Making our way up the East Coast: Cumberland Island

Panoramic view of anchorage at Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia. 

After leaving Port Canaveral and the big cruise ships behind us, we sailed S/V Pandion around the extensive shoals of the Cape, and continued our journey north along the Atlantic coast.

Leaving Port Canaveral at sunrise.
Much calmer conditions than when we arrived a few days earlier!

Next stop for us was Ponce DeLeon Inlet, roughly 60 nautical miles up the coast. Once again, the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in, but we had enough time to find a quiet anchorage out of the busy inlet boat traffic.

Ponce Inlet was a one night stop for us, as we took advantage of improving weather conditions to continue north to St. Augustine early the next morning. This was a passage of 57 nautical miles.

We had reserved a mooring ball in St. Augustine (anchoring within the city limits is strongly discouraged), and arrived just before the afternoon storms blew in from the east. We were getting the rhythm of these weather patterns on Florida's east shore.

St. Augustine skyline at sunset from our mooring.
Very different than our Bahamas experience!

Brenda and I decided to take a few days to explore the city. St. Augustine is a great place to walk around.  Over the next several days, we toured through the old Spanish fort Castillo de San Marcos, listened to music played by a collection of old mechanical instruments at the Lightner Museum, and had some great meals at the street side cafes. We had a ball!

Gary and Brenda at the Castillo de San Marcos.

The fort was built by the Spanish, starting in 1672.
It was never taken by force, and was designed to protect the inlet and city from invading ships.

Our next stop in our journey was Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia. This passage of 53 nautical miles would take us north in the Atlantic, again starting at sunrise, and crossing the state line from Florida to Georgia at St. Mary's Inlet. This inlet was well maintained and marked, due to the presence of a U.S. Navy submarine base.

As S/V Pandion dropped sails and motored through the Intercoastal Waterway towards our anchorage (no bridges along this last stretch to prevent our 73 ft. mast from getting through), we watched as five U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats, each with a machine gun mounted on the forward deck, passed by us several times. No submarines at the base, though! At least, not that we could see :)

A new coastal landscape.
Mangroves and reefs and sandy beaches give way to salt marshes and maritime forests along the Georgia coast.