| Many sailors love to sail offshore and skip this part of the ICW. It is a series of connected rivers which twists and turns so much that while you may cover 50 miles in a day, straight-line distance traveled may be half of that amount. If you are trying to get somewhere fast, that can be frustrating. But we are on a journey of many destinations so we continued on the ICW for this stretch. We all agree, however, that this is one of our favorite stretches of the ICW. The tall salt marsh grasses appear and disappear with the 8-10 foot rising/falling tides. The bird life is spectacular; egrets, heron, osprey, diving birds of all types, and best of all, this section is home to the elegant white pelican (both Karrie and Reed would like to be reincarnated as one of these birds in a future life – should the option become available!). Our two most memorable stops were Jekyll Island and Cumberland Island. On Jekyll, we stayed at the marina with the intent on renting bikes and touring the island this way. However, all the bikes were checked out so we were handed the keys to the golf cart and off we went! On our last visit, we toured the historic mansions of the early 1900s. This trip, we stuck to the natural wonders and other history. The ocean side of the island was still pretty stirred up so the waves were crashing and beach was awash in driftwood and foam. The ICW side of the island was calm and great for exploring. We had a history lesson on a sailing ship called the Wanderer – used as a slave ship long after the practice was outlawed – and of the slaves who escaped to remote areas of Jekyll to their freedom. A beautiful sunset capped the day, followed by a bit of rain later in the evening. Really our first “bad” weather since we’d departed New Bern two weeks earlier. The following day we traveled across a still wavy and rolly St. Simons sound toward Cumberland Island. On our last visit, we anchored for 3 days off the north shore, which is wild and relatively inaccessible. This time, we continued on the 25 miles to the south anchorage. We went ashore by dinghy to check in at the Ranger Station and plan our full day of exploring for the following day. Cumberland Island is largely now designated as a wilderness and national park – thanks in most part to donations of land from the Carnegie family who once called this island home for many months of the year. Many of their old buildings still stand, some in ruins but some in good shape. There are wild horses, deer, turkey, raccoons, and other wildlife that live in the lush palmetto undergrowth. The ancient live oak trees are dripping in Spanish moss, giving the feel of walking in an elvish forest. We walked a large loop around the south end of the island. Ava counted 16 different horses during our travels. Reed was on the lookout for large fossilized megladon teeth (still no luck). We made it to the ocean side of the island at low tide and a wide, hard-packed sand beach was full of horseshoe crab shells, starfish, and newly washed up whelks and other beautiful shells. It was a spectacular day. If you are ever in the area, we strongly recommend a visit. It can only be reached by boat so if you aren’t traveling on your own sailboat, you can pick up the ferry at St. Mary’s, GA, and get there that way. Thanks for following and hope you enjoy the update! |
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AuthorsWe are Karrie, Eric, Ava, and Reed Sanderson. Our house is in Seattle but our home is wherever the four of us are...and for the next two years, our home is Night Music, a Tartan 37 Sailboat. Archives
June 2016
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