Great Loop Adventures Aboard Next Chapter: Like a Bulldog in front of the Vets Office

If you noticed our daily travel distance has been getting progressively shorter. That is largely due to the fact that the captain really does not want this incredible odyssey to come to a halt. At this point I feel like a bulldog on a leash in front of the vet’s office at full four wheel stop. But in all reality when it comes to being on the water I don’t ever think I have ever been satiated.

So on Monday morning we headed 19 miles to Fernandina Beach which is where we would say goodbye to Florida. It was a nice sunny warm cruise continuing up the ICW, across Nassau Sound and then into the South Amelia river. Fernandina Beach is not actually a beach but is located at the north end of Amelia Island. Fernandina is another one of those old world Florida towns that seem to have a renaissance going on.

They are doing a great job keeping the old world feel about the place maintaining the architectural style even in some of the new construction. Large live oaks provide a shaded canopy over many of the side streets. There is even one street where they left the oak and put the street around it on both sides. We did a great self guided tour of about 25 post Antebellum homes all built in the late 1800’s. They were all nicely maintained. Not a headache I would undertake. There are two pulp mills that flank the town along with a deep water port for smaller container ships which likely provide many jobs for the area’s population. It’s another one of those places that just has a good feel to it.

The next morning I was doing my early jog when I ran into a Looper, Chuck and his new wife Leah whom we had met on the Trent Severn Waterway. What a small world. We hauled the anchor and went over to Consolidated Fuels and scored diesel at $2.85 a gallon. They typically only server commercial vessels but in the spring and fall they will sell to the recreational crowd.

The fellow there told us that in the winter when the dredge is in the area that they will board 100,000 gallons and it takes 10 hours to do it. How would you like that fuel bill? We filled Next Chapters belly and we were off to Cumberland Island which was a whole six miles to the north. Bark, Bark! We have been to Cumberland Island on our first trip up the ICW but loved it so much we had to stop again.

The Island was owned by the Carnegies where they built one of their many mansions called Dungeness. It is where Lucy Carnegie raised her children. The mansion is now preserved ruins being destroyed by fire decades ago. The Island is now managed by the National Park Service and is truly a historic and landscape treasure. We rode many miles of the island on our bikes under the shade of giant marine live oaks.

Their branches so contorted and bent it would make any Chiropractor salivate. Along our trek we saw turkey, wild horses, armadillo, deer and even a rare sighting of a bob cat. He crossed our path and we were able to get a good look at him. Pretty rare to see them as they are very shy and typically only come out at night. When we got back to the boat we cruised 10 miles to a remote anchorage in a small creek off the ICW. It was in the middle of nowhere where the green marsh grass extended for as far as you could see. We had a pod of dolphin swimming around the boat most of the evening.

On Wednesday morning we left our secluded anchorage and headed to St Simons situated in the middle of the Golden Isles. Our cruise took us up the Cumberland River, across St Andrews Sound and thru the notorious Jekyll Creek along none other than Jekyll Island. It is notorious because it is very narrow and very shallow.

They have a 7’ tide which we of course only had about a one foot of that as we passed thru it. We safely made it on pins and needles and a lot of puckering. Just after that we ran into a rain shower which fortunately stopped just before we settled into our anchorage. I explored the village of St Simons by bike. It is a nice small town right on the St Simon’s inlet.

I spotted what looked like a nice spot for dinner called Georgia Sea Grill. Turns out it is the second rated restaurant in Georgia. It took a bit wrangling to get a reservation for two at the bar but persistence paid off. We had a fabulous meal and probably the best crab soup that has ever passed by my lips. Although again cloudy all day we had a great time at St Simons Island.