SUMMER BREEZE: Cumberland Island, Feb 11 - 12, Days 7

Feb 12, Day 9

Today we walked the 4.7 mile trail to the Dungeness ruins (built in 1884 by the Carnegie family, read about it here) and around the beach and back to the Sea Camp Visitor Center. We did encounter several of the wild horses today as well as an armadillo.

It warmed up quite a bit but there is wind and rain looming and it will be here in a few hours. We had just enough time to enjoy the island and get secured again for the storm.

Our next big stop is St Augustine and we plan to leave in the morning, weather permitting. It is about 65 miles of ICW and not nice enough for offshore, so we may stop about half way, depending on weather and our departure time in the morning.

Sunset tonight after the rain and winds...

oops spoke too soon, raining again!

_____________________________

Feb 11, Day 8

We left Jekyll Island at 10:15 AM and arrived at Cumberland Island at 2:30. The seas were much calmer though the crossing in Jekyll Sound and St Andrews Sound where you can go offshore or continue on the ICW was a bit bumpy. I can only imagine what it was yesterday when the winds and seas were not calm.

Rounding the point in St Andrews Sound off of Little Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island, Georgia, is the largest of the Sea Islands of the southeastern US. The long-staple Sea Island cotton was first grown here by a local family, the Millers, who helped Eli Whitney develop the cotton gin. With its unusual range of wildlife, the island has been declared a National Park and a National Seashore. Little Cumberland Island is connected to the main island by a marsh. John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were married in the First African Baptist Church on Cumberland Island in 1996.

Watching horses grazing along the shore of Little Cumberland Island

Getting settled in our anchorage close to the Sea Camp Dock, which is where the ferry boats bring island visitors, then we briefly went to shore to get a lay of the land and a quick walk on the beach.

It is a half mile to the beach from this point.

Yes! Hoof prints in the sand!

As we were coming back to the mother ship, we noticed that the sky was extremely gray and foggy from the south. A dense patch of fog was rolling in!

We got "home" before it hit here but the visibility was still about 1/2 mile. It was eerie watching it roll in! Tomorrow, we will go back and do the 4+ mile trail that takes you to the Dungeness ruins and to the beach again.

Sunset photo tonight with fog bank rolling in.