Power Squadron Trip to Cumberland Island - Doug Folkerth

The cruise to Cumberland Island started out on March 24, with Happy Clamz leaving her slip at 0810. Weather was clear and sunny, but the wind was in the mid teens to the 20+ knot area, and. temperature was in the mid 50s. Good day to start a cruise up the ICW to the island!

We always enjoy the trip up the St. Johns river and north to the ICW, as there are many sights to see along the way. There is enough ship traffic in the area which means you must keep an eye out for oncoming traffic. Since we were leaving the Ortega River early on a Friday morning we really didn’t have to worry about the normal small boats that go buzzing up and down the St. J.

Always a good start to the trip is going under the Bascule bridge just north of our marina. Since I was very small I was always the one standing along side of the bridge waiting for the boats to go through, wishing I were the ship’s captain. Now I ‘R One!

At around 1100 I called Les and Louise Rothman aboard Autumn Saga as they were also planning on departing Cedar Point marina going to the Nordic Tug rendezvous in Duck Cay. We had a very peasant dinner of Mexican burritos and chimichangas the night before, and had many discussions about our two tugs. As we had purchased their 32' Nordic Tug, there was a lot of lively conversation around past trips and future plans with our boats.

Since Les had a number of projects to complete Friday morning, he couldn’t depart until later in the day, so we couldn’t cruise together. When I called him on the phone, he had just left and was at that point waiting on the railroad bridge in JAX to open so he could pass. Since there was yet no train in sight, he was going to have a bit of a wait. We wished them well and looked forward to joining them at the rendezvous (we are traveling by car), the first weekend in April.

Just south of Fernandina Beach area I looked off the starboard side of the boat to find 2 dolphins playing in our wake. We were traveling at about 9 knots (SOG), and they easily were keeping up with us. These are such beautiful animals, with such graceful lines. It is easy to get very spellbound by them. They stayed with us, playing in our wake for over 10 minutes. I got the impression that they enjoyed looking at us as much as we did at them.

A little while later we arrived at the Cumberland Island anchorage, which with 20+ knot winds was not the most protected of anchorages. Leslie and I debated about going back to St. Marys, GA to spend the night as the area there is very well protected and has excellent holding. Since we hadn’t been in the Cumberland area before we decided to throw the hook out, sit back and see how our tug handled some rough weather. As we were in about 14 feet of water, I let out a 7:1 scope, and with the 30' of 5/16" chain, I thought that would be enough. So we set our two anchor drag alarms (we definitely believe in redundancy), and broke out the margaritas.

On Saturday we met up with all the other members that had put in at St Marys or Fernandina, or came by ferry. We had a great ranger-led tour of the island, then met back at Mike McKinney’s pontoon for lunch. After that we hiked over to the beach. Everyone departed late in the afternoon, leaving us once again by ourselves at our anchorage near the Sea Camp docks.

We spent two nights at anchor. During the whole weekend, the cold front that was over in the Texas area was forcing high winds and cooler temps our way. Needless to say, our boat rocked and rolled the whole weekend. Saturday evening I decided to add a sentinel to the rode to see if it would smooth out the boat a little. All I had that I could use was our second anchor that weighs around 15 pounds, which I used a clevis to attach it to the rode and slide it down. What I found out was that with the wind we had, 15 pounds didn’t even start to put a sag in the line.

Sunday morning we spent an extra 30 minutes getting the chart plotting software set up for our return home. 0830 we hoisted the hook and started off towards home. We had our GPS hooked up to the computer and what a fun way to head back. You don’t have to worry about getting off track, as the track is right in front of you. Well it was, and all worked just fine up until just north of the St. Johns river. The computer froze up and we couldn’t get it to work the rest of the way home. This is a story for another day.

As we have always believed in redundancy, we do have 3 GPSs on the boat, as well as our paper charts. We fell back on our oldest GPS that had the track back from an earlier trip, so we always knew just where we were, but it sure taught me that I am sure glad that Leslie and I have both have our APs and can fall back on the paper charts when needed.

All in all, I think all the participants at the Cumberland Island rendezvous had a great time, and we look forward to the next Julington Creek outing.