2019: On route to Cumberland Island Anchorage

4 November 2019
Depart: Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge Anchorage in South River 8:00
Arrive: Cumberland Island Anchorage, GA 3:00
Distance: 53 nm

Travel conditions today presented a good day to go out on the ocean, so we calculated the distance “on the outside” versus the ICW. Unfortunately, the ICW length came out shorter, so we took the inside passage. Clark wanted to wait until 9:00 a.m. to leave to let the tide come in a bit, but “Home Too” needed fuel.  To leave time for that activity, we decided we better leave at 8:00. We were up and out right on target!

Almost immediately, we faced the low water levels of Little Mud River and picked our way through. Fortunately, we saw nothing less than 3.5 feet under the bottom of the boat.

The one thing we saw the most of today was birds! Cathy reported seeing a hawk with a white-spotted breast. Shortly thereafter, I saw an osprey resting on a navigational marker. Too far away for a picture, Clark and I saw a flock of geese in a V flying high in the sky. Sea gulls, by far however, seem to be taking over the waterways.

Is that a bird or a trap?
Answer … It’s both - a bird sitting on a trap!

Sea Gulls chasing a fishing boat
(instead of one of us for a change)

Birds hitching rides

“Dora F” being chased by birds

Trawling vessel being swarmed by Sea Gulls

 We saw a lot of vessels on the water – either at dock or underway – some military, some commercial, and an assortment of recreational vessels. I saw one I had never seen before – a pollution control vessel.

Pollution Control Vessel “NRC Liberty”

Our route today took us past the sight of the wrecked cargo vessel – “Golden Ray". I quickly did some research to remind myself of the details of this disaster. The ship tipped over onto its side in early September this year carrying approximately 4200 vehicles being exported to the Middle East. The ship left the Brunswick, Georgia area at 1:00 a.m., caught fire during the early morning hours while underway, and then tipped over as it rounded a bend in the waterway.

Other than the assumption that the boat’s cargo was not balanced properly, no one has yet determined the cause of the accident. Sadly, four crew members went missing of the 23 crew on board. An article I read on the internet said that it could take months to clean up this mess. Meanwhile, fuel and other liquids from the boat are polluting the neighboring marshes. 

Sunken Cargo Ship – “Golden Ray”

Just before noon, Home Too” stopped for fuel at Jekyll Island. While we waited, Clark decided we should drop our anchor to wait over on the side out of the way. We sat there quite a long while before we realized that we were seeing part of a water park.

Jekyll Island -- Summer Waves Water Park

Pirate's Passage Ride

Nature's Revenge Ride
with two slides - Hurricane and Tornado

From the internet, I see there is much more to the park than what we could see from the waterway.

https://www.jekyllisland.com/jekyllislandwp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/summer-waves-map-2017.jpg

Three hours later, as we approached our destination for the day, Cumberland Island, we passed the King’s Bay Naval Submarine Base. Guard boats patrolled the waters. Clark said he was sure they had a close watch on  our activity as we passed by the area.

Naval Submarine Base – King’s Bay

USCG Close at Hand

Clark spotted and recognized the degaussing station from quite a distance. I looked up degaussing process to learn more. A ship’s hull made of steel is like a giant floating magnet that disturbs the earth’s magnetic field. During WWII, German’s used devices that detected the disturbance in the earth’s magnetic field to locate enemy ships. The degaussing system reduces the ship’s effect on the earth’s magnetic field to prevent detection.

Military degaussing structure

Side view

We thought it might be fun to take a walk around Cumberland Island and look for wild horses. Unfortunately, it started to sprinkle rain and quite literally put a damper on our enthusiasm for a trek to the island. Also, the dock Clark wanted to use, if we did pull out the dinghy, said “Closed to the Public”.  Our dinghy does not launch fast, and we were rapidly running out of daylight. All things considered, we decided we better pass on the excursion.

With cloud cover and dreary skies, we have no sunset picture today to add to the blog.