We’ve been in Fernandina Beach for three weeks, and will probably remain here for two more weeks before continuing our migration north. Keith was able to get his first vaccine shot soon after we arrived, so now we are in a holding pattern until he can get the second shot. Additionally, we will be driving to MD next week for planned doctors appointments (since we haven’t seen our doctors in 2 years).
Clearly my ‘planning’ was a little off in my thought that we might have the boat in MD during the second week of April, and therefore I scheduled 14 appointments...for every type of check-up you can imagine. Oh well, this is the best place for us to leave the boat since my son will check on her regularly. Hopefully, I will be able to get the one-dose vaccine the week we return, and we can head north with confidence, and our masks!
We have enjoyed our time here, and had an opportunity to take Anna on a second boat trip...this time to Cumberland Island during her Spring break.
Of course, the best way to start a trip is to be boarded by the Coast Guard. It has been a little over a year since we were last boarded, and I think they needed to practice trying to get the boarding party onto a moving boat in windy and rough conditions. They originally asked me to maintain course and speed, but after several failed attempts they asked me to slow down. After several more failed attempts they asked me to put my vessel in neutral. Then...Success! A large party of 6 came aboard and after a thorough inspection of our vessel and safety equipment we were given our second gold sheet (that means we passed👍).
This retirement life we live has certainly helped us to appreciate the wonderful National Parks we have access to explore. We anchored on the west side of Cumberland Island (just over the Georgia state line), and took the Whaler to Dungeness dock. Most people visit this site by ferry, so we feel incredibly lucky to have ‘front row’ access to such a fabulous place. The green highlight shows the route we took on our adventure.
Immediately upon leaving the dock area you enter a beautiful path surrounded by large live oak trees.
We walked to Dungeness Ruins, and had our picnic lunch on the lawn.
The ruins are of a mansion built by Thomas Carnegie (brother to Andrew Carnegie) and his wife Lucy, in the 1880s. Unfortunately, Thomas died two years after its construction, but Lucy and their 9 children lived there.
The mansion was last used in 1929 for a wedding of a Carnegie daughter. After the Crash and the Great Depression, the family left the island and kept the mansion vacant. The mansion burned in 1959, in what is believed to have been a fire deliberately set.
Today wild horses roam freely. After lunch we walked around to the front (marsh side) of the property.
At the marsh we were greeted by mud crabs.
Tens of thousands of mud crabs. As you approach, they run across the mud flats and disappear into their holes.
We hiked through a fairly extensive sand dune trail to find a wide expanse of beach, at low tide. We quickly discovered that many organisms were stranded by this low tide.
Stone crab claws are worth a lot of money around here! I’m not sure why we could just pick them up. They didn’t seem to be nearly as feisty, or as fast, as the blue crabs we are used to wrangling.
Have you ever seen a sea cucumber? These two are in distress due to their beaching predicament, but they show evidence of a defense mechanism that many people find hard to believe. Sea cucumbers have the ability to jettison a portion of their intestines when they feel threatened. This behavior is thought to either scare the attacker, or confuse them with an easy meal while the sea cucumber escapes. The sea cucumber will regenerate the intestines in a few days. We did relocate these adorable cukes to the ocean...hopefully they survived.
I have found many empty Stiff Pen shells on the beach before, but this is the first time one contained a live organism. We stuck it upright in the sand and waited. “If we are very patient and very quiet it might open a bit so you can have a peek inside.” Yes, we both got to see our first Stiff Pen...it resembled an oyster, but has a creamy yellow color...SUPER COOL!! And as soon as we touched the shell it snapped shut😁
We had a fabulous week beach combing, baking cupcakes, playing games, and doing craft projects. I think she might have been a little disappointed in my grandmom skills on our first trip, but I’m pretty sure I earned some grandmom ‘cred’ this week. It was sad to take Anna home, but she was going on another trip, and we needed to start our isolation before our trip to Maryland.
...right after we meet up with our friends on Northwind...
It was so wonderful to spend an evening sharing great food, good stories and happy times with Ken and Barbara, and it was so exciting that Bill, Mike, Ryan, and the boys were all able to join us (clearly their boat holds way more people than our boat can accommodate👍). Also, very thankful that the vaccine provided a much safer environment! One of the best parts of this cruising lifestyle is meeting new people and forming long lasting friendships!
At this point, Keith and I headed south to explore the St. John’s River. We will be isolating for 12 days before our trip to Maryland, where I will safely visit my Dad for the first time in 18 months...I am sooo excited!
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