Hello Florida!

Good morning everyone!  As I type this, Paul and I just crossed over into Florida - we are en route to St. Augustine where we will spend the next two nights and celebrate Thanksgiving.  We sure do have a lot to be thankful for, as always.

Let me back up - at my last blog post on Monday morning, we were leaving South Carolina and heading "outside" to Georgia.  We had a great day as we cruised along the Georgia coast - it started off foggy and cloudy, but ended up being a beautiful afternoon.  Our friends, John and Melissa, were at the Jekyll Harbor Marina so we decided to meet up with them and hang out there on Monday evening.  We enjoyed this great area and marina last year and it was so nice to return, and of course to hang out with Melissa and John!
 

Sunrise at Battery Creek early Monday morning as we head out . . .



As we cruised along, there were a TON of jellyfish - I tried to capture the huge volumne of them in this photo, but it is a little hard to tell.

Approaching the marina on Jekyll Creek.  This area is notorious for being very shallow - but fortunately we were here at high tide.  You can see the Jekyll Island Hotel in the background - a lovely spot.  Jekyll Island has a lot of fascinating history and was the playground for many zillionaires in its day including JP Morgan, the Vanderbilts, etc.



Dinner at SeaJay's Cafe - at the Marina - with John and Melissa - I enjoyed some Georgia shrimp, cuz ya know, I don't miss a meal . . . 

Yesterday morning, we had a leisurely departure from Jekyll Island and started heading south.  Our plan was to only go 20 miles and anchor at Cumberland Island, so an easy day for my sweet Captain. 
 

Leaving the marina - you can see the shrimp boat behind us - lots of them in this area!!   Very cool.




We passed our friends John & Melissa en route on their sailboat, Piscator.  They are heading to St. Mary's for Thanksgiving which is in Georgia, right on the Florida border.  St. Mary's is known for its very large (300 boats) Thanksgiving celebration. 



Kings Bay - a submarine base - located very close to where we anchored in Cumberland.   You can see the sub in this photo and there appeared to be a UK flag on it.  This area is guarded very heavily with security and you are not allowed to get close - pretty wild.

We anchored next to Cumberland Island in the early afternoon and it was a glorious day - warm temps and lots of sunshine - how lucky!  A big claim to fame for Cumberland Island is that this is the location where JFK, Jr. was married in 1996.  It is an incredibly beautiful spot and most of it is managed by the National Park Service.  There are some private residences here, but the only way to get here is by boat - no bridges or roads out here and there never will be as it is committed to staying as pristine as it currently is. It has a pretty fascinating history and it's breathtakingly beautiful.  For more info, you can go to www.nps.gov/cuis.  We took our dinghy in and did a little exploring.  The island is 20 miles long and we saw a small corner of it, but it was pretty cool - we definitely want to return to this spot. 



Walking along the trail through the Maritime Forest - tons of old oak trees laced with Spanish moss and lots of Palmetto plants.  Really, really cool.



In about a half mile you cross the island to this glorious beach with incredible sand dunes. 



Yours truly along the boardwalk path to the beach.

 

Probably one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been on.  The sand was like a fine powder and - for those who know me - I definitely added a few shells to my collection!  :-)



The Carnegie family built an incredible mansion in the late 1800's- Dungeness - which sits at the southern tip of the Island - sadly, it burned down, but the ruins remain.  Pretty cool - even though it is just a shell, you can hear the orchestra playing and the fine crystal clinking as you know they hosted some pretty glorious parties here.



One thing Cumberland Island is known for is the wild horses - this one was grazing on the lawn of the Dungeness grounds and we saw several others - they pretty much just graze, eat, and hang out and are very docile. 

This sign - near the mansion ruins - shows you a photo of what it looked like in its glory days.

We also saw a bunch of wild turkeys near the mansion - fortunately for them, they're very safe from being the main course for someone's Thanksgiving dinner!

To the North side of the mansion is this very elaborate Pergola - I can only imagine how beautiful this once was.

As we headed back to the dock, we saw more horses enjoying an afternoon snack.

We headed back to the boat just before dark - some rainstorms came through last night and this morning, but it appears to be clearing up and looks like the next few days will be nice.

We'll post again soon - in the meantime, a very Happy Thanksgiving to all and we are so thankful for your support, love, and friendship!  Love, Jen & Paul

Today's Quote:

True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island... to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing. - Baltasar Gracian