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US East Coast 2008 / Cumberland Island

Posted 1 month, 29 days ago

US East Coast 2008 / Cumberland Island
Our final day in Fernandina Beach, Saturday May 31st, was especially busy and exciting with quite a party in the afternoon (and long into the evening) for the boat’s renaming ceremony. It really meant a lot to us that so many people came from all over the state to see us.   For several days we were eating and drinking the various gifts (rum, fudge, olives, chocolate, wine, bread, cheeses, oranges, etc.) that had been kindly brought (and had not been consumed at the party).  One of our local party participants actually used the event as a feature of one of her weekly wildlife articles in the Fernandina Beach News Leader: http://www.fbnewsleader.com/articles/2008/06/19/leisure/00aylwildways.prtThank you very much, Pat, for such a special reminder of our last day on the island.  On Sunday, June 1st (the first day of hurricane season… with Tropical Storm Arthur in Central America) we waved Good-bye to Nancy and Jere and leftFernandinaBeach and motored all of  7 miles to anchor off Cumberland Island, GA.  We put out two anchors (using the new double anchor rollers) but they became tangled (not sure how – as we were not circling) during a thunderstorm-related squall…The rain was refreshing but the high winds and twisted anchor lines caused us to drag so we tied the anchors off to floats and abandoned them for the night.  Luckily we had two more anchors and could relocate a bit further along the shore. The next day we stayed at CumberlandIsland, set up the new inflatable dinghy and outboard and rescued the abandoned anchors (including a swim for Randall and towing the largest anchor to shore).  We connected the new solar panels to start generating power.  It turns out that power use and generation become quite a dominating aspect of boat life when you are not relying on a generator (we never got the one the came on the boat to work and so decided to go off-grid with solar and wind) and when the engine alternator has not yet been set-up to charge the batteries…but more of that saga later…) Cumberland Island has always been one of our favorite sailing destinations and is a beautiful, relaxing place.  We didn’t venture to shore this time, having plenty to do on the boat but it was still wonderful to watch the birds and wild horses. Full Story »

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