Cumberland Island. A Must Do!!!

You’ve seen the Conch Sunset salute at Jekyll.  On our way in we cruised past a beautiful Southern garden wedding in process on the Jekyll Island Club Hotel lawn. If the photographer was paying attention, we are now a part of the happy couples beautiful wedding photos, as the graceful white trawler gliding by just as the groom lifted the veil and kissed his bride.

Next morning we headed out just behind 2 beautiful and appropriately named yachts. “First Light and Meadering Joy”. See you down the river.

image Sunday afternoon we came upon this beautiful

shrimp trawler, arms raised to the sky, her name is “Forgiven” A better sermon I’ve yet to hear…

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When heading south down the ICW, you have to past the largest submarine base on the east coast, before getting to Cumberland Island.  I decided I’d like a picture of the submarine that was in residence.  Unfortunatly, it had a zodiac Gun ship standing guard with a machine gun mounted on its bow. Tom must have taken us a little to close. The gun ship turned and started coming straight for us, with me on the bow of our boat, camera in hand! I was scared he was going to come confiscate either the camera or worse. We quickly altered course and headed away. We gave a big sigh of relief as the gun ship turned and went back to his resting position, like a big bad yard dog protecting a juicy bone.

We finally dropped anchor at Cumberland Island and went ashore for a quick site overview, and the first thing we noticed was that the trees here are sporting extremely heavy thick grey beards. We’ve seen Spanish moss before, but this is impressive to say the least !

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Cumberland Island has over 16 miles of incredibly pristine ocean and river frontage that has remained largely undeveloped thanks to the forward thinking generous donation of the Carnegie family. It is now a National park. There is so much history and natural beauty here. Tom and I hiked over 9 miles today through the maritime forest thick trail and back along the “main road” . The following photos are a mere glimpse form our vanitage point, of the spendid beauty of this very special place. I highly recommend you Google the island, as well as the Greyfield hotel and check out their stories and photo gallery.

A couple of the wild horses that roam the island.

A couple of the wild horses that roam the island.

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9 mile hike through awe inspiring maritime forest. This is the "Super highway" we strolled on our way back in. Bare feet are best!

9 mile hike through awe inspiring maritime forest. This is the “Super highway” we strolled on our way back in. Bare feet are best!

Wild turkeys abound

Wild turkeys abound

Monarch butterflies migrating through

Monarch butterflies migrating througH

Luckily this is the biggest snake we saw!

Luckily this is the biggest snake we saw!

At Sunset the peace and quiet descend and the Dolphins are so close you can, not only heard them blow, but you can here them inhale. Magical feeling our mutual need to breathe...

At Sunset the peace and quiet descend and the Dolphins are so close we could not only hear them blow, but could here them inhale. It’s absolutely Magical feeling our mutual need to breathe…

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8 thoughts on “Cumberland Island. A Must Do!!!

    1. John and Beth Pohle's avatarJohn and Beth Pohle

      Wow, so to show what a small world it is, the Meandering Joy in your blog is Steve and Joy Poole on there Fleming 55. They are the ones that first told us about the St. John’s river which they cruised two winters ago. Small world. They are on the way to the Florida West coast for the winter. If you ever run into them, they are the nicest people. Joy also has a blog.

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  1. Laine's avatarLaine

    Ah! I figured out how to respond! I love the pictures and the narratives. Can’t believe you went on a 9 mile hike. Bet it was nice to be on solid ground for a bit. I love yall!

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    1. robinini2014's avatarrobinini2014 Post author

      It was such an incredible place. Tonight we’re anchored out in a beautiful side creek behind pine creek but it is very think with Mosquitos and no see ems. No lounging on the decks for sure! Makes us now realize how special it was that we didn’t even see or feel any on Cumberland.

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    2. robinini2014's avatarrobinini2014 Post author

      Hi Laine
      Hugs to all. We’re loving the adventure but the thought missing seeing everyone is tough. Not sure of our holiday destination or plans at this point. We could get a tether & harness and enjoy having Annie on board, with parental supervision of course. : )

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