2024 October: Cumberland Island GA

 31 October 2024 – Happy Halloween
Depart: Brickhill River anchorage at Cumberland Island, GA 10:30
Distance: 14 nm

Arrive: Cumberland Island South end anchorage 12:20

Here is a brief update to my last blog post detailing the anchor disconnecting itself from the boat in the night. Clark provided the picture below from his tablet showing the circle where we lost our anchor, and where I managed to station keep while he rigged a replacement. The anchor symbol in the center indicates where we lost it to the deep (about 19' down). The yellow line going down from the circle shows where we drifted after the anchor failed.

 

 Yesterday, when we deployed the anchor in Brickhill Creek, I had to help the splice along as it stopped a couple of times along the way down.  When Clark raised the anchor this morning, he was glad to see that his splice had streamlined itself and slid through the winch mechanisms nicely. Having soaked in the saltwater overnight and been stretched tight by the pulling of the boat on the anchor line, it had tightened itself up and "skinnied" itself down nicely.

With only a short distance to travel today, we had a leisurely  start to our day. Clark caught up on emails. I read my current novel - the first book in a murder mystery series set in England in the early 1900s by Carla Simpson. Finally, just after 10:00, Clark said it was time to get going. He had been waiting for the tide to come up before we left. 

Interestingly, we had two choices on direction for leaving the anchorage - go out the way we came in, or continue in the same direction as yesterday. Having never been through here and knowing we had ample water to explore, Clark chose to cover new territory. I took lots of pictures of the scenery, which is mostly marshes. 

The first chart picture is the same as the one I posted yesterday. We anchored where the water became shallower near where the chart shows "Mumford Creek". The chart shows where it breaks from and then rejoins the ICW. The second chart picture shows us making our way through the marshes to reconnect with the ICW.

As we traveled along the river, I said "Marshes! Marshes! Marshes!", which made us both smile as it reminded us of The Brady Bunch and the famous "Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!".

The river curved, as shown on the chart, and at one point it was close enough to the ICW that I felt like I could almost hit it if I tossed a stone that direction. 

Markers on far side of marsh grass for the ICW

We passed an area with trees covered in Spanish Moss. 

In amongst all the marsh grass I spied a dock. Searching, I spied a thin path through the growth to the dock.

Tiny path through grass to dock

A little further on, we saw another, much bigger dock right on the river. 

Soon thereafter, the river joined with the ICW, and we were back on familiar territory.

Shortly thereafter, we came upon an area with a lot of red markers. It looked confusing to me, and the red "nun" looked to be high-and-dry. Clark said this was known to be a shallow area.

Red buoy makes a good resting spot for this bird

Looking further down the waterway, Clark asked me about the markers up ahead. "Is that a red on the right?" I replied, "I don't see a red, and I don't know what I'm looking at."  It looks like "ET" to me.

Strange alien on the water?

It turned out we were looking at the backside of a range marker.

Looking back at the 2 parts of
the range markers

Following the ICW

Navigating here we could see the military base where submarines come in for degaussing where enhanced military protection appeared to be in place.

A military police boat sped by us with their gun mounted on the bow of the boat.

We could see the degaussing station up ahead.

We passed by this range marker. I could not believe the height of it. It was huge.

I hoped the military police wouldn't come after me as I took pictures of the facility.

Two USCG boats plus two military vessels sat at the dock.

Although there was no sub in the degaussing station, there was one at the dock.

It felt intense as we passed by the sub. The military police boat in front rotated in a circle to point towards us and continued moving in a circular motion as we passed - keeping his gun pointed our direction the entire time. Yikes! I snuck a picture!

The picture below shows the two police boats changing sites - one coming back in and the other heading out.

As we got closer, I got a couple of better pictures of the degaussing station.

Coming into the anchorage, the first thing we spied was a warning sign.

We noticed that we would have a lot of neighbors tonight - many of them appeared to be catamaran sailboats. Fortunately it is a large anchorage. We have anchored here many, many times.

When we anchored yesterday in Brickhill River, I had high hopes of seeing some of the wild horses that roam Cumberland Island. I saw none. Since I had expected that none would make an appearance, I was only a little disappointed. 

To my amazement, I saw something on the shore as we entered tonight's anchorage. From a distance it looked like it could be a horse or else two people standing near each other. As we got closer, I was delighted to find it was indeed a horse. As I watched the area intensely, I spied yet a second horse and then a third, a fourth, and finally a fifth! I hit the jackpot today!

The horse excitement over, it was time to prepare to drop anchor.

Ferry Dock at Cumberland Island

To enter the anchorage, we made a U-turn off the ICW and traveled on the opposite side of the marshes to where we had just been. The picture below shows that same, very tall range marker now on the other side of the grasses.

Normally, as we drop anchor, I am at the bow. When I walked up there today, I was dismayed to see how filthy it was from our anchor recovery project. Dried mud marks were on every inch of space including on the kayak we have resting there. As soon as we had the boat secured, I ran for a bucket and scrub brush to start the cleanup process. Clark grabbed the boat broom and turned on the saltwater washdown to assist. In short order, we had it looking as spic-and-span as possible when not at dock.

We only traveled 14 nautical miles today, but it felt like more. I was happy to chill for the afternoon. I almost fell asleep in my chair. Clark did take a nap on the sofa. It felt good to take a break.

The clouds provided interesting photo opportunities this evening.

Thursday night is our favorite TV night on CBS. We watch the full lineup. Knowing we did not have  to / could not leave the anchorage until our insurance policy said we could (just before noon). We did not set an alarm and planned to sleep in. 

Given today was Halloween, I got to see some great pictures of the grandkids that I will share here.

The Idaho family decided on a "mostly" Harry Potter theme. The youngest would have none of it as she wanted to be a fairy princess! I can tell you that dressed as he is below, I would not want to meet my son in a dark alley! Even the dog, Clover, got pulled into the act - Professors McGonagall (Devon) and Snape (my son Jeff), Hermione, Harry, and Dobby. Having met Clover, I am not convinced she would make a good house elf.

Sierra

Violet

Zoe

Clover

The Connecticut kids did their own individual things.

Leopard Lillian who loves gymnastics

Unmasked Ninja Turtle Leonardo 
with his lovely mom Heather

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An observation on Facebook feedback: I find it interesting that my post of a picture of a sunset got 52+ likes but that my blog post about the anchor detaching itself from the boat received 3 likes, 6 wows, and 1 much appreciated comment.