Ever since out “first visit” to Cumberland last April we have been looking forward to our second visit! We were not disappointed with fabulous weather and a terrific visit. Our overnight passage from Charleston landed us anchored on the shore of Cumberland Island.

The ancient Live Oaks covered in Spanish moss and just beautiful to look at.

The wild horses look like they had a very good summer.

Early one morning we saw a Ballistic Missile Submarine returning from a patrol. It was certainly an interesting site.

Our friends Greg and Marie Rodgers arrived in the anchorage aboard S/V Second Sally and it was great to catch up with them. BTW, I installed a Single Side Band (SSB) Radio this summer aboard Magnolia and Annette and I have each received our operation licenses. Using our radio we are able to stay in touch up and down the east coast and out into the midwest with fellow cruisers and friends such as Greg & Marie.   

After a brief visit to Fernandina Beach we continued south on the ICW and as we approached the St Johns river at Jacksonville, whom or better said what do we see but the USS Gettysburg one of the original 26 now 21 Aegis Cruisers.

She was in dry dock to obviously going through some sort of yard period.

There was a fairly significant weather front passing through this week so we were looking for a place out of the way by ourselves to hide out.  We found the perfect anchorage off the ICW at Pine Island, about 10 miles north of Saint Augustine.

As you can see it was the perfect spot and had the anchorage all to ourselves. This allowed us to put out 125 feet of anchor chain which meant Magnolia was going no where.

In the Chesapeake Bay we often squalls that pass through in a few minutes. In this storm we had winds of 25 plus knots for 12 hours with a maximum of 35.7. Gale force winds are 33 knts.  Through it all vessel and crew did just fine.

For a little information on how we spent our day waiting for weather to pass I encourage you to take a look at Annette’s Seamless Sailor Blog Post. Hope you will have a chuckle! We are off to St Augustine in the morning.