Saturday, April 8 - Cumberland Island
Before we left this
boat-rich area, we wanted to get a closer look at the navy ships at Mayport, so
we cruised out to the river entrance. I don't know exactly what types we
saw, but one had a helicopter on top.
After Mayport, we
passed through some beautiful marshes. The picture doesn't do it
justice.
Amelia Island was
next. As we got close to Fernandina Beach, we saw these extremely long
docks. I hope they had golf carts to get out to their boats.
Navigating in this
area is pretty tricky due to shallows and tides.
We had planned to
eat lunch in Fernandina, but the city dock had a been damaged in the hurricane
and didn't have a place for us to pull up. I was really looking forward
to playing tourist here. We also saw lots of boats with hurricane
damage.
Cumberland Island
was high on our must-see list for the loop. When we visited Tybee each
year, we always wanted to visit Cumberland, but it took too time to get down
there, take the ferry, explore and get back to Tybee. This was our
chance! As we approached the island, we saw lots of boats anchored.
We headed for one group of boats, only to find very shallow water so we had to
go back out and come in from a different channel.
We anchored, then
took the dinghy in to explore.
From the Visitor
Center, we hiked at LEAST a mile to the Dungeness ruins. On the way, we
saw some of the wild horses, an armadillo, and some beautiful trees.
The ruins were
impressive, but sad. The signage and historical markings were minimal
compared to most national park sites we have visited, probably because there
was less historical significance than evidence of great wealth.
The hike from there
to the beach was beautiful, but long! Glad I did it, won't do it again!
Leaving, we passed
this incredible tree! Hudson and Lily would love to climb on it! I
would, too!
Back at the boat, a
looper we had met earlier in the day came by in his dinghy to bring us his boat
card, and to take pictures of our boat.
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