Cast off Jekyll Island 7:15. Cool, clear with a tiny hint of a north wind. Steak and eggs, blueberry Rx bar.
7:40 mouth of Jekyll Creek, sails up but motor sailing. 7:50 green marker "25" and sailing on Jekyll Sound, 1.9, then 2.4. 8:30 calm water, light wind, white sandy beaches on the point that separates Jekyll and St. Andrews Sounds, north end of Cumberland Island to the southeast.
9:20 wind here and there. 10:00 wind! Full sail and filling in steadily....2.8...3.3...4.2...4.7...5.4.
10:25 enter the Brickhill River with a wave from crew of the SOUJOURNER, cruising sailboat anchored at river's mouth and that name thinks I might have talked to them on the dock at Jekyll Islands the evening I arrived. 3.5 in the lee of Cumberland Island. Just beautiful sailing.
Marsh to starboard, marsh backed by trees to port. 11:00 downwind at 5.0, 11:35 Cumberland River so close I could throw a rock across a small stretch of marsh and beach from one river to the other. I keep coming across the term "Cumberland Dividings" and wonder if this is what they are talking about. The larger river so close but no way to reach it from here.
11:40 river curves to east, wind forward of port beam, 4.1. 11:50 river curves to north-northeast and a series of tacks against the wind and tide, 3.2. Soon crab pot floats show the current is in my favor, must have crossed the head of the tide. Confused water leaving Brickhill Creek and entering Cumberland River at 12:50, wind over starboard quarter and doing 4.9. Pass statue mile marker 705.
1:15 passing Kings Bay Submarine Base, huge buildings to the southwest, structures along shore and range markers on the river. 1:25 a patrol boat with a gun mounted on the bow comes up from the south, making 5.0 as the patrol boat hovers just outside of the channel. 1:35 leave the Navy patrol behind.
On the St. Mary's River and feels like a full ebb tide. The ebb seems to be coming from both the north and the south, colliding in the inlet. Round up to tuck in a reef 2:05 and realize I've crossed the line into Florida. Still rough and wind building, round up to bring down the main, sail with mizzen and jib as we cut across the shallows approaching Amelia Island, 4.8 in a gust.
2:45 Fernandina Beach to port, 3.2 against the ebb tide. Along the way notice four wrecked boats, a big power boat sitting on a shoal, one large sailboat on its side on the beach and the remnants of two small power boats on shore. 3:00 making 4.6 south of Fernandina Beach. Getting chilly, can feel the cool air coming off the ocean, slip on a sweater.
3:25 a tug and a barge coming up from the south on the Amelia River. It is a narrow river and we can pass port to port but the tug stops, turns to the east and then backs across the channel in front of me blocking the entire channel. I round up to see what is going on, hailing the captain on channel 13. Low tide, he says, and he ran out of water on his side of the channel, says he'll turn in my direction in a minute and we can pass starboard to starboard. And we do.
3:50 doing 3.9 as we pass through a trestle and under a bridge. Tired, looking for an anchorage. Anchor down in a little creek surrounded by oyster reefs just west of the Amelia River 4:55.
38.8 NM
Chili Mac with beef for dinner.
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