Cumberland Island

Sunday December 9, 2012
30 95 940 N
81 28 324 W

Another beautiful still foggy morning. The fog delayed our departure till about 10 AM, but "no biggie" because we only had plans for a 35 NM trip to Cumberland Island. After a few miles we needed to cross the St Andrew Sound, at which point I had the bright idea "Let's head out to sea and re-enter at St Mary's sound about 25 miles down the coast." We had heard reports of Wright whale sightings, and it would be a nice change from the ICW. So off we went. The Atlantic in this area is quite "shoaly" and in order to minimize the time we would be "outside" we would need to navigate through and around a few shoals - but that's what a chart plotter is for - right?

"Deidre, can you see something over there?"

After a few miles we ran into a fog bank, so I cranked up the radar and put my faith in the chart plotter. We were running at least 100-200 yards just outside the shipping channel in 25'-30' water. A ship appeared out of the fog but we slipped passed OK. But all of a sudden the depth alarm went off and indicated we had only about 3' under us. I checked the chart plotter and confirmed we were we intended to be in 25'-30" and all looked OK. We slowed down and safely edged north back into the deeper water. This experience really spooked me. I had to rely on the chart plotter the rest of the way and felt I could not. So we headed back inside.

"Oops, too late"

Back on the ICW and later in the day we passed the entrance to the Trident Sub base at Kings Bay. In order to keep in decent water we needed to get pretty close - a bit too close according to the navy security boat that came roaring over, blue lights flashing! Deidre had just gone outside to take a photo of a sub - and the guy on the bow of the security boat manning the 50 cal machine gun just shook his head - and that was enough for her.

There are plenty of bridges over the ICW, though not that many in Georgia. I am impressed how rapidly the low lifting bridges are being replaced with with high clearance bridges. The old bridges are left as "fishing piers" and they seem to accumulate an audience of pelicans.

 We arrived at the Cumberland Island anchorage about 3:30PM and anchored. We plan to stay a couple of nights. It has been a while since we launched the dinghy and did some exploring. This looks like a nice place.