Liberty Belle

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

St Marys to Brunswick

(Liberty Belle is 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.  

Chip Ahoy

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

Ridin' the Ditch: Daytona to St Marys

(There's always someone about with an obscure sense of humour.  Wonder what they serve at cocktail hour?)

Jacksonville Beach homes along the river...

Having spent the best part of a week working on tracking down and successfully fixing our electrical problems, it was time to move on.  The marina was a pleasant community with friendly neighbours, Gayle & Bill (Starting Over), showing us how appealing this kind of lifestyle can be.  However, our schedule had slipped and plans needed to be modified – yet again…  Mindful of tide times, and the notorious shoal at Matanzas Inlet (reminder to self: Spanish for “massacre”) across the ICW up ahead, we left early.  Our planning paid off and we successfully crept over shallow waters without incident. 

Our plan was to stop at St Augustine, a popular tourist town.  However, the anchorage had been transformed into a vast mooring field.  We didn’t plan to re-visit this historic city, so found a quiet anchorage just off the ICW, suitable for an early morning start.  With luck we could catch high tide and some (hopefully enough) water over the inlet.  Winds were up and the day overcast even at that hour, so it was hardly surprising to see Atlantic waves crashing over shoals.  We couldn’t get into the safety of the Tolomato River fast enough.  This is a deep river with fortunately few surprises.

Can you see where we are?

Well, I think we're on a river somewhere. 

Needless to say, the weather closed in and at one stage; we (read GS) threw out the anchor in a wild corner of the river and sat out the heavy downpour and thunderstorms raging all around us.  We had dressed for the day in thermals and wet weather gear – ocean going gear for a run up a nice protected river!  All was now sodden, the inside of the boat almost as wet as the outside too.  Adding a further touch of the surreal to the scene, a huge ray chose that moment to spring from the river’s depths.

In a moment of respite, we up-anchored and moved on, hoping to find better conditions.  Our visibility quickly dropped again with more heavy downpours.  Trying to navigate by instruments alone proved very challenging.  We also muttered as hot water boats powered by, occupants snug and dry behind glass enclosed bridges, undoubtedly with heaters on.  Some had windscreen wipers!!  Pine Island anchorage had our name on it; the Cap’n relented and GS stopped moaning.  We called it a day and settled in, hoping for a little sun in the morning.  

Pine Island next morning showed a promising day ahead

Neighbours at Pine Island headed north in the early morning with us.  After picking our way across St Johns River’s interesting array of channel markets and shallow water, we allowed “Phoenix” to lead hoping to “stalk” them.  It proved to be an excellent decision given that we avoided going aground at least three times that day.  I should add that we were travelling, unavoidably, on a low tide.  Georgia has a much greater tidal range than Florida, so our days from now on would be short and very tide related.  

After passing smoking, odorous pulp mills at Fernandina Beach and noting much hurricane damage, we welcomed the deep waters of Cumberland Sound and made for St Marys, one of the oldest cities in the US.  It sits along a pretty river snaking its way westward through marshland, marking the border between Florida and Georgia.  Yep, Georgia.  Even better, the sun was shining and our Cap’n declared the electrics now fully functional.  Headway at last!

Early morning on St Marys River