Position: N 30 46.066 W 081 28.271
We spent a very busy 10 days working at Isle of Palms. Rachel was lucky enough to have a slip and the weather was warm so we stopped and took care of a few more boat jobs: added a new VHF radio; a new sail cover designed and built by Julie; relocated the wind generator mast from the center of the stern to the side so the new self steering wind vane has room to swing; and a multitude of other little tasks.
It wasn’t all work and no play - we really did have our noses to the grindstone, but we also have friends in the Isle of Palms/Charleston area. We managed to fit in a few, albeit too brief, social gatherings, too. We were introduced to a great Irish pub with cheap beer and outstanding wings (not very Irish but still good). We also managed to fit in a couple of sightseeing walks in Charleston, one of our favourite places to explore.
We left Isle of Palms at 6 am Monday, November 10th and sailed south outside in the Atlantic to the St. Mary’s River Inlet on the Georgia / Florida border. The wind was light so we motor-sailed through the night. By morning the wind had increased to about 20 knots and the seas were building. We reached the St. Mary’s River entrance around 9:00 am – about an hour after high tide. With the wind behind us, we had a very rolly ride bucking the tide almost all the way up behind Cumberland Island where we gratefully dropped the anchor at about 10:30 am.
Cumberland Island was one our favourite stops last year and we have been looking forward to exploring the southern end of this beautiful National Park this year. We spent the day we arrived resting, napping, and reading and were up and out early the next morning to catch the 2 hour walking historical tour of the island led by one of the park rangers.
In the late 1800s this island was owned by the Carnegie family. There are several big mansions built for the Carnegie children by their mother, so the island is a strange combination of wilderness interspersed with pockets of both current and abandoned civilization. We toured the ruins of Dungeness, the mansion the Carnegies built in 1884. The Carnegie family members donated their 90% of the island to the National Park Service in 1971 and we’re really glad they did!
We spent two lovely days walking the trails through maritime forests, saltwater marshes, and along beaches. The transition from beach to forest was like entering a tunnel with a canopy of live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. We walked several trails and reveled in the shapes of the branches and the sunlight shining down through them. Cumberland Island is abundant with wildlife, wild horses, pigs, deer, armadillos, and turkeys roam freely. We did not get to see any armadillos or wild pigs this year but enjoyed watching the horses cantering through the forests. And the flocks of turkeys reminded us that Thanksgiving isn’t far away, too!!
