Goodbye Florida, Hello Georgia and Jekyll Island

After nearly 5 months, we made it out of Florida.  We entered the state just after Christmas and spent New Years Eve in Fort Walton Beach.  We then visited the Panhandle region, crossed the Gulf of Mexico and visited the West Coast of Florida.  We then crossed the state via the Okeechobee Waterway and headed south as far as Key West.  Then we returned north along the inside, stopping at a variety of places in the Everglades.  We hoped to see the shuttle Endeavor launch, but that was not to be.  As a result, we spent the last month or so lazily making our way north along the Atlantic ICW visiting a number of towns and cities in Northeastern Florida.  Fernandina was our last stop in Florida and we had a great time there with Erin and Steve.

On Monday morning, we left the anchorage, fueled and left Fernandina. 

Now that we have visited and seen at least every other inch of the coast of Florida, we can say with no uncertainty and with absolute clarity that there are NO flamingos in Florida other than, perhaps, the little plastic ones you find for sale on the side of the road, or maybe (and that's a big maybe) at a zoo.  Sorry to all of you fans of CSI Miami and Miami Vice.  There are no hills in Florida either.

Within an hour, we were crossing the mouth of the St. Mary's River, which marks the boarder between Florida and Georgia.  Perhaps you cannot well imagine, but for us, each time we have crossed into another state's waters everything seems to look different. 

This is a Nuclear Submarine Base in Kings Bay at the top of Cumberland Sound.

Here is one of the "Boomers" at the dock.  The chances of ever seeing one of these bad ass ships is very slim.  The ultimate in "reach out and touch someone."

For instance, in Florida, the waterways are all very well marked with signs - signs, signs, every where a sign.  The aids to navigation are large enough to see from quite a distance and they are abundant.  Thus far, in Georgia, there are no signs, and the aids to navigation seem smaller and spaced further apart.  However, for the most part, our experience on the coast of Georgia has been one involving running inlets and rivers, inlets and rivers.  The scenery is also very pretty.  The ICW is a magenta line you follow.  However, there is no "ditch" so to speak.  You merge onto one river from another, cross an inslet, bounce across a sound, and then enter another inlet, only to merge onto yet another river. 

If you look closely, you will see one of the many wild horses that exist on the shores of Cumberland Island.

Our first stop in Georgia on the way to Savannah was an island called Jekyll.  No, there is no Hyde.  Rather, Jekyll Island hosts an interesting tidbit of history even superior Americanists probably never even knew of.  In the late 1800's, some really big money guys got together and decided to have their own little hunting and recreational club in isolation, The Jekyll Island Club.  It was founded in 1886 when members of an incorporated hunting and recreational club purchased the island for $125,000. The club thrived through the early 20th century with an exclusive limited membership consisting of many of the world's wealthiest families at the time, most notably the Morgans, Rockefellers, and Vanderbilts. The club lasted 54 years. The members built their own "cottages" on the club property, which cottages have been beautifully restored.  Many of these so called "cottages" are considerably larger than most single family homes and might even be more aptly described as "Mansions." The complex was designated a historic landmark in 1978. It was restored and reopened as a luxury resort hotel in 1985.  Several nationally important events took place on Jekyll Island during the Club era, including the first transcontinental telephone call made by Theodore Valie, President of AT&T to Alexander Graham Bell in 1915.  Moreover, Jekyll Island was the location of a meeting held in November 1910 in which a draft of the legislation creating the US Federal Reserve was created. 

This old boy was just chillin' in this pond right next to the bike path.

At Jekyll Island, we stayed at the Jekyll Island Harbor Marina as there was no good anchorage in the area.  This place was totally cool.  There was a pool and jacuzzi both of which we enjoyed, as well as a courtesy car we were allowed to use to go into Brunswick to do some shopping.  There was a restaurant/bar on the premises that served up a really tasty Low Country Boil buffet for dinner.

So, we took the courtesy car into Brunswick to see if we could find, among other things, a new sink fixture for our galley as the one we had leaked incessantly inspite of numerous attempted repairs.  So, we found the fixture we needed.  I went down an aisle with an attendant to find some plumber's putty and no sooner than I am gone, did Brenda go off on a mission of her own.  I found her several minutes later with an ice cream maker!  So of course we had to try it.  Yesterday, Brenda had Rocky Road and I had Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch......for breakfast.

Our next stop along the way is not noteworthy other than to say that it is a nice place to stop and relax in complete and utter silence and solitude.  We are off on a tributary of the Mackay River in a little bend referred to as "Wally's Leg."  There is nothing here but the wind blowing through the coastal Georgia grasslands.  It is utterly beautiful.  The trip to Savannah is not that long, but we have to give serious consideration to the tides, given that they swing 6-9 feet twice per day, and so we have decided to break the 150 mile trip into several easy days.  The tides would not be so important if the water were routinely deeper.  However, Georgia is one place that needs dredging more than just about any other place on the Atlantic coast.  With so many sounds, inlets, and rivers all merging together, shoaling, sometimes to extremes, is always a consideration.  So, if the water in a pass at high tide is 10 feet deep, then it might have less than 4 feet of water in it at low tide.  We need at least that.  So, given the number of places where this kind of thing occurs, we have to run with the tides.  We like to allow it to come up some before leaving, and then be where we want to be before it gets completely low.


Giving consideration to the tides is especially important for boaters like us who prefer to anchor out.  Generally speaking, your scope requirements involve much more than the depth of the water under the keel.  You also need to consider the height of the anchor roller above the water.  Then, you have to consider how the depth of the water will change with the changing of the tides.  So, for example, if you stop the boat in 10 feet of water, and your bow roller is 5 feet above the water, and the tide is expected to rise 5 feet, you have to base your scope calculations on 20 feet and not 10 feet.  So, if you give yourself a 5 to one scope in 10 feet of water, you might only put out 50 feet of chain.  The proper scope, however, should be 100 feet.  In other words, if you did not also consider the height of the roller above the water AND the tide change, there is a good probability that, if a stiff breeze comes up at high tide, your going to end up on the bank, stuck in the mud.  Congratulations. 



Tomorrow, we will go off to another one of these stop over places before finally pulling into the Isle of Hope Marina just on the outskirts of Savannah.  More later.

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Today, we cruised nearly 50 more miles towards Savannah.  It was a rather long and tedious day.  The landscape is beautiful, but cruising through it can be hard.  We are talking about mostly grasslands and marshlands.  There are no mountains and only a slight resemblance of a hill from time to time.  The nav aids are few and far between and are often small and hard to see if the wind is blowing or the sun is in your eyes. 



I have several friends who have crossed oceans.  There is no doubt that such an undertaking is a solid endeavor.  However, I think from a purely navigational perspective, it is a lot harder to get from Fernandina beach to Savanah than it is to get from Los Angeles to Honolulu.  Let me give you an example:

So, when you leave Fernandina, you head up the Amelia River for a couple miles until you come to Cumberland Sound.  You then cross Cumberland Sound and merge onto the St. Mary's River.  You continue generally northerly until you get to the Cumberland Dividings and then go through there.  Next, you merge onto the Cumberland River for a spell before you have to negotiate and cross St.. Andrews Sound which then merges into Jekyll Sound.  From there, you travel up Jekyll Creek to St. Simons Sound.  You turn right, then left and cross this sound and then pick up the Mackay River.  Finally you can breathe as you are on the Mackay River for several miles.  Then, you leave the Mackay and negotiate Buttermilk Sound which takes you to the Altamaha River.  The Altamaha River then dumps you into Altamaha Sound which you have to cross in order to merge onto the Little Mud River.  Are we having fun yet?  The Little Mud River goes for several miles before you merge onto the North River which takes you to Doboy Sound.  You actually run a few miles on this sound before you cross it and enter the Old Teakettle Creek which takes you to and through Creighton Narrows to the Front River and Sapelo Sound.  After you negotiate those, you find yourself on the South Newport River heading north. (?????) The South Newport River then takes you to Johnson Creek and then the North Newport River (still heading north).  From the North Newport River, you enter and traverse St. Catherine's Sound and merge onto the Bear River. Then comes the notorious Florida Passage.  If you made it through that alive, then you can merge onto the Ogeechee River which takes you to the Vernon River which, after a spell, dumps you into the Burnside River.  You stay on the Burnside for a few miles and then enter the Skidaway Narrows, which leads to the Isle of Hope River and finall the Skidaway River.  Then you merge onto the Wilmingon River which ultimately leads you to the Savannah River and the final stretch to downtown Savannah.  Whooooosh..  Boy I am out of breath just describing how to get from Fernandina to Savannah.  Now, let me make it interesting.  All of the aforementioned has to be accomplished on a rising tide and you best be off the water before dead low, unless of course you're driving a jet ski. 



Actually, it's really not all that difficult.  If it were, there would be a whole pile of fibreglass carcasses littering the banks from Key West all the way to Virginia.  It does, however, take some planning and some skill.  Generally speaking, however, most of the navigation has been pre-done by someone with a magenta colored pen.  I have mentioned before how you just have to follow that magic magenta line and you will be fine.  Well, it's true.  Nevertheless, only a fool would undertake this trip without taking classes in navigation such as those offered by the Power Squadron.  Go at least through Advanced Piloting and you will have all the navigational skills you need.  Whether or not you can drive a boat, however, is entirely another story.  Seriously, the ability to read and understand a nautical chart is paramount.  There are lots of clubs and groups and forums you can join which offer lots of interesting and useful information as well.  But when it comes to getting from point a to point b, all the information you need is right there on the charts.  I also think it would be foolhardy not to have paper charts as well as electronic charts.  There is something to be said about getting the birds eye view of route planning that makes things safer and easier.



Ok.  Today, we will finally reach Savannah.  We will be staying at the Isle of Hope Marina instead of downtown Savannah.  This will take a lot of the guess work out of it and this place is offering a stay two get the third free sort of deal so we may be there a couple days enjoying the pool and, oh yeah, visiting the storied city of Savannah.

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We are now tied up securely at the Isle of Hope Marina.  It's a rustic and cool place right on the river and in the back yard of the city of Savannah.  We spent the afternoon grocery shopping and refilling propane tanks.  Tomorrow, we will spend the day in Savannah soaking up some antibellum history and sites.  Now, however, it is time for cocktails and a dip in the jacuzzi.

Bye for now.