchor. Good we didn’t need that one.
God was still watching over us. After crossing the St Andrews Sound the ICW takes a turn north up Jekyll Creek behind Jekyll Island. Just as we entered the creek the port engine quit. We were right at an anchorage so we dropped the hook. I found water in the fuel filter. We’re thankful it wasn’t in both filters and the engines hadn’t stopped in the sound. The next posting on the blog would have been about our trip to Portugal!
That’s enough excitement for one day. I wonder what tomorrow holds in store.
Jekyll Creek: N 31° 02.202 W 081° 25.647
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