Georgia Border to Jekyll Island

From the Florida border, we traveled a whole five miles to St. Mary's,  Georgia, where we visited the Submarine Museum.

Up Periscope

You have to be a REAL submarine enthusiast to enjoy that museum.




After that exciting experience, we anchored off beautiful Cumberland Island, which is just offshore from St. Mary's, with our friends, Hiromi and Mike from "Off Leash."

Cumberland Island Anchorage

Cumberland Island, was once the winter playground of the Carnegies. Scattered around the island, are a number of "cottages" (mansions) they built, some of which still stand and many of which, are ruins.

Dungeness Ruins

The most famous ruin, is Dungeness. It burned down three times. I guess the Carnegies believed in the expression, "three strikes and you're out," because it was never rebuilt after the third fire. Now, its ruins are one of the tourist attractions on the island.

Cumberland wild horses 

Most of Cumberland Island is a National Seashore. It is remote (only reachable by boat) and pristine. To keep it that way, the National Park Service limits the number of people allowed on the island to 350 per day.

Portrait of hat with horse
.

Wild horses roam freely over the island and on its gorgeous beaches.

Horses in the dunes

The horses are not given veterinary care or food. They're  just left alone to do as they please. All in all, Cumberland is truly a magical place.



There are no services other than toilets on the island - no food, water or even trash cans. You have to bring on, and take off, anything you need while there.

It's truly a magical place.

ICW in GA

From Cumberland Island, we cruised up the ICW (Intercoastal Waterway), to our next port of call, Jekyll Island.

GA ICW

Jekyll Island, was also the winter playground of the rich and famous. Rockeller, Westinghouse, Macy, Sears, Gould, etc., formed the exclusive Jekyll Island Club.

Jekyll Island Club

It is said, that at one time, 6 % of the world's wealth, ate in the dining room of that club each night during "the season" (January 1 - March 31). It was also from here, that the first transcontinental telephone call was made in 1915. It was also here, where the idea for The Federal Reserve was hatched.

Tour train in front of a cottage

While there, we took a train tour of the historic district and visited  two of the "cottages" built by the club members who wanted more room and privacy than a room in the club building.

Another cottage

Loretta and Bob from "Carol Anne"

Mike with one of the Rockefeller's "electrics"

After our tour, we were hungry, so we wandered over to the Jekyll Island Club and had a leisurely, 2-hour lunch (with Prosecco) in the Grand Dining Room.

The girls recovering from lunch on the club's porch

Needing to work off our lunch, we borrowed the marina's loaner bikes and rode the island's wonderful bike trails, through the historic district, past the golf course and along the brilliantly white beaches to the island's commercial hub.

Curiously, for such an upscale place, Jekyll Island has very few stores. In fact, the only grocery store, is an IGA that's housed in a trailer alongside other trailers that house the Post Office, bank and hardware store.  We surmised, that when a hurricane is coming, this whole complex of trailers can be simply moved inland.

IGA trailer

We loved our visit to Jekyll Island and would like to return some day.

Up The East Coast Of Florida

I can see Georgia from our slip in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island.  That means, since my last post, we've made it all the way up the east coast of Florida from the Keys.

Our first stop north of the Keys, was Coconut Grove which is just south of Miami. We stopped there because it's near Coral Gables where my dear friend from the time we were 3 years old, Tamara Hartnett, lives.

Approaching Miami

Vizcaya

To get to Grove Isle Marina in Coconut Grove, we turned left directly in front of Vizcaya, the former home of James Deering of the Deering-McCormick-International Harvester fortune. It's now a museum.

Downtown Miami

After a couple of days in Coconut Grove, we headed north to downtown Miami, a very busy waterway indeed.

Port of Miami

We also had to make our way through industrial Port Everglades.

Port Everglades

After that, the scenery improved immensely as we approached Jupiter and the Fort Lauderdale area.

Jupiter Lighthouse

We were definitely the POOR relations in Fort Lauderdale.

A Ft Lauderdale bungalow

Looks just like our boat

More Ft Lauderdale extravagance

Trailers and double-wides along the ICW

On the way to Daytona, however, we saw how the other half lives and vacations.

Pelican poop is hard to clean up

While in Daytona, we made some new feathered friends.

Hiromi (from "Off Leash") and me at Manatee viewing place in Ft Pierce

And in Ft Pierce, Manatees were all around us. Turns out, they love fresh water and will come running if you have your hose going (it's illegal to purposely give them fresh water because it encourages them to hang around dangerous marinas), but it's sure fun to have them so close you could touch them.

Manatee drinking hose drippings

This is not OUR hose!

  

Mom 92 on 3/8/14 - Dad 93 on 3/10 /14

From Vero Beach, I drove up to Mt Dora to celebrate my parents' birthdays. While I was away, our friends and former Rocky Bound Pond, NH neighbors, Leslie and Bob Karpp, crewed for Pete from Vero to Melbourne. Bob and Leslie spend the winters in Vero and showed us around before I left.

Leslie and Bob Karpp

One of the things loopers are always looking for, is a good farmer's market, and we found one right off our stern in Marineland.

Farmer's market practically in our cockpit

Farmers market loot

Sometimes, I get a bit carried away at a good farmer's market.













From Marineland, we traveled to St Augustine where we were once again...complete tourists.

Approaching St Augustine

Nearing the Bridge of Lions

Lightner Museum

The first day in St Augustine, we took the "Red Train" tour and stopped at Flagler College, ate lunch at Cafe Alcazar (which is in what used to be the largest swimming pool in the world and is located in the Lightner Museum), zoomed by the Fountain of Youth and visited the old fort.

Another day, we visited the very bizarre, "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" museum.

Cafe Alcazar in the deep end of the pool

Flagler College

Old Fort 

Fountain Of Youth (it didn't work)

Typical St Augustine street

Bridge Of Lions

Lunch above the tourists

A Ripley oddity
  

 At Ripleys - This guy taught his pet snake to crawl through his nose and out his mouth...lovely



Also at Ripley's, there are portraits made of seeds, others of jelly beans, still others of match sticks and one of Legos.

Lego portrait (hi Soren)

              Our final port of call in Florida was Fernandia Beach on Amelia Island, where we met up again with our friends, Hiromi and Mike. We rented a car together (Enterprise: $10/day on weekends...a favorite of loopers), went to Fort Clinch and reprovisioned at Publix.

                              

Fort Clinch

No blog post is complete without a docktail picture - this one's next to HUMBUG in Fernandina Beach - included were loopers from Seattle, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Connecticut and Rhode Island

 We  leave for Cumberland Island, GA in a day or two when the weather clears, and my next post will start from there.

xxxxx