mile-677-716
Reluctantly, we left St. Simon’s as there was a window to get to the St. Mary’s inlet today. We are trying to take advantage of all potential travel days to get the boat to south Florida by mid-december. The Mud river on the waterway lies between these two points and was very shallow last year. We would have to time it with mid – incoming tide so we opted for the outside passage. It is about 20 miles, inlet to inlet.
We headed out to the ocean. It was cloudy and windy from the northeast. We put up a double reefed main. We were too downwind to use our genoa effectively. It was a little sporty in the waves. We made the trip in about 3 and a half hours. We had some good rolls and some good waves.
We entered the inlet breakwater in the well marked inlet channel. The tide and wind were behind us. We waited until we were in the channel a bit before taking the sail down. Even in the channel with the breakwater, we had some waves. One of them slapped Josie’s side but we did not get wet.
There was no room at Fernandina Beach so we had to find other accommodations. We decided on a marina in St. Mary’s, Ga. on the Georgia side of the inlet. I had always wanted to visit this town so I was grateful for the opportunity even though it would delay our solar repair (panel at the other marina) and also we would miss Jeff and Deb. We have a reservation in Fernandina for Wednesday so we can pick up our panel then. Tuesday’s (tomorrow’s) weather is supposed to be bad with wind and rain.
The marina at St. Mary’s is small but nice and the dockmaster gave us lots of information about the town. He also gave us a fresh loaf of banana bread, baked by his wife. We were interested in the historical golf cart tour but the weather tomorrow will not be good. We hopped off the boat in the afternoon to explore a bit.
We visited the walking history tour, an outdoor park where you walk through time and read snippets of history. The town was created under British rule even though the Spanish were the first to come to the area. The spanish sent the native people to Cuba and other territories. For awhile, the town was on the border between England and and Spain in the new world and so it developed forts and a military presence. This continued as the navy created a base and a submarine base here.
Cumberland Island National seashore is the barrier island off of St. Mary’s. It is supposed to be lovely with ruins, walking trails and beautiful beaches.The ferry stops running in November so we just missed it. We will plan for spring.
The town is home to lots of old live oak trees. There are 36 trees on the Live Oak Society Registry. We set out to find number 27, The Dr. George and Dot Barker oak with a girth of 20 feet. There were lots of other giants in the same area. Amazing trees that are hard to capture.
We wandered through the old cemetery and through parks, and past homes. An artist, Walter Palmer donated six bronze cast owls that are perched around the historic district. There is a brochure with clues to find them. We found several.
On our walk, we met Allen Rassi, who stopped his pick up truck in the road to speak with us. We explained to him that we were looking at trees. He showed us a tree down the street near his house that had lost a large branch. He saved a large chunk of the branch and made his wife a hammer dulcimer. It was beautiful. He said it was his third attempt at making one but this time he took advice from his wife who plays them. It was perfect. He played us a video of her playing.
Every time a tree falls or needs to be cut for a building, he tries to preserve some of it in some way. This house may need something made soon.
So we stood in the middle of the road talking to Allen and looking at pictures for about 20 minutes. . He is on the city council and he loves to talk about the town. He is going to be Santa at the town Christmas lighting tomorrow night. When he pulled away from. us, he put on his Santa hat and rang a bell out the window. We walked down the main street where they were lighting and decorating.
Back at the boat, we met our boat neighbors. Tom has restored an Albin trawler. He plans travel to Key West. Alice is single handing a sailboat Grace with her little dog Banjo. We have seen her before on the waterway but it was nice to meet her. She is headed to St. Augustine next.
We had dinner and a planning session on the boat for the evening activity. With bad weather predicted for tomorrow, we will stay put. We plan to cross to Fernandina wednesday.
