It's just a Short Walk: The good, bad and ugly of Cumberland Island

Last year we discovered Cumberland Island (CI) and were really looking forward to spending even more time there this year.   We arrived from our offshore passage on Nov 13 and anchored at the northern most anchorage on the Brickhill River.   The first day was great, we stretched our legs on the walking paths and enjoyed the scenery.   CI is the largest barrier island off the coast of Georgia (17.5 miles long; 36,000 acres). They trace settlements back to the Spanish in the 1500s but development didn't stick until one of Washington's Generals (Nathaniel Greene) built a 4 story tabby home named Dungeness here in 1783.   That house burnt down and in 1881, Thomas and Lucy Carnegie (brother and business partner of Andrew) built a mansion named Dungeness on the same site.   Subsequently, they built several other mansions for their 9 children.   At the height of occupancy, the Carnegies employed 300 people to run the houses, stables and farms on the island to support their clan.   The property was given to the National Park Service (NPS) in the 1970s. Two mansions and many of the barracks for the Carnegie employees remain today.   One of the mansions is a $500/night B&B (somehow we never get to see that one).   The other mansion is a Georgian-style building and has been restored for tours. There is a squash court and indoor swimming pool and every imaginable luxury available at the turn of the century.   They had huge generators and both AC and DC power, large refrigerators and supposedly, china service for 100. And there never has been (nor will be) a bridge to the island so everything arrived by boat.   Truly a fascinating step back in time.   When the land was deeded to the NPS, there were a few restrictions, of course. Primarily, it was to return the land to the wild and to let Lucy's horses have the run of the island. Not sure how many there were at the time but now there are over 200 horses roaming free.   We have seen them in the marsh, the woodlands and even on the beach.   The beach is a sheller's delight and we walked over 3 miles checking it all out. Perhaps the most magical part is the woodland trails.   There is a unique mix of live oak trees literally dripping with Spanish moss providing the elevated canopy and then shorter palm trees all along the trail. Almost in the center of the island, the live oaks give way to huge pine trees with pine cones the size of footballs.   And you walk for hours with only seeing a few other people.   Besides the $$ B&B you can camp or anchor on a boat; no other comercial enterprises remain   A few private homes remain but as time goes on, their deeds expire.   My camera talents never seem to truly catch the beauty of the place but I haven't given up trying.

And now for the ugly.   The first anchorage is up a narrow river and somewhat sheltered by the marsh. However, the tide runs 7-9 feet here and the current runs very swiftly (approx 3 knots) to exchange that much water. The first day, there wasn't too much wind and we swung with the tide relatively comfortably.   That was just the initiation.   As the wind picked up and a storm blew in, the wind and tide begin to compete for control of the boat.   I'm not sure which one every claimed victory but I know it wasn't us!   In gusts of wind, the boat would move (or to be accurate it would jerk) on the anchor chain.   When the wind subsided for a minute, the swift current would jerk the boat back in the direction of the ebbing or flooding current.   At some point, we began to hear the anchor chain loudly dragging across the hull of the boat-not a pretty sound.   I still don't understand how but at one point the anchor chain was completely under us and the back of the boat was facing the anchor.   Never saw it do that before. I described this phenomenon in an anchorage north of Charleston but it really became acute here as the winds picked up to a steady 20-25 with gusts easily to 35 knots for about 24 hours.   We hadn't gotten off the boat the day before because of rain and there was no way we were going for a dinghy ride in 35 knot gusts.   All in all we ended up sitting on the boat for most of 3 days while the tide and wind fought it out.   We literally rotated about 300 degrees on the anchor chain and jerked back in the other direction.   With the 35 knot winds, surface waves picked up in the anchorage making it a lumpy and noisy couple of nights.   There were 8-10 boats with us and nobody drug anchor nor budged off their boats!  Three shrimp boats came in and anchored to ride out the storm so you know it has to be bad when they aren't working. Finally, the front blew through and we had 2 calm nights and lots of time to tour and walk the island again.   Never know what you are going to get out here. When we pulled up the anchor today to move to St. Mary's, it was so dug in so far it took us twice as long as usual and we tripped the breaker on the windlass bringing it up. There was a lot of blue paint on the anchor chain so we have to wonder what the bottom of the boat looks like.   But a little bottom paint (and some lost sleep) is still a small price to pay for the beauty of this island.

We left CI today (Sunday Nov 20) and are now anchored up the St. Mary's River where the boats are beginning to gather for Thanksgiving.   Last year we celebrated with 100 other boats here and had a great time.   The Happy Hours start tonight so we'll keep you posted.   Happy Thanksgiving!