29 Jul 13

We got up and got the boat ready to move on, then hopped in the car to go to the UPS store (to pick up the machine screws and wind scoops I bought; they showed up just as we got there, which was good timing) and return the rental car. Then, it was off to Cumberland Island. We motored and sailed the short distance (only 6 N-m) to Cumberland Sound and got the hook down, for the first time in 6 weeks. And, we are finally out of Florida; hooray! We entered Florida on 16 March; 4.5 months was a bit longer than we had planned to stay - oh, well, ARF!

It is a nice quiet anchorage, but it is summertime in Georgia, so it was a bit warm in the evening. We unlimbered the dinghy and went ashore to the NPS ranger station to see about a couple of places on tomorrow’s “Land and Legacies” tour, but were told it was all booked up and we were too late to get on the standby list, but we could try our luck in the morning. We walked over to see the ruins of Dungeness, the main Carnegie mansion on the island and saw plenty of the wild horses (note: they look just like domestic horses, but without saddles) and wild turkeys. After dinner, we started the generator up so we could run the A/C and cool the boat off before bedtime, but the generator quit outputting voltage after about 15 minutes. This is the third time in a row it has done this, so there is something wrong; now I have to figure out what. We had a warm and restless night and my sinus drainage kept me awake most of the time. 

30 Jul 13

I was wrecked in the morning after a bad night, but we went ashore to see if we could get on the tour; we were lucky as they had had 3 no-shows, so off we went. The tour lasted from 10:00 until 15:00 and included stops at various points of interest on Cumberland I., chief among which included a tour of the Plum Orchard mansion, which was one of the Carnegie family’s son’s island retreats (a modest cottage of only 6000 or 8000 sq ft, including an indoor pool and a squash court). We also visited the African Baptist Church at the far north end of the island, famous as the location where John Kennedy, Jr. married Caroline Bassette; they apparently REALLY wanted to get away from the paparazzi for their wedding and they succeeded, big time. Back to the boat in time for a nap before G&T’s. Another warm night on board; the Admiral is looking more mutinous by the hour.

31 Jul 13

After breakfast, since we were waiting for favorable tide conditions before we left, we decided to walk across the island to the Atlantic Ocean beach. While there, we bumped into a couple of ladies who were on two other boats sharing our anchorage - “Katja” and “In Ainneoin” (which is Gaelic for “despite it all”) - and had a nice chat with them. Back to the boat at noon and got the anchor up, but about the time we did, we noticed a huge T’storm bearing down on us from the north, which is the direction we wanted to go. So, we decided to get the hook back down and sit the storm out, which was probably a wise plan. We had thunder and lightning all round for about 3 hours and lots of rain, but no hits, thank goodness. After the storm finally blew through, it was too late to consider moving north, so we just went straight to G&Ts.