Liberty Belle*

X-ing File #6_A Gulf Stream Crossing & the Atlantic ICW

St Marys to Brunswick

(*A patriotic Southern Shrimp Boat)

WJ3 on anchor in St Marys River on a low, low tide

St Mary’s sits off Cumberland Sound, one of the more accessible deep-water inlets along the shallow Atlantic coastline.  The sound’s regular dredging has more to do with nearby Kings Bay Submarine Base than keeping keel boaters happy.  We had been tempted to do a portion of our trip “outside”, however regular, almost weekly, bouts of bad weather barrelling down the coast kept us on the ICW, with a plan to slow down, watch the tides and respect identified problem areas (aka really shallow ones).  

We had anchored off St Mary’s eyeing off the remains of the marina and a flotilla of broken boats – more hurricane damage and certainly not something that a small town could easily repair.  It was quite nice though to be off the ICW, a bit of a treadmill at this time of year, with many boaters returning home (or heading north) for summer.  Not that we’ve had too much warm weather to speak of!

Lots of historic homes

And plenty of Spanish Moss

Historically, St Marys dates back to 1767, early settlers included British and Acadian French.  By the 1870’s, it was prospering as a seaport.  Fortunately, St Marys survived the Civil War years and found new wealth in lumber, canning and fertilizer businesses.  Tobacco and cotton brought further wealth to the town.  We strolled through wide streets lined with well-cared for homes dating from colonial, antebellum and Victorian times, many with a view over wild marshes and uninhabited islands lining the complex river systems of this area. 

Orange Hall  c.1830-38, once surrounded by an orange orchard.
It is classic antebellum in Greek Revival Style

After a brief stopover, it was back to tide watching and that magenta line, our yellow brick road equivalent.  Luckily, our timing was perfect to sit at the back of three sailboats to watch their every move through those designated danger zones and many other surprises the ICW offers the unwary.  We were moving into Low Country.  Thank goodness for Navionics and our iPad!

Shallow water in the creek behind Jekyll Island sent us back to an anchorage near a small but popular marina.  Originally established as a plantation (cattle and maize), Jekyll Island became a fashionable spot in the late 1800’s for wealthy elite with a palatial club house, beach houses, a golf course, tennis courts, stables and a marina for their splendid yachts.  This once isolated pleasure estate is now a state park with much of it remaining undeveloped, although we spied a water park and a bridge to bring over the hoi polloi in cars.  As tempting as it was to bicycle “Millionaires Row”, we had our sights set on a Brunswick landing.