Depart: Ortega Landing at Jacksonville, FL 8:30
Arrive: Cumberland Island Anchorage, GA 3:00
Distance: 48 nm
With "Georgia on our minds", we pulled in our lines to get the day going. As always, as we started our day's travel, I tidied up the cockpit stowing items and untangling lines in preparation for our next stop. As I busily worked with my lines, I heard a man's voice, right next to me, say, "Nice boat!" Shocked to hear a voice so close when we were underway, I looked up to see two workmen on the Ortega Bridge smiling at me. I said, "Thank you", as we passed through the bridge opening.
Since we had stayed so close to downtown Jacksonville, it did not take long to see the exciting sights of the city docks.
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| Coming up on Jacksonville, Florida |
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| Jacksonville in a haze |
We needed to pass through a railroad bridge, so I took the helm so Clark could get his RR picture.
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| Get ready for RR picture ... |
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| "Bingo!" Got it! |
Next time we come this way, we will have to visit Jacksonville itself. Today we decided to pass on by.
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| Jacksonville Landing |
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| Bye Bye Jacksonville |
I saw something unexpected as we continued on our way. "Wow! What's that?" I asked. Clark quick grabbed the camera to get a shot.
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| Mural on Lefarge North American Cement Plant walls |
Clark's picture was taken so suddenly that it did not turn out all that well. Below is one from the internet that shows the mural's beauty.
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| "Unity" Mural: Connell Brooms and Sara Mahmoud - Human Rights Activists |
This mural was painted by an Australian painter as part of the Art Republic Festival held in Jacksonville. He painted the mural in just 4.5 days and said it was the fastest he had ever painted anything. This mural is painted on towers measuring 150 feet tall. The artist carefully selects his subject through research and chose these two individuals who are passionate speakers of tolerance, diversity, and respect.
Moving further along the waterway, we saw the working boats of an industrial port.
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| "Boat in a boat?" (Clark said this is a "dry dock" on the water. Boat floats into larger boat, water is released, and smaller boat bottom is available for repair work.) |
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| Tug at Loading Dock |
We saw lots of tugs busy at work. The vessel Silver Express sat at a dock in Jacksonville. Even so the tugs pushed hard against her sides to hold her in place.
We saw tugs working with a vessel named Ardmore Seawolf showing its home port as "Majuro". I looked up Majuro and found it to be the capital of the Republic of Marshall Islands. Reading further, I learned that this republic is a group of 64 islands, miles from anywhere in the Pacific Ocean, slightly north of the equator and slightly west of the International Dateline. One writeup from a world traveler said, "Have you heard of Majuro? Don't worry if you haven't, I hadn't either until I was asked to go there on a work trip."
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| Ardmore Seawolf - Majuro |
Clark noticed a long conveyor contraption he thought interesting used to unload ships that came to the docks. I asked how he knew it was for unloading instead of loading. "Because it would take from the bottom if it loaded ships!"
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| Building being loaded with sawdust? sand? |
Our last look at Jacksonville revealed heavy traffic on the bridge Clark referred to as the "bow-tie" bridge. So glad we were under the bridge, not on it today!
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| Jacksonville --- Stopped Traffic on bridge! |
Then, suddenly, the city was behind us and we were back on the ICW.
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| What a change from Jacksonville? |
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| Looking like low tide here! |
The smell of the paper mill greeted us as we passed through Fernandina Beach. It made my eyes burn just passing through. Clark said we could only anchor / moor there with a north wind. Shortly after, we passed by a dock where we saw a 20-foot boat alongside a fixed dock at least 10-feet above it. Clark said, "Is that a fuel dock?" as he pulled out his iPad to check the charts. We decided, spur-of-the-moment, to fuel up given the low price of fuel here.
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| Port Consolidated, Inc. Fuel Dock Fernandina Beach, Florida |
I found the person working the fuel dock to be an interesting and jovial character. As Clark pumped fuel, I watched the attendant wash his dishes using the garden hose he had rigged up. I told him I liked his dishwasher which made him happy. Then he told me about his method for deterring pelicans from attacking him while he worked. He had multiple sprinklers spraying fresh water in all directions. He said it kept them away otherwise he would be unable to do his job. Their water bill must really be something!
"Just around the corner" from Fernandina Beach, we came to our stopping place for tonight - Cumberland Island. Here we found Chip Ahoy and Texas 2 Step, whom we had traveled with along the ICW, already at anchor. Although we have not met in person, Clark and the captain on Texas 2 Step talked repeatedly along the ICW as they wove their way through shallow waters. In fact Clark "bumped" bottom inside the channel finding that deeper water sat outside the channel than in!
As Clark lowered the anchor, the line jammed in the winch. I had to assist by taking the pressure off the line as he worked to untangle the mess in the anchor locker. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how one sees it, the anchor dug in quickly. We did not have to worry about drifting, but with the strong current, we had to fight a lot of force to hold the line slack enough for Clark to untangle the line.
Anchoring in Georgia is interesting with the 8-foot tide change. We anchored at low tide and had to add eight feet to our height-from-bottom to calculate the amount of anchor line to put out. Ultimately, since we have line and chain, we put out between 150' to 175' of rode.
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| Cumberland Island Docks |
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| Sunset at Cumberland Island, Georgia |
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