1 May 2025
Depart: Matanzas River anchorage 7:45
Arrive: Cumberland Island anchorage 5:15
Distance: 71.5 nm
To save time this morning, we decided to get going and eat breakfast underway. Our objective for today was two-fold: do a pump-out of the waste holding tank and fill up the fuel tanks. We decided we could travel via the ICW and take care of both tasks in Fernandina Beach. The question was could we get there when Port Consolidated was open. Their hours showed them open until 5:00.
Last night's anchorage confirmed Clark's opinion that the anchorages near Marineland are "not great". He did not like the fact that the strong current rotated the props, which apparently is problematic when the engines aren't running. At 7:00 this morning, however, the anchorage was dead calm, and the anchor line was totally slack.
Having made the trip up and down the ICW as many times as we have, the views repeat themselves time and again. Even so, I got snap happy and took lots of pictures along the way to tonight's anchorage.
We anchored just south of St. Augustine, and early in our travels we saw the St. Augustine lighthouse.
I reached for the camera as I saw the third "sunk" sailboat we had seen after only one hour's travel time.
A short while later we spied another one.
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| St. Augustine Lighthouse in background |
We passed through St. Augustine which is always picture-worthy.
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| The Bridge of Lions |
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| Fort: Castillo de San Marcos National Monument |
One thing that never changes ...
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| Trucks on the beach at the inlet |
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| St. Augustine Lighthouse as we passed the inlet |
As we traveled north, the scene changed from mansions to marshland and back again repeatedly.
We passed by a couple of places where, if we had a smaller boat or more free time, we could have pulled up to a dock for a meal, shopping, or ice cream like the place shown below - "Palm Valley Outdoors Bar & Grill".
Back to the rustic scenery, we found ourselves watching a small boat up ahead of us checking their traps. Clark guessed they were a husband and wife team. Whatever their partnership status, the speed with which they checked their traps and spun off to the next one was impressive. We had difficulty catching up with them as they were always a bit of distance ahead of us.
Then it was back to mansions for a while.
As we traveled towards Jacksonville, we passed under several bridges.
We passed an eye-catching fishing boat in this area as well.
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| "Capt Trey" |
Then we passed under a bridge under construction.
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| Sign: "Fender Work Ahead - Slow Speed" |
As we got closer to Jacksonville, the scenery changed again to become more industrialized.
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| "BAE Systems" - with ship being worked on |
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| Security boat on premises |
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| Ship "Stuyvesant" nearby |
Further along our journey, Clark pointed out "Sister's Creek" up ahead. Jokingly, I asked Clark if he planned to stop. I knew it was too early in the day for him to stop!
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| Black boat on chart is us! |
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| Sister's Creek Park |
The free dock at Sister's Creek was fairly empty at 1:30 as we passed by. I would expect to see a full dock later in the day.
We arrived at Port Consolidated to take on fuel just about 4:00. Shuttered doors and windows did not bode well for taking on fuel. Clark called the phone number listed for them, and we found out that they would open in the morning at 8:00. Since taking on fuel was not going to happen today, we docked at the fuel dock of the Fernandina Beach marina and pumped out the holding tank instead.
Clark asked the fuel price here and was told $3.80 per gallon. He decided that we should anchor for the night and come back to Port Consolidated in the morning. Since Cumberland Island is reasonably nearby and a place he likes to anchor, we went there for the night. So, tonight we are in Georgia, and tomorrow we go back to Florida!
As we traveled today, we listened to an audio book to pass the time. We did not quite get to the end of the story. We have a short conclusion saved for tomorrow. The book we are listening to is "Cold War Navy Seal" about a man's adventures in the Congo to fight communism in the 1960s.
Being anchored by 5:15, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and later managed to see some interesting colors in the sky for sunset.
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