We said farewell to Jacksonville Beach on March 31. The one month stay at Beach Marine was very pleasant. We got to ride our bikes daily and did side trips to Jacksonville, Fernandina Beach and St. Augustine. We made new friends, Peter and Laurie, were visited by old friends, Sally and Tom, and spent some quality time with Marion's sister Ginny and her husband Tom.

The only negative about the marina was the water supply. They have well water that on occasion had a  strong odor. The chlorinator failed to work on those occasions.  We resorted to bottled water for all human consumption.

Cumberland Island April 1

After filling up with diesel we headed out for Cumberland Island a short 34 mile trip. We anchored in 20 feet of water about half way between the two park docks.

We took our dinghy to the Sea Camp dock and asked the park ranger for permission to bring our bikes ashore.  He said it was OK as long as we stayed only on the park roads (not on the trails). Everyone else on the island was walking and we were the envy of most. They had all come by passenger ferry and bikes are not permitted on the ferry.  We had to demonstrate the fold up features twice to interested campers.

Cumberland Island was purchased by Thomas Carnegie in the late 1800's. He built a magnificent estate, Dungeness, and established all of the infrastructure needed to make it self sufficient. A staff of several  hundred maintained the Island estate year round. Ice was shipped in by schooner and stored year round.
There were farms to raise fruits and vegetables. There was indoor heated swimming pool and recreation center.
 

There is a one lane hard packed sand/dirt road that is overarched by Live Oaks. you feel like this is the forest primeval... The road leads to Dungeness, the docks, the icehouse and over to the Atlantic side of the island. The original mansion burned in 1927 and is today a giant shell of masonry. The Carnegie family gave the estate to the US Government and it is now a restricted occupancy park that allows up to 300 campers/visitors per day.

There are small wild horses on the island. Descendants of the Carnegie stables.  There is a rusty graveyard of 1920's and 1930's vintage automobiles.

The dunes are spectacular and there is a new boardwalk over the scrub brush that stabilizes the dunes. On my way back from the dunes the left pedal of my bike came loose and almost fell off. Without tools I was unable to reattach the crank which had come loose from the square spline to which it was fastened. As a result I had to go scooter fashion on the bike the 1.5 miles back to the dinghy. Once aboard the dinghy we went by water to the Dungeness dock and visited the Icehouse Museum and read all about the Island and the Estate.

With a broken bike we decided not to spend a second night at Cumberland so we weighed anchor and headed off for our next stop.

Jekyll Island April 2

Jekyll Island is just a short 24 miles trip from the Cumberland anchorage. Along the way we passed the submarine base and could even see one at the dockside. It looked like they were carrying on provisions.

We were the last boat into Jekyll Island Marina and got a place on the fuel dock. We had the Low Country seafood boil at SeaJays Grill. It was a buffet with all you can eat boiled shrimp, corn, sausage, red potato and mild spices. The food was good and certainly plentiful. For my Texas taste buds I found it a bit bland.  Zatarain's shrimp/crab boil would have made it better.  De gustibus non est disputandum.
Rating ** $$, very popular with the locals.

After dinner I got out my tools and reattached the bike pedal. Then I took it for a test ride before we turned in for the night.

Next morning we took the bikes for a ride around the historic Millionaires Village. It features the Jekyll Island Club and the vacation homes of  JP Morgan, Rockefeller, Vanderbuilt, Crane and others. The cottages (some have a dozen bedrooms) have no cooking facilities. All meals were to be taken at the main clubhouse.

The clubhouse is now the Jekyll Island Hotel and I am sure it must be nice. We buzzed by the covered entrance on our bikes, waved to the bell man and kept on going. Once again my bike pedal started to come off... so back to the boat... tighten the nut with extra heavy torque... bring the wrench along ... and resume the ride. One more time and its back to West Marine.

The rest of the ride took us through the network of bike trails to the ocean side, the grocery store, and back to the Marina. It was the most pleasurable ride we have had to date. By lunch time we had seen enough and had to move on (or pay another day).

Ft Fredrica National Monument.

Another short cruise of 13 miles and we were at anchor in the Fredrica River. The tide was low when we arrived and we were the only boat in the river. We lowered the dinghy and prepared to go ashore. We were approaching the shore when we heard someone shouting to us from a passing motorboat.

"Don't go in there," he shouted, "it's too muddy."

Marion stuck the paddle in to push us away. It went into the mud a good foot. I could have been mired to my knees had I tried to pull us to the shore.

We were disappointed.... I checked the tides on my computer... The tide would be coming up in a few hours. We went back to Remedy and killed time.
 

From the water Ft Fredrica appeared to have nothing much to see.  There we a few dozen people wandering about. There was the remains of a masonry structure about 15 feet high 20 feet deep and 40 feet long. It had castle looking fretwork along the top. There was an ancient canon pointed down the river. Nothing you would call imposing. Lots of lovely trees and grounds. We went ashore for a look. The high tide allowed us ashore with ease. The park closed at 5 PM just before we arrived so we had the whole park to ourselves.

Ft Fredrica was founded by the British in 1715. General Oglethorpe established the settlement and used it as a base for attacking the Spanish down south in St. Augustine. The Spanish built a much better fort and Oglethorpe ended up the looser in his attempt to take Castillo San Marcos.
 

Fredrica was a thriving little city. There was a documented record of all of the inhabitants and property records that allow an interesting look into the lives of the early settlers. Everything was made of wood except a few masonry structures associated with the storage of gun powder and a section of the barracks. The foundations of the homes and other structures were made of a mixture of sand, lime and oyster shells. The wooden structures are long gone.... foundations, fireplace footings, and some brickwork are all that remain of the village.

Killkenny Creek and Thunderbolt

There is not much to see but marshes, twisting creeks, occasional settlements, and two broad sounds for the next 95 miles.  We went 50 miles to Killkenny Creek and anchored in 14 feet of water with plenty of swinging room. The wind was around 20 kts and stayed that way all night.

The next day was more of the same, as we did 45 miles getting to Palmer Johnson in Thunderbolt. This is a first class Marina and a world famous builder of Custom Mega Yachts. We had to parallel park into the current between a Hatteras 53' and a Carver 50'.  It was comforting to have experienced dock hands to direct us in safely.

We met Walter Weber and his wife, the owners of Trillium, the Hatteras 53. They had passed us a day earlier and were awaiting a water pump for their genset.  We discussed our planed trip.  Walter said we would pass right by his marina on the Hudson at Peekskill.  Keep in touch and drop in if you can, he urged.

We took a long bike ride, mostly uphill, to the Food Lion. That evening we ate at Teeples, sharing a huge platter of boiled crabs and shrimp. Rating $$ ** Plenty to eat, but Low Country bland. We have discussed this before. The locals love it so it must be good.

Beaufort SC and Charleston SC

We waited for the current to subside a bit before leaving Thunderbolt. We would be pulling out into a current. I wanted to back out with a spring forward. The dock master vetoed that plan and convinced me to go forward and allow the current to  catch my bow. I was concerned about the wind that was pressing us onto the dock and the fate of the swim platform. Trillium had been moved closer to our stern to make room for a sailboat. We were now in a tighter parking spot than before.

We moved Remedy forward a few feet to make more room to stern.  The dock master tried a few pushes on the bow and assured me that he could get it clear even against the wind. Another dock hand would push out at the port stern to keep the swim platform from rotating into the dock.

"OK, " I called, " let's do it."

"Port lines are clear," called the dock master, "Give it port engine only."

I eased Remedy forward as the dock master pushed the bow out into the current. As he stopped pushing the wind attempted to blow us down on the boat ahead.  The dock master jumped onto the swim platform of the boat ahead and was prepared to fend us off if required. We cleared by inches... not feet.

The rest of the day was an uneventful cruise to Beaufort South Carolina.  We spent the night at anchor in Factory Creek just beyond Ladies Island Marina.  There is plenty of depth but the narrowness of the creek made me uneasy about the possibility of hanging on a bank around 3 AM with the falling tide.

My sleep was fitful.. lots of dreams about bad stuff happening to the boat.  Next morning there were no problems except the no-see-ums.  There was a small cloud of them at the bow. They saw that I had two anchors out and that meant twice as much time to eat me up. I did one anchor and fled for cover. I donned long sleeves,  long pants and sailing gloves. I also sprayed my head with insect repellent. They mistook the repellent for hollandaise and kept up the attack.

We were underway at 7:30 and heading for Charleston 56 miles up the ICW.  The weather was beautiful sunny but a bit windy from the south east. We were in the company of three sailboats that had spent the night with us at Factory Creek. They left a good hour before us. A forty foot sloop named Ptarmigan
had her big jib up and did about a half knot less than us. This was the third day we had passed this boat.
It took almost an hour from the time we recognized the boat until we passed.

"You are looking great Ptarmigan," I called to her, "This is Remedy on your port quarter... Permission to pass on your port."

"We have to stop meeting like this," he joshed, "bring her on by... your wake won't bother me."

Trillium overtook us about five hours after we left. They would not be at Charleston but were heading another ten miles up the ICW. "We are trying to make up lost time," said Walter, "we will look you up."

I never realized how much I would use the tide and current tables built into the Capt'n package. They are wonderful to have in Georgia and the Carolina's where seven foot tide changes and 2-3 kts currents are common.  As we approached Charleston I clicked on a Current icon about a half mile north of the City Marina. It said we would be pulling in with a 2.5 Kts ebbing current.  Not only a current but we would have a 15 kts wind onto the dock.

"Remedy, I can see you...  head for the Amoco fuel sign," called the dock master on VHF 68, "It's just a few hundred feet beyond the 68 foot Trumpy on the end of the fuel dock".

This would not be as difficult as Jacksonville. Going into the current actually kept the speed down and maintained steerage. As I came to a stop along side the dock a few feet away, the wind took over and we came in harder than desired... no damage.. fenders did their job.

"Good job, Captain," said the dock hand. They always say that, but it could be that they are just being polite.

"I thought it was a pretty hard bump," I replied.

"The wind made it tough... you did fine." he was reassuring.

We filled the tanks and asked to stay put on the fuel dock until currents and wind were favorable.  The dock master said we could spend the night.  They would close for the evening before things got better. There would be no one to assist us relocate until the morning.  The winds continued to build and we readjusted all of our fenders and even borrowed one from a neighbor.

We went to dinner at the Variety Store. I'm a sucker I guess... again I ordered a Low Country dish, Shrimp and Sausage on linguini. Rating $$ *.

About 2 AM I awoke and the wind had dropped to a gentle breeze. We weren't rocking on our fenders.
I slept well after that. The next morning we moved to a dock inside the breakwater.