Weather forecast for October 06, 2019:
Jacksonville, Florida
Low 70 high 92
North winds, 8 to 15 kts, sunny and humid
Captain’s Log: September 06, 2019 thru October 05, 2019
With the scare of hurricane Dorian still fresh on our minds, we decided to ask the marina if we could extend our stay through October 31st, the official end of hurricane season. Bruce, the marina manager, initially told us that there was no room at the inn but, the very next day, he told us that someone had just cancelled their reservation and we could stay indefinitely, however, we would have to move back across the fairway from C-95 to B-75 before the end of the month. No problem! We will be in Jacksonville for a while longer.
On Friday, September 6th, we hopped in the SUV and headed for Savannah to catch up with old friends and to scope out the marina scene in the area. We arrived in Savannah in the late afternoon and checked into the Hyatt Regency in the heart of the old city. After depositing our baggage we headed out to do some exploring and, after several miles of walking the historic streets and beautiful squares, we ended up sitting at a bar where we engaged in a conversation with two locals who just happened to be tour guides. We left the bar with some good information about Captain Woody's, a 'must visit' restaurant in the Bluffton area, and two free tickets to a bus tour of Savannah.
The next day we drove to the little town of Bluffton to check out Captain Woody's, which was closed, and then continued on to Hilton Head. We ended up at Shelter Cove Marina where we met Debra, the rental manager for the three condo complexes that surround the marina. Debra gave us some information on condo rentals and, just for grins, she then showed us two units that were currently available in The Captain's Quarters complex. We wanted to check out a few of the condos as we are kicking around the idea of renting a unit during the upcoming holiday season.
That evening, back in Savannah, we met up with our old cruising friends Jeff, Sam, Elaina and Lana at Sam and Elaina's beautiful home on East Bay Street. After a few drinks we walked several blocks to Circa 1875 where we had a fantastic dinner, great conversation and a lot of laughs.
On Sunday morning, September 8th, our youngest daughter's 37th birthday, we checked out of the hotel and headed for Thunderbolt Marina. We were very disappointed with Thunderbolt; it is not a place where we would want to spend any amount of time. Our decision was now made; Shelter Cove Marina in Hilton Head would be our next temporary home. We were on the road back to Jacksonville by 11:00am.
It will take us about five days to bring the boat from Jacksonville to Hilton Head in early November and we wanted to check out two marinas along the route; the Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick on Fancy Bluff Creek and the Morningstar Marina on Lanier Island just west of St. Simons Island. Morningstar would be our first stop.
On the drive east along the Torras Causeway, heading towards Morningstar, we took notice of a very large and unusual object looming above the vast plain of marsh and saw grass way off on the southern horizon. It had a very unusual shape, half of it was red and the other half was blue with a bit of white. We could not identify what it was and soon forgot about it.
We had been to Morningstar two years ago and had met at that time a fellow Vagabond 47 owner who treated us to a tour of his boat. This time we came across a beautiful Vagabond 42 but the owner was not onboard. We admired the boat, taking particular note of the very large cockpit, and then finished our stroll of the docks.
After inspecting the rest of the Morningstar facility we climbed back into our SUV and headed for King City on the southern tip of St. Simons Island. Traffic heading onto the island was horrific but we eventually made our way to Mallery Street. We parked in front of Iguanas Seafood Restaurant and found two vacant stools at the bar.
While enjoying a delicious late lunch of shrimp wrapped in bacon, we learned from the bar maid that a large cargo ship had capsized at approximately 2:00am, that morning, in Saint Simons Sound. Four crew members were still missing. The traffic that we had encountered coming onto the island was now understood; everybody within a 30 mile radius was coming to the Saint Simons Pier to get a very close look at the Golden Ray, a 200-meter-long car carrier, laying on her side in 30ft of water. We finished our lunch and headed for the pier.
The pier was swarming with onlookers brandishing cameras and network news personalities, camera crews in tow, doing live broadcasts. Coastguard boats and salvage tugs encircled the wreck. It was a surreal sight. This huge ship, laying on its side, was so close that it felt like we could almost reach out and touch it. It was a rare and very strange thing to behold. We now understood what the very large and unidentified object was that we had seen in the distance on our way to Morningstar Marina.
Like everyone else, we gawked at the strickened vessel and took many pictures. Upon our departure from St. Simons Island we headed for Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island to get an entirely different perspective of the wreck.
The Golden Ray was bound for somewhere in New England carrying over 4,000 Hyundai automobiles. She capsized in 30ft of water approximately 30 minutes after leaving the big AVP Marine Terminal in Brunswick. Had the capsize occurred less than 20 minutes later the Golden Ray would have been in the open ocean and would have gone down. We still do not know he cause of the accident.
After getting our fill of the Golden Ray disaster we headed for the big marina in Brunswick. The marina is in a very scenic location but the town of Brunswick is not much to write home about. A one or two night stop at the marina would work for us but nothing longer. After a quick tour of downtown Brunswick we were back on the road and heading for Jacksonville.
Shirley had been trying for some time to sell our collapsable bikes on FaceBook and, on September 12th, a woman named Cindy showed up at our marina with cash in hand. As we walked down the dock towards our boat I struck up a conversation with her. Was she a boater, perhaps a sailor? What kind of sailboat did she have?
To our amazement, Cindy lived on a Vagabond 42 currently docked at Morningstar Marina on Lanier Island just west of St. Simons Island. We had been admiring her boat at Morningstar just four days ago! What a crazy, small world! We are now FaceBook friends with Cindy and will catch up with her at Morningstar during our trip north to Hilton Head. Amazing!
At 7:00am on Saturday, September 14th, we were once again driving to Hilton Head; we had a 10:00am appointment with a realtor to look at condos on the island. For some time now we have been feeling the need for a home base, somewhere on terra firma, near the southeastern Atlantic coast, that we could retreat to when we needed a break from the tight quarters of Perfect Love (living full time on a 47ft boat is much like living in a tiny house). Our original thoughts were centered around Savannah but, after the disappointment of Thunderbolt and after spending more time on Hilton Head, our attraction to the island and the near-by surroundings eclipsed Savannah. We were now on a mission to find a home base in the Hilton Head area.
Rob, our realtor, showed us 8 condos in the Shelter Cove Resort; we were not impressed with any of them and the asking prices were outrageous. Scrap the idea of buying a condo near the Shelter Cove Marina. Maybe our original thought of just renting a condo for the holiday season was not such a bad idea after all. We bid Rob a fond farewell and headed for the Backyard Beach Bar near Coligny Circle where we compared notes and refined our home search strategy over beers and greasy burgers.
As we drove off of the island we decided to tour the model homes at Latitude Margaritaville and at Sun City. Both are senior-oriented, planned communities located across from each other on Route 278, about 10 miles west of Hilton Head Island. We had a lot of fun touring the model homes. Maybe we should build a house.
To our great surprise, we were impressed with the model homes at both developments. We took a lot of pictures to capture some great decorating ideas for future reference in the event that we decide to build a new home or remodel an existing property (I need projects).
We stopped in St. Marys on the drive home and had an absolutely wonderful dinner at St. Marys Seafood & More. We sat at the bar, met the manager, his wife, his son and grand children. After being officially adopted into their family and finishing our delicious meal we were treated to a free, home cooked desert. What great people! What a fun place!
On Friday, September 20th, I served as crew on our friends Ralph and Leslie's catamaran Now & Zen. Ralph and Leslie run a busy day charter service, taking up to six passengers out on the St. Johns River for 4-hour cruises. Shirley had crewed for them back in August when I was in Ohio. Leslie and Shirley were scheduled to attend a benefit at the Jacksonville Garden Club and Ralph asked me to fill in for Leslie. I had never been on a catamaran so I jumped at the opportunity.
We left the dock shortly after 4:00pm and, after passing the Ortega River draw bridge and approaching the wide St. Johns River, Ralph stationed me at the helm while he mingled with and took care of the passengers. The boat did not handle like our mono-hull but I soon got the feel and had a lot of fun; I had the helm for 90% of the cruise. As the sun was setting we were treated to a spectacular view of downtown Jacksonville.
The next morning we participated in the annual Ortega Marina Dinghy Poker Run. It was my first ever poker run. There were five locations along the Ortega River that each participating dinghy had to visit. The participants could visit the stops in any order that they desired and at each location a playing card would be obtained. We were given 40 minutes to complete the run. The crew with the best poker hand at the end of the run was declared the winner and given a $200 credit at the marina; there were other prizes given out as well.
The intrepid crew of Love Child (our dinghy, powered by a trusty 15hp Suzuki outboard) arrived at the starting line armed with a cooler full of Coronas and stimulated by our favorite music blasting from a bluetooth speaker. We stood ready and able to best the competition.
We completed the run in not quite record time because we lingered to admire the two bald eagles perched high in a tree overlooking the small dock that was our third stop.
With two pair and Jacks high, we thought that we were in the running as the participants gathered around the marina pool for drinks, burgers and dogs (provided by the marina). In the end we were not even close; we left empty handed but feeling good. It was a lot of fun.
Friends had told us about Clark's Fish Camp, an eclectic restaurant located on a creek that feeds the St. Johns River about 20 miles from our marina. We just had to go so, on the evening of Monday, September 23rd, we enter the address into the SUV's navigation system and took off for Clark's.
What a strange and interesting place located in a spectacularly beautiful area! Literally hundreds of exotic animals look down on diners from the ceilings, walls and isles of the multi-roomed, ramshackled wooden structure. A live, full-grown alligator lounges in the large aquarium next to the bar. Countless small alligators linger among the lily pads, waiting for food scraps, in the shallow water that borders the outdoor dining deck on three sides. Every animal that we could think of, and many that we had no idea of, watched with glassy eyes as we devoured our delicious meal.
We later found out from an employee that Clark's has a special arrangement with many zoos throughout the US. The arrangement entitles the restaurant to the corpses of any animal that dies while at the zoo.
A beautiful sunset brought our excellent adventure at Clark's to a close. If you find yourself in Jacksonville, you must go to Clark's Fish Camp!
We had quite a scare on Friday evening, September 27th. While eating our dinner at the bar at La Nopalera, a Mexican restaurant not far from the marina, I began to choke. Shirley was engaged in a conversation with the young man sitting next to her and didn't notice that I was struggling to breath. I could not speak and was beginning to get light-headed. When Shirley turned to look at me she immediately knew that I was in serious trouble and jumped into action. In a loud voice she called for help while she pulled me from the barstool and began the Heimlich Maneuver. She was too short and couldn't get her hands positioned correctly. By this time I was limp, pale as a sheet and blankly staring forward. Shirley continued to call for help. Finally Debra, a woman who was actually shorter than Shirley, took over.
This little angel was a nurse trained in the maneuver and knew exactly what to do. Steadying herself by putting her right leg back, she bent me over backwards, lifting me off of the ground, with her hands in a fist positioned just above my navel. She pushed hard inward and upward at the same time. After a second abdominal thrust the obstruction cleared and I could breath again.
The entire restaurant was watching as the shock slowly subsided and I began to feel normal again. We sat at the bar and decompressed as a number of employees and patrons expressed their happiness that I was OK.
Shirley was amazing; keeping calm and acting quickly. I literally owe my life to my wonderful XO and the little nurse who stepped up to help. Remember, you never know if you have tomorrow; live every day as if it is your last.
Robert, my best man, and his wife Karen arrived from Cincinnati the next afternoon for a week of cruising. Robert and Karen are experienced sailors who desperately needed a break from the daily grind and we were more than happy to oblige.
On Sunday, while I finished the exhausting chore of polishing all of the stainless steel on deck and hull, Shirley, Robert and Karen headed to Costco to provision for the week. Later that evening we had everything ready for a mid-morning departure the next day.
We began the first leg of our trip, a 24-mile cruise from the marina to Sisters Creek, at 10:30am on Monday. Five hours later we were tied up to the free city dock, bow in, at Sisters. Robert quickly inflated Karen's blow-up kayak/paddle board and off she went to explore the surrounding marshes and waterways. Those that remained relaxed and enjoyed the scenery while contemplating the next day's route.
The next leg of the journey would take us from Sisters Creek, which is on the ICW and just two miles from the ocean, to Cumberland Island. We would cover a distance of approximately 27 mile if motoring the ICW or approximately 34 miles if sailing off-shore. The unanimous preference was to go off-shore but the weather forecast was not favorable; calling for 5-7ft seas and northeast winds gusting to 20 knots. The Captain postponed the final decision until the next morning.
The weather that greeted us with the sunrise was true to the forecast; we are going to motor the ICW. Now, how are we going to get off of the dock?
Sitting alone in the cockpit as the sun was just starting to climb over the eastern horizon, I quietly began to develop our exit strategy. Suddenly I was distracted by movement on shore; I turned to see an old, oriental gentleman silently facing the just rising sun. He was dressed in a white shirt and beige pants, and holding a walking stick that was a bit taller than he was. A plastic grocery bag was on the ground next to his left foot. He stood still for a moment, not far from the water's edge, and then slowly took a knee in the sand while holding his head down and his vertical staff close to his body and against the right side of his face. He knelt silently, not moving a muscle, for at least the next five minutes; probably celebrating the new day, paying homage to a god or honoring an ancestor; a Buddhist perhaps. I watched with a voyeuristic fascination.
Slowly he rose, grabbing the plastic bag as he grew taller. Oddly, and at the same time, several species of birds began to flutter around the man. He slowly set his staff on the ground and, with his free hand, reached into the plastic bag. In a cacophony of squawks and flapping wings the birds circled closer and closer as he tossed avian delicacies into the air. This went on for some time; until the bag was emptied. The birds dispersed as the man picked up his staff, turned and slowly walked away.
Judging by the behavior of the birds, this must happen often, perhaps every morning.
Now, back to the challenge at hand, how are we going to get off of the dock?
The dock is a long, concrete pier running parallel to the shoreline of a rather narrow and shallow oxbow off of the western shore of the ICW. There is a 3 knot current running through the oxbow in a counter-clockwise direction as the tide rises and in a clockwise direction as the tide ebbs.
Tied to the dock with our bow in (pointing away from the ICW and into the oxbow) I had to make a 180 degree turn in a fairway that was about twice as wide as the length of the boat. We were 45 minutes past high tide and the current was running fast and away from the dock.
Since we were tied to the very end of the dock, the end closest to the ICW, I had planned to back straight down the narrow 20-yard mouth of the oxbow and into the ICW but, as soon as the last dock line was slipped, the current quickly carried us towards the oxbow's opposite shore. Even at full power the boat would not back. The water was pushing us sideways into the shallows and I had to quickly get the bow to turn to port somehow. Finally, after several unsuccessful attempts, and with the 110hp turbo engine's pedal to the metal and the bow thruster about to blow a fuse, the bow started to respond. But not before our keel momentarily kissed the muddy bottom. Finally, after a tense few minutes that put us all on edge, the port turn was fully executed and we advanced into the deeper and wider waters of the ICW, heading north.
We eventually relaxed as the very scenic ICW slipped by at 4 knots for the next 25 miles. We did have to keep a close eye out for shoaling in several areas. The Twin Highway Amelia Island Bridge, just south of Fernandina, brought us to a halt. The bridge clearance at mean high tide is supposed to be 65ft and we were approaching the bridge 15 minutes after high tide. During normal high tide conditions we would have about 18 inches to spare, but it was a 'king' tide and the clearance gauge on the bridge read 62.5ft. We set the anchor and waited for the water to drop; two and one half hours later we motored under the bridge. We passed Fort Clinch, the Civil War-era fortification at the northern tip of Amelia Island, forty five minutes after passing the bridge. We dropped anchor just off of Cumberland Island thirty minutes after passing the Fort.
After securing the boat we went ashore to do our initial reconnaissance of Cumberland Island. Following a broad path that cuts straight across the island we marveled at the huge, twisted, moss-draped live oaks that towered over the thick underbrush and whose branches formed a verdant canopy over the path that we traversed. The heavy foliage eventually gave way to sand dunes and sea oats which, in turn, gave way to a wide, flat and totally deserted beach that stretched for miles both north and south. The soothing and constant drone of waves breaking on the shore was the only sound to be heard.
That evening, after dinner, we watched the sun set over Cumberland Sound and then spent several hours star gazing. Only the distant lights from the submarine base at Kings Bay off to the northwest disturbed the darkness.
A brief history of Cumberland Island:
Sometime after 1733 the English General James Oglethorpe, founder of the colony of Georgia, established a hunting lodge on Cumberland Island. He named the lodge 'Dungeness' after a headland in Kent, England.
The Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene came to own most of southern Cumberland Island as a result of a business deal used to help finance George Washington's Continental Army. Greene's wife Catherine built a huge, four-story mansion on the island after his death. She named it 'Dungeness', after Oglethorpe's hunting lodge.
In 1818, a very ill General "Lighthorse" Harry Lee, a Revolutionary War hero and old friend of Catharine Greene, was returning from the West Indies when he asked to be taken to Dungeness. Lee died after a month of illness and was buried on the island. His son, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, had a tombstone placed over the grave and visited his father's final resting place several times.
In the 1880s Thomas M. Carnegie, brother of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, and his wife Lucy bought land on Cumberland for a winter retreat. In 1884, they began building a mansion on the site of Catherine Greene's old structure. Carnegie never lived to see the completion of the mansion but Lucy and their nine children continued to live on the island, naming their mansion 'Dungeness' after that of Greene.
Dungeness was designed as a 59-room Scottish castle. Lucy also built pools, a golf course, and 40 smaller buildings to house the 200 servants who worked at the mansion. The last time Dungeness was used was for the 1929 wedding of a Carnegie daughter.
After the stock market crash and the Great Depression, the family left the island and kept the mansion vacant. Dungeness burned in a 1959 fire, believed to have been started by a poacher who had been shot in the leg by a caretaker weeks before. Today, the ruins of the mansion remain on the southern end of the island.
In 1954 members of the Carnegie family invited the National Park Service to the island to assess its suitability as a National Seashore. In 1955 the National Park Service named Cumberland Island as one of the most significant natural areas in the United States and plans got underway to secure it.
The island has three major ecosystem regions. Along the western edge of the island there are large areas of salt marshes. One will also see palmetto plants and gnarled live oak trees covered with Spanish moss at the edge of the island's dense maritime forest. Cumberland Island's most famous ecosystem is its beach, which stretches over 17 miles.
The island is home to many native animals, as well as non-native species. There are white-tailed deer, squirrels, raccoons, nine-banded armadillos, wild boars, feral hogs, American alligators, as well as many marshland inhabitants. It is also famous for its feral horses that roam free on the island.
On Wednesday, October 2nd, Shirley, Karen and I motored to shore for a day of hiking. Robert remained on board busy with work. We spent the majority of the day exploring the Dungeness ruins, watching the wild horses and combing the beach where Shirley collected many fine conch shell specimens.
After a fine dinner the crew once again retired to the deck to watch the sunset and to star gaze.
Robert and Karen were scheduled to fly back to Cincinnati on Saturday so, at 9:00am on Thursday, October 3rd, we hauled the anchor, motored south on Cumberland Sound and then out into the open ocean, heading south. Our destination was the St. Johns River and Sisters Creek.
We were able to fly our brand spanking new, big, bright red code zero head sail for a while and, I must admit, we were a sight to behold. As we made the 90 degree turn south, paralleling the coast, the wind moved to our nose and we had to douse 'big red'.
Less than two hours out of Cumberland Sound we could see, far to the south, the faint outlines of a few of the big US Navy ships moored at the Mayport Naval Station. The Naval Station sits at the mouth of the St. Johns River and, as the distance narrowed, the big ships began to take shape and loom above the waves.
The ICW crosses the St. Johns River just two miles up river from Mayport and Sisters Creek lies on the ICW less than one half mile north of that intersection. As luck would have it, we approached the Sisters Creek Bridge at high 'king' tide and, like Fernandina, we had to set the anchor and wait for 60 minutes before the water dropped allowing us pass under the bridge.
Once under the bridge we had no problem tying up at the city pier. However, this time we entered the oxbow keeping the pier as close to port as possible. Moving deeper into the oxbow and staying close to the pier I began a back-and-fill maneuver which turned the boat 180 degrees to starboard. We were now close to the oxbow's opposite shore and parallel to the dock, with our bow facing the ICW. The current slowly carried us right up to the dock and we touched with a gentle kiss.
The next morning, at daybreak, I once again had the distinct pleasure of watching my oriental friend pay his homage to the rising sun and then feed his many winged friends, who were just as excited to see him as I was.
We were easily off of the dock by 10:00am on Friday morning, motoring towards The Marina at Ortega Landing. We glided past a beautiful downtown Jacksonville and slid into slip B-75 about 4 hours later. We put a couple of thick steaks on the marina clubhouse grill and then, after a fine dinner, we played our new favorite card game, 'hand and foot', late into the evening. Robert and Karen departed for Cincinnati the next day.
Until next time, may your tomorrow bring fair winds and following seas.