Florida to Georgia

We grabbed a $20 per night mooring from the St. Augustine Municipal Marina and enjoyed their nice dingy dock and WiFi from the boat.  The town was picturesque but we decided to head straight for Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum.   It was a quirky collection of items collected around the world by one man.  We explained to Emily that as kids we would read about little bits and pieces of this collection weekly in our local town newspaper.  We were delighted that he had items from the many parts of the world that we had also seen, like Fiji, Vanuatu and Tahiti. Some of the items like this enormous carving from solid ivory were breathtaking.   

 

And many were simply silly.

We toured the Castillo San Marcos fort and enjoyed a guided tour from a knowledgeable historian.  He gave detailed information about the design and construction of the fort and explained that it was never breached although attacked many times.

 

Another day we enjoyed the Lightner museum and Flagler College.  We learned that Flagler made millions in Railroads and built much of this town.  The museum and college were once his hotels and he also built a magnificent church in memory of his daughter who died shortly after childbirth.

 

After 3 nights in St. Augustine, we motored up the ditch (intracoastal waterway) and anchored right off a stately southern plantation.   

 

The Kingsley Plantation has now been taken over by the Park system so the dock and a self-guided 2 hour tour (using an I-Phone) were all free. This plantation was unique in that Kingsley (a white man) had bought a (black) slave girl and made her his wife.  She was ultimately freed by him but owned and ruled over several slaves herself in her lifetime.  We enjoyed seeing the plantation house, stables and kitchen and the slave houses that were arranged in a village-like semi-circle.  This was a lovely, peaceful stop with quiet starlit nights and dolphins surfacing all around our home.

With the wind and seas calm, we headed off shore for the trip north to St. Marys River.  We tucked in the mouth of the river and turned north to enter Georgia and anchor off Cumberland Island.  This is also 90% national park land and free to us cruisers. The island had several mansions built by the Carnegie family (founder of US Steel) and the family horses were set free to roam here forever. 

 

We joined in on a 1 hour guided tour by a ranger that had lived on this island for 31 years. Understandably, she was very knowledgeable about the history and island wildlife.  We saw the Dungeness Mansion that was burned down in the 1950s but was still imposing.

 

We had time to walk to the Ocean side and enjoy the beach and the wildlife.

 

The wind and seas were still light 2 days later and we decided to push out to sea for an overnight passage to Charleston.  I am writing this blog while offshore and out of sight of land.  The seas are silky smooth with barely a ripple. Long period swells are rolling in from Africa and our home is slowly rising and falling as if we are riding on the back of an enormous, breathing creature.   

We plan to be on a mooring on the Ashley river and in sight of the dock where we first saw Emily Grace and purchased her in 2006.  We have a symbiotic relationship, this little ship and I.  I have mended her when she was broken and she has sheltered us from storms and raging seas. I wonder, Dear Reader, if Emily Grace will remember her previous life or is now content in the life she shares with our small family.

Tom