On the Road Again

After 3 days stretched to 5 days and then to 7, we were finally able to leave Amelia Island and start cruising again today. What crazy weather! Saturday morning and early afternoon were OK on Amelia Island, which allowed me to do some biking in the south part of the island (very green and pleasant), but thunderstorms and high winds came through later in the afternoon and through the evening. And it was colder for us on Sunday than it was in St. Paul.

But today--wow, it was fantastic. Blue skies, light winds, and calm waters took us out of Florida and up to our destination for the day, Jekyll Island in Georgia. We left about 10 a.m. on a rising tide so that we would have high enough water to get out of the Amelia Island Yacht Basin, and higher water as we wound our way up the ICW. The landscape is marsh, grass, and more marsh.

Georgia marsh

We diverged a bit from the usual Great Loop route today. The most common route for Loopers is to stay on the main ICW channel north of Cumberland Island (GA) and cross St. Andrews Sound. Because of shallow water this requires making a brief foray into the Atlantic, and it can oftentimes be a little rough. We decided not to deal with that possibility, so took an alternate inland route via Floyd's Creek and the Satilla River. It added a few miles to our day, but it went very, very well and we had no rough water to contend with--which made me very happy. We were the only boat on this route except for a rather large barge, and the captain of that vessel was nice enough to let us pass him in a relatively wide portion of the waterway.

Our boating buddy in Floyd's Creek

By 3 pm we were at our berth in the Jekyll Harbor Marina on Jekyll Island. Out came our bikes and we were able to do some sightseeing. Jekyll Island is one of the "Golden Isles" of Georgia. It was a winter retreat for a select group of 100 American "captains of industry" of the late 1800's and early-mid 1900's. Not simply a single building, the Jekyll Island Club was a collection of buildings including (but not limited to) an amazing hotel and a number of mansion-sized "cottages". By 1942 the Club era was over. The island is now owned by the State of Georgia. The bike trail system is fantastic and we had a great time going through the historic district, and then to the beach, and then treating ourselves at Dairy Queen!