Cruising Estrella del Sur: Entering Georgia to St. Augustine Florida

Friday November 18 - November 25, 2016

Friday November 18th we decided do exit the ICW and do a quick Ocean passage as we had great conditions - it was a nice warm day with dead calm seas. We entered into St. Catherine’s Inlet and found our anchorage at Walburg Creek. We were greeted by many dolphins and a beautiful sunset…welcome to Georgia! In the morning we exited the creek back into the ICW with some very shallow areas ahead. After another full day of travel we anchored down in St. Simon’s Sound and enjoyed another beautiful sunset.

Heading out the inlet onto the ocean

Another beautiful sunset at Walburg Creek

One of several dolphins greeting us at the anchorage

St. Simon Sunset

Sunday November 20th we headed over to nearby Brunswick Marina and settled in for a night’s stay. The staff at this marina were fantastic and it was the first marina we have ever seen that provided free beer on tap 24 hours a day and free wine three days a week. They had a huge lounge and with the beer provided it was a great venue to meet new people. The town itself was not much to speak of, especially on a Sunday when everything was closed, but it was still fun riding the bikes around and checking out some of the historical buildings.

The Old Courthouse in Brunswick

Monday November 21st we departed and headed through some of the most shallow areas in the ICW. By 12:20 p.m. we had our anchor down beside the ferry dock at Cumberland Island. This ended up being one of the main highlights of our trip to date. The island was donated and annual maintenance paid to the state by the Carnegie family; in turn there must never be any bridges or roads constructed to the island and no development - it must remain as a National park. The only way to the island is by boat or ferry, although people can camp on the island or take a tour of the old plantation mansions that remain in their original state. We took the dinghy in for another adventurous “Laurie” walk. From wild horses to armadillos to wild chickens it was very beautiful. As the four of us were walking down a trail we saw a large empty cage and were startled when something in a nearby tree jumped down, landed very loudly and took off. Laurie thought it was a large cat. Later we asked the park ranger what would they be trying to catch in the very large cage and she said “wild bore”. After we told her what we thought had jumped out of the tree she said “oh, you saw the bobcat”. We concluded it must have been waiting in the tree for dinner when we startled it (and it startled us)! Glad we weren’t dinner.

Anchorage at Cumberland Island

Wild horses on Cumberland Island

Armadillo - first I had seen

Plantation Mansion

Ferry dock, also dinghy dock for us

Tuesday November 22nd we had the anchor up at 7:50 a.m. and as we came near the end of Cumberland Sound before St. Mary’s Inlet we passed the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, home to six Trident-class subs. Unfortunately we didn’t see any. Once we were passed the inlet we had made it to Florida, approximately mile 717! That night we anchored at Pine Island, just past Jacksonville. When we awoke in the morning we could feel the warm air. We were definitely in Florida…I was so excited to finally be warm again and so it would remain on a regular basis.

Photo of Estrella del Sur at first anchorage in Florida (Pine Island)
Courtesy of our friend Paul

St. Augustine

From Wednesday Nov. 23 to Friday Nov. 25 we occupied a mooring ball in St. Augustine for $20. a night, including use of the marina’s facilities and dinghy dock. They are easy balls for newbies like us as they have their own pennants, so we were happy about that. The expensive mooring hook we bought at the Annapolis boat show had broken before we were ever able to us it, so it was fortunate that we didn’t need it here. We planned to spend three nights at this amazing city and later wished we had booked a week. This place definitely hit a new high on the scales for the top places to return and see.

St. Augustine traffic circle by the Marina

Great little restaurant for lunch

One of the numerous spots for live music

A tour boat light up for Christmas

A view of St. Augustine from our mooring ball

Our first day we just toured around and checked out the city for the afternoon, had some lunch and listened to a band. Thursday afternoon was a big potluck Thanksgiving dinner for cruisers held by the sailing association in the area (I brought some squash) and the association provided tons of turkey and ham. Later that night the four of us went out to find some more live music. The downtown streets were lined with shops and bars with live bands, so we were both in heaven…Brad for the music and me for the shopping. Friday was our shopping day followed by dinner out, although it had to be an early night as we were preparing for an early departure to get us into Daytona Beach the following day. But what a shopping day it was! It was Black Friday and the narrow streets of old town were crammed with people.. However, we were leaving the next day so fight the crowds was what we had to do. We found some good deals but browsed more than bought as I reflected on the amount of storage space left available on the boat…pretty much nothing. We also visited Flagler College, named after the man who built the railroad through Florida to Key West and which permitted the State’s development. The main building was originally a hotel constructed by Flagler (Ponce del Leon) for the ultra wealthy at the turn of the last century and the architecture and construction details are breath-taking. The Christmas lights in the downtown square are also sensational. If you haven’t visited St. Augustine, America’s oldest city and one which has been has been beautifully preserved, you really should.