02/02/2008 Fernandina Beach, Florida

After thoroughly enjoying our stay,
we left Brunswick Marina with a little help from our friends.

and the usual supervision from the local bridge birds.

Once more Hakuna Matata entered St. Simons Sound, but this time made a turn to starboard into Jekyll Creek and back on the ICW.

We entered Jekyll Sound passing a a sunken shrimp boat now buried in the sand.
There's something very unsettling looking at this scene.

Soon we came to Little Cumberland Island
keeping an eye out for wild horses (didn't see any)

We did see - A wayward buoy aground on the beach

A four wheeler perhaps looking for those wild horses

and a dinghy long since forgotten.
This is a beautiful beach and we plan to explore it on our return trip
as well as the many creeks and waterways in Georgia.

We made our way up Shellbine Creek for our evening anchorage
where we found Carol & Don from Mystic, CT,
already anchored and being visited by dolphins (look to left).

Next morning found us happily winding our way down the Cumberland Dividings

till we reached a spot where the Brickhill River re-enters. We found the water in this spot to be shallower than the 7' we had expected around marker 60, but passable.

Mind your buoys
But do you favor the green side or the red side,
maybe stay in the middle?
There's no set rule on the ICW.


We were now making our way into Cumberland Sound
where Kings Bay and a military installation are on our right

On the horizon we begin to see Fernandina Beach, Florida.
Yes!

But hey, it's not sunny Florida right now. You're not seeing sunshine in these pictures.
We enter Cumberland Sound working out some confusion with marker numbers that had been changed. If we turn where our charts indicate we'll be going up St Mary's River and that's not where we want to be just now.

So we continue on keeping an eye out for
the yellow ICW symbol on the buoys,
keeping the green to right and the red to left.

After our turn into Amelia River the numbers begin again
and we're now looking for red 2 to be on our right.
This can get very confusing.
You have to be sure to notice which way you are headed ...
'to' or 'from' the sea and which traffic the markers are set up for.

FORT CLINCH soon appears on the point

We're pretty excited that we have finally entered Florida waters. I've been marking our journey down the coastline on an Eastern shore US map. There is now a long yellow line from Connecticut to Florida.

Y E S !...We'll Follow the Yellow Marked Line Back Home

We were very surprised at how busy Fernandina Beach Harbor was.

Launch ramp had continuous activity
Paper Mill was busy

and the container port was hustling
However, we're just slowly making our way through the anchorage area
looking for a spot for the night.




With a little more water than this
















But not quite this much!

We find a perfect spot in the Amelia River and drop anchor for the night.

Sitting in our cockpit we watch another beautiful sunset
realizing just how lucky we are.

OOPS...we won't be leaving early this morning.

This is a nice spot so we'll stay and explore soon as the fog lifts.
That dot on the horizon is Hakuna Matata.

Must have a serious bug problem here at certain times of the year as many houses have extensive screened in porches and often times part of the yard.

Oyster bed taking over abandoned beach chair

Pelicans were a constant source of entertainment.

Tugs and barges passed us by.
This anchorage was not boring.

Once more we had visitors from the air

and sea.

This group passed us and took the same tour we had just made in the dinghy, only they retrieved a net from the water. We inquired on their return trip and it seems they were checking the fish population in the area. They reported it was good. So why aren't we fishing?

We used a windchute to pull in the cool breeze while we waited for the right time to once more haul anchor (or in this case 2 anchors) and be on our way.