Jekyll Harbor Marina to Cumberland Island Anchorage

Day 55, Monday, November 21, 2016

You can monitor my trip at the link: Second Winds Progress Live

We are back on the move. We awoke to a 39 degree morning.  The cabin in the boat was warm. I had hooked to boat up to shore power so we were able to use our electric space heater. I fixed a sausage gravy breakfast and finally braved the outside in my down parka at about 7:00.  Any discussion of a shower brought forth the fact that the marina had experienced a water main break so no water was available. 

Sand dunes along the Atlantic Coast

A number of us played with the thought of staying here one more night. Our destination, Cumberland Island anchorage has no power so if it gets as cold tonight as we had just experienced, it would not be comfortable. The discussion was swayed toward moving on by the fact that the Island is a National Sea Shore and reported to be really neat.  I checked the weather forecast and they are indicating that the low will be around 47 degrees so we decided to move on.

We got under way at around 9:00.  We had a light following breeze so with

Huge buildings at the Kings Bay Submarine Base

the aid of the rising sun, the temp was not too bad.  As the morning progressed, the winds increased somewhat so we were able to fly the jib to pick up an extra knot or so.  At one point we came onto a fairly long passage so we also raised the main.  The wind proved to be somewhat squirrely and our progress was cut in half so after a couple of miles, we pulled the main down again.

Degaussing Facility

Miles before we reached Cumberland Island, we could see huge buildings along the horizon. They were not unlike the large blimp hanger that I passed going to and from Elizabeth City earlier on the trip.  It turned out to be the Navy’s Kings Bay Submarine Base which is the east coast home to Trident nuclear powered submarines. Kings Bay is a state-of-the-art home to the Atlantic Fleet's Ballistic and Guided Missile Submarines.  An interesting structure that was located nearby is a degaussing facility.  It is a huge steel cage into which they pull ships and submarines to neutralize the magnetic field of the boat by encircling it with a conductor carrying electric currents.

Just south of Kings Bay, we swung east into the waterway that passes along

Along the trail crossing Cumberland Island National Sea Shore

side of Cumberland Island.  About a mile up the way, we joined a number of our rally friends at anchor.  It was about 2:30 when we arrived.

Live Oaks

We had planned to go ashore but noticed that the main docks leading to the island had been heavily damaged and they had a large sign informing us that it was illegal to dock.  We decided to try to get onto the island somehow so Dwight and I got into Dink, picked up Sam and headed back down the waterway.  Passing the dock we noticed several dinghies tied to there but we were unsure if they were from our group

The Dunes

so we found a place on the sand beach where we pulled into the shallow water.  Sam and Dwight took off their shoes and drug the dinghy up to a point where I could get out.  (Wasn’t that nice of them!)

On the island, we wandered through a beautiful forest of live oaks for about a half mile to where we came upon large dunes that line the Atlantic shore.  The park service had built a long

Talk about a wonderful climbing tree

walkway through the dunes out onto a gorgeous beach.  The tide was out so the beach extended probably 200 yards from the dunes to the water’s edge.  We again took off our shoes and walked along the fine sand.

The sun sets now around 5:30 so we headed back to dinghy which was by now high and dry

Someone had my camera

on the shore.  Dwight and I drug her out to a point where she would float.  I crawled in and motored around to the damaged dock where I picked up to other two for our slow trip back to our boats. 

On the way, we discussed what we were going to have for dinner and I went down the list of things I had left.  I mentioned that I had a number of jars of canned pork chops which prompted Dwight to suggest that we make pulled pork out of them.  Sam said that she had Bar-B-Q sauce and rice so we decided to experiment. 

Back on Second Wind, Dwight pulled the chops apart, Sam cooked her rice

The shoreline of the Island

and I poured glasses of wine.  The consensus of the group was that the mixture of pulled pork chop/Bar-B-Q sauce/rice was a true winner.  After dinner, we mixed up the fixings for a blob brownie.  I will plan to add that combination to my future menu list.

I took Sam back to Sweet Pea in time for me to make my 9:00 bed calling.