Captain's Choice blog: Good-bye Florida, Hello Georgia and March stats

Wow...hard to believe we have spent the last 5 months in Florida and now it's time to say good-bye. We visited so many areas from small towns to cities and have come away with a new appreciation for the "winter weather" in the sunshine state.

We left Jacksonville just after Maureen left for the airport Monday and traveled 54 miles to Cumberland Island to anchor right outside the National park. We were travelling during low tide and with a 7 foot tide swing the topography of the area was amazing. It's no wonder so many boats run aground, there is some pretty skinny water in these parts. Once anchored we watched the land disappear as the tide rolled in and all of the birds took flight onto higher ground. It was a quiet anchorage with 5 other boats there.

We were anxious to get the dinghy in the water Tuesday morning so we could go to shore and see the wild horses that this island is known for. According to Wikipedia the popular myth is the horses arrived with the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century but it is more likely they arrived in the 18th century by the English. They estimate there are 150-200 horses on the island and we were looking forward to seeing them and walking the beaches on the Atlantic side. Much to our disappointment the sea camp dock is unavailable Monday - Thursday. The other dock was destroyed by Hurricane Matthew and has not been rebuilt. There is a dock at Plum Orchard but that was 10 miles away and in shallow water. Sadly we motored the dinghy back to the boat, loaded it up, picked up our anchor and headed for Jekyll Island. The saving grace was that we were able to see the horses from the boat as we made our way back into the ICW channel.

This portion of the ICW reminded me of the river system with its twists and turns and brown mucky water. The main difference is there were no tows to listen to or work your way around. We traveled 29 miles and were greeted by the friendly marina staff at Jekyll Island Marina. There are a bunch of looper boats tied along the dock wall as this marina is literally right on the side of the ICW.
We asked a fellow looper who had been here several days what the best way to spend 3 hours on the island was. He advised us to use the courtesy bikes and head over to the historic district. We unloaded our own bikes and set off to see the island. We remembered to first load up with bug spray! The no-see-ums or sand gnats or whatever these bugs are called are here and are plentiful in Georgia. The bike path on the island is one of the best we have seen on the trip.
Jekyll island was developed for private vacation homes for the wealthy and they have plaques in front of the homes showing who owned it and some history about it. During WW II the island was evacuated by the US government and in 1947 the state of Georgia acquired all the property. After visiting the historic district we biked past the golf course, over to the beaches and back to the marina. We also stopped at a park where Mark noticed an alligator in the water. We got closer to take pictures and the gator made his way into the water and came over near the bank we were at. They usually take off in the opposite direction but we were thinking this Georgia gator must be use to people and was possibly looking for a hand-out...we took our pictures and left...no food from us! The night ended with a beautiful sunset and our disappointment from Cumberland Island turned to delight that we had found this "peach" of an Island.

To stay at Jekyll or move on to Brunswick? That was the question...we had reservations at Brunswick Wednesday, so we decided to make the hop, skip and jump 10 miles to Brunswick Landing Marina. We think this was the shortest travel day yet. The diesel price was great at $2.089, friendly staff and the local who told us this was a "sleepy town" was absolutely right. Once we got settled we walked around town and grabbed a late lunch at one of the restaurants that stays open past 3 p.m.. One of the draws to this marina must be the free beer 24/7 and the free wine at the cocktail party 3 nights a week. Perfect timing that we arrived on a day with the free wine cocktail party, so we ventured up to the club house at 5:30 to partake in the social hour. We met up with Jim and AC from Hour Plan whom we met in Marathon, a few new people that we had not met before and Jim and Cindy on The Journey. We have not seen Jim and Cindy since we first met them in Port Huron, MI last August. We had seen their boat on several occasions and they had seen ours but we never caught up with each other until Wednesday night. We were the first loopers they had met so it was fun to hear all about their journey on "The Journey" so far. Once back to the boat it was time to recheck the tide chart and firm our plans for Thursday.

We were up early and underway by 7:30 a.m. so that we could get past Mud River near high tide. It still amazes me that we are seeing 7-9 foot tide swings, so it is extremely important to know the water depths and when we should enter different areas. All went well Thursday as we made the 73 mile journey from Brunswick to Kilkenney Marina. This marina reminded us of Bobby's Fish Camp in Alabama. It's a marina with a long dock in the middle of nowhere, spotty cell service and no internet with a restaurant next door only open Wednesday - Sunday 5-9. When we got to Kilkenny's we saw fellow loopers Jeff and Brenda from Satori and went to dinner with them at Marker 107. After dinner Mark and I sat on the bridge of the boat watching the egrets land in the trees next to us. It was a riot watching them hover in the sky and then land with the wind blowing them around. By the time it was dark there were more than 25 birds roosting for the night.

One more important tide watch had us leaving Kilkenny Friday morning at 8 a.m. as we needed to time our entry into "hell gate" on our 32 mile journey to Thunderbolt Marina, just outside of Savannah, GA. All went well as we hit hell gate on a rising tide and had plenty of water during a 10 foot tide change. We will be at Thunderbolt several days so that we can uber into Savannah and do some sightseeing.

                            March Stats   Loop to Date
Days looping                   31                  322
Travel days                      15                  148
Miles traveled                549               5,899