The Trip Home

The last blog I wrote was when we arrived at Cumberland Island National Seashore. There were two ferry docks within an easy trip by dinghy. However, since we arrived there late in the afternoon we decided to wait til the next day to explore the island. Cumberland Island has a very long documented history and has 87 structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are wilderness areas, undeveloped beaches, historic sites, cultural ruins, critical habitat and nesting areas, as well as numerous plant and animal communities. Some of the most productive plantations in the Southern United States were located on Cumberland. In 1880 Thomas Carnegie bought most of Cumberland and built the largest mansion ever to be located on the island. The 59 room Scottish castle completed with turrets, a pool house, 40 outbuildings, golf course, acres of manicured gardens and a squash court must have look incredibly out of place on the Georgia Coast. The mansion was used as a retreat through 1959 In recent history John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, were married at the First African Baptist Church in 1996. The tiny church, with only eleven handmade pews, sits near the original emancipated slave settlement.

We spent the entire day on the island finding the forest areas beautiful with the sun casting wonderful shadows and the moss coming down off the ancient trees - it was similar to the set designs found in movies like “The Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter”. Then there was the beach. Hard packed sand where cars had no difficulty finding a good purchase and littered with a marvelous variety of shells. And then there were the horses. We first spotted 2 horses amongst the dunes near the beach. Then later in the day we found them again (not sure if they were the same ones we saw earlier) on the beach near the surf. They were unafraid of the tourists as well as the cars that went by. Unfortunately I have censored some of the photos of the horses intimacy but we were close enough to witness…..

From Cumberland Island we crossed St. Andrew’s sound and docked at Jekyll Island Marina. While we were docking a woman stopped by and invited us to a pot luck picnic on shore. I innocently asked her if it was because we just got there - she had a funny look on her face and then said “No, it’s to celebrate Easter Sunday”. OOPS! We quickly made up a rice dish and went on shore. The variety of food was amazing - smoked and regular ham and all kinds of side dishes and desserts. This marina is relatively small but there about 50 people participated. Our friend Joe was spending the winter there and we had a wonderful visit. He took us on a tour of the most interesting part of Jekyll Island called “Millionaire’s Row”. In 1885 The Jekyll Island Club was built as a private resort retreat for many of our wealthiest families. The Rockefellers, Morgans, Macy’s, Vanderbilts and Goodyears spent time on the island and built beautiful houses surrounded by gorgeous flowers and trees. The island was purchased by the State of Georgia in 1947 and is managed by a governing board to preserve the integrity of the grounds and buildings. Once an exclusive retreat for America's wealthy elite the entire district is now a National Historic Landmark and “affordable” vacation resort. We stayed here for 2 days and then it was time to move on. One noticeable difference on this trip north was the absence of boats traveling along with us. There were days when we didn’t see any vessels except locals who were in small power boats. The weather was chilly and I assume that people in the Bahamas weren’t leaving just yet either because there wasn’t a fair weather window to cross the Gulf stream or it was just toooo early to leave paradise.

We stopped at Georgetown, SC for two days to wait for the weather to clear and loved the town. The azaleas were in bloom and although the sun didn’t shine the homes and gardens did. We also met Wilbur, an egret, who has lived near the fish market for the past 17 years. He hangs around waiting to be fed with fish from the market. We ate out at two wonderful restaurants. We had lunch at the River House and dinner at The Rice Paddy (as per a recommendation from Beth on ‘Coyote’).

Leaving Georgetown we had a lovely surprise as we approached the first of several opening bridges. Waiting with us were several boats and 2 of them were known to us from Hopetown. ‘Carolina’ , ‘Pamonetti’ and ‘Katie’ then traveled with us all the way to North Carolina. We were chosen to be the lead boat since our boat could travel in water a little over 3 ½ ft. and they needed more water. Without going into much detail all of us, yes even including ’Interim’, went aground at least once. However, we all got back to deep water and no harm was done.

It was so comfortable traveling together especially since the weather turned and there was lots of rain and wind along the last part of the trip. Although the ICW was fairly calm even when there when the wind was 20 - 25 kts we were quite surprised when we came to the Neuse River. The crossing wasn’t long in statute miles but the wind and waves significantly increased as we began the crossing. Bill was particularly worried about the effect the wind and waves would have on our Boston Whaler, now picked up and connected to ‘Interim’ by chains and ropes. It was a very quiet (I did have some white knuckles) ride until we were in the lee of Whittaker Creek. Then the water was flat and the trees blocked the wind. We docked the boat and began to pack up for the car trip home. We took a long walk and the area around the marina was lovely. That evening we had a farewell dinner with the folks from ‘Carolina’ and ‘Pamonetti’ - lots of laughs and stories. On Friday we met a realtor who showed us around Oriental and when we came back on board Bill and I unanimously agreed that we couldn’t live here. Much to rural. We found out that ‘Carolina’ had left to go to their marina in New Bern but ’Pamonetti’ was still in town so we borrowed a car (check out Album 25) and brought them food from our freezer. It was a sad parting - the reality had set in that we had finally left the Bahamas and all the people we had met behind.
On Saturday it poured all day with only a few breaks in the rain.
Patrick and his friend Mike arrived.
And on Sunday we piled in the car and drove home to Mamaroneck.
The end to the Southern Journey, the beginning of our next series of adventures.