Day 156: Into the Wild

Fernandina Beach, FL to Plum Orchard, Cumberland Island, GA (anchored)

June 20. 2022

(Written as we were underway on the 21st because we had low bandwidth at Plum Orchard)

After fueling up and filling our water tank, we left Fernandina Beach.

The one and only thing that’s not great about Fernandina Beach is the mills that are on both sides of the marina. The smsokestacks are always billowing and when the wind blows the wrong way, we can smell a turpentine-ish smell.

We have finally crossed into Georgia. I am really glad we re-entered the US in at Lake Worth because we had less bridges and stops to make as we travel north.

It’s only about 14 miles from Fernandina Beach to Plum Orchard anchorage, near Cumberland Island, but it’s a completely different vibe. Cumberland Island is a National Seashore that only allows 300 people on it at a time. While we were there, we only saw one other family.

I knew that I would love it here and when I saw all of the roseate spoonbills in a tree next to where we anchored, it was just further proof. These birds are among my favorite and to see a dozen in a tree was a gift. We noticed that they stayed in the tree until the tide went out; then they landed on the mudbanks to do their foraging.

As soon as we set foot on the island, we saw some of the feral horses that inhabit Cumberland Island.

The trails here are sandy and shaded by giant oaks hung with Spanish moss. Somehow we managed to be there on a day that the heat and humidity were comfortable.

We are really used to hearing squirrels rustling in the leaves but on this trail, the rustling was made by armadillos. We saw far more of these little armored tanks than squirrels. They stick their noses in the leaf litter and just bulldoze forward until they find some insects to eat. These little buddies were unfazed by our presence.

There was just so much to see here including a pretty large gator in the freshwater pond near the mansion.

Evening was really cool here, too. We watched a baby gator climb up on shore to get the last rays of sun.

We had a few small pods of dolphins swin by as they grabbed their dinner.

It seems that each species of bird has a specific time to move from one spot to the other – the roseate spoonbills waited until the tide was low to feed; grackles flew back to the land from the salt marsh about an hour before sunset; redwing blackbirds flew back after the grackles were in the trees.

Tomorrow we will head to a marina in Brunswick, Georgia. We’ll be able to get some laundry done and possibly take care of a few boat tasks. We need to be back in Charleston before the 27th so I can fly to the west coast for a workshop.