We bid farewell to Florida today. We first saw the ‘Welcome to Florida” sign on the ICW on 11/19/08 on our way to Pensacola. It seems like yesterday but yet light years ago. Since then, we have traveled the entire Gulf of Mexico west coast of FL, went down to the Keys, and then after the Bahamas, journeyed up the Atlantic Ocean east coast. It has been such diverse and interesting boating. Florida municipal marinas have been great and the Florida State Park system is #1 with us. We’ve walked, at least, a hundred miles of FL beaches, eaten 50 pounds of grouper each and had the best winter ever. As if scripted by Hollywood, the palm trees start to thin out and the ICW water turns a darker brown when you cross over to Georgia on the ICW.
As I mentioned in the previous posting, the 7-8 foot tides on the Georgia section of the ICW command respect. Put this together with the lack of dredging of the GA shoal areas and you get a recipe for going aground. Our strategy for today was to leave Amelia Island at 11:30 am on a rising tide and only go 32 miles through the difficult sections of King’s Bay and Jekyll Sound. Here’s a picture of a Trident submarine being accompanied by tugs near the King’s Bay base—security boats track your movements and if you veer, they will definitely get your attention. There was some shoaling at G75 and R76 where we did see 5 feet on our depth sounder but we did fine. Our biggest problem was a war party of huge black flies surrounding us, attaching themselves to the flybridge bimini and periodically attacking. Bug magnet Bob was camouflaged in his Buzz-Off shirt, long pants and was wearing Deep Woods Off cologne so they started to notice me…… oh…….no……
Jekyll Sound Inlet is similar to the Whale Passage in the Bahamas as it is open to the Atlantic Ocean and today was mild with only a 3 foot chop and no breaking waves. We had to do a 90 degree turn to port and our speed shot up to 11.7 mph with the following sea. Wheeee!
We pulled into the Jekyll Island Marina at 4:10 pm, registered quickly and took the courtesy bikes out for a 2 hour ride to explore this 19th century playground for the rich and famous. The Jekyll Island Club was established by millionaires and luminaries who built mansion “cottages” to enjoy the Georgia seashore and the tranquil island beauty. It is now a National Historic Landmark District and can be accessed by carriage, tram or walking tours.
We enjoyed meeting up again with Dan and Myla aboard “Kairos”. We last saw them in Marathon and had a great evening talking about our collective Bahamas adventure.
As I mentioned in the previous posting, the 7-8 foot tides on the Georgia section of the ICW command respect. Put this together with the lack of dredging of the GA shoal areas and you get a recipe for going aground. Our strategy for today was to leave Amelia Island at 11:30 am on a rising tide and only go 32 miles through the difficult sections of King’s Bay and Jekyll Sound. Here’s a picture of a Trident submarine being accompanied by tugs near the King’s Bay base—security boats track your movements and if you veer, they will definitely get your attention. There was some shoaling at G75 and R76 where we did see 5 feet on our depth sounder but we did fine. Our biggest problem was a war party of huge black flies surrounding us, attaching themselves to the flybridge bimini and periodically attacking. Bug magnet Bob was camouflaged in his Buzz-Off shirt, long pants and was wearing Deep Woods Off cologne so they started to notice me…… oh…….no……
Jekyll Sound Inlet is similar to the Whale Passage in the Bahamas as it is open to the Atlantic Ocean and today was mild with only a 3 foot chop and no breaking waves. We had to do a 90 degree turn to port and our speed shot up to 11.7 mph with the following sea. Wheeee!
We pulled into the Jekyll Island Marina at 4:10 pm, registered quickly and took the courtesy bikes out for a 2 hour ride to explore this 19th century playground for the rich and famous. The Jekyll Island Club was established by millionaires and luminaries who built mansion “cottages” to enjoy the Georgia seashore and the tranquil island beauty. It is now a National Historic Landmark District and can be accessed by carriage, tram or walking tours.
We enjoyed meeting up again with Dan and Myla aboard “Kairos”. We last saw them in Marathon and had a great evening talking about our collective Bahamas adventure.
