Cumberland Island Video

We have another video for you this week – from Cumberland Island!  I think they are getting better, and hopefully they will continue to improve as we get more practice.  Just like sailing…  And while we ARE having a blast working our way down the east coast of the U.S., I am more than looking forward to getting to the Bahamas!

Read All About It

Prefer to read about it – or don’t have the bandwidth for a video?  I’ll break it down for ya below the video.

Cumberland Island, GA

After a crazy-fun weekend at Jekyll Island, we headed out early to motor on down to Cumberland Island.  Like I’ve mentioned before, we don’t really like to motor – but we’ll take what we can get.  And this day we started out with the engine, then were able to put up the genoa, and eventually we were even able to turn off the engine altogether and sail for a bit down the ICW.

Easiest Bread Ever

We ran out of bread and had relatively calm waters, so I whipped out a bread recipe I’ve been wanting to try.  While I wasn’t down below that long, I’m still glad that my seasickness has passed – there’s no way I could’ve stayed down below baking bread while underway otherwise.

So this bread was amazing.  And believe it or not, it doesn’t even need to rise.  You just stir the 3 ingredients together, plop it into a pan and put it in the oven!

3 Ingredient Beer Bread

3 cups           Self Rising Flour

3 Tbl             Sugar (I only used 2 T of coconut sugar)

12oz/can     Beer – room temp

Stir the flour and sugar together, pour in the beer, stir a bit again.  Pour/scrape/ooze into pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Because I have a minuscule boat oven, I have to keep an eye on it and rotate frequently.  I also had to drop the rack to the lowest position possible when I noticed the top of the bread browning too quickly.  Next time I will also pop a couple of potatoes in there so they can bake while the bread bakes.  No need to waste that propane cooking one item at a time!

This is the first time I’ve ever made this bread, but I guarantee it won’t be the last!

Not Allowed Here!

Our trip south went pretty quickly, and we were at Cumberland Island by lunch time.  After loading up some snacks, etc we dinghied on over to the island – right to the public dock, where we could clearly see at least one other dinghy.  We also noticed a dinghy not tied to the dock, but beached nearby.

As soon as we got tied up, the park employee came and politely informed us that the docks are damaged and we couldn’t tie up.  Even though there were not only dinghies, but large ferries tied to the dock…  She recommended we drive just over to the area where the beached dinghy was and anchor there.  Maybe 50′ away.

She did allow Molly and I to walk up the dock while Mark took the dinghy to the shore.  We went into the little office and chatted about the island and got a map.  Meanwhile, Mr. Park Ranger arrived.

Just as I was walking out to meet Mark, Mr. Park Ranger informed us that we were not, in fact, allowed to beach the dinghy there.  Even though there was another dinghy AND the park employee specifically told us to anchor there.  He said we would erode the shore, but that we could take our sailboat around to the south side of the island and anchor there. From there it would be an easy dinghy over to the beach.

We had just motored for 5 hours and were securely anchored in a protected spot.  The last thing we wanted to do was pull up anchor and move the boat around the island.  It didn’t help that Mr. Park Ranger had an attitude (I suppose I might, too, if I dealt with tourists all day).  And every alternative idea I threw out he quickly shot down.  So we headed back to Luna Sea, pouting a little, and enjoyed the rest of our afternoon from the boat.  We did dinghy down the shore a little, but we’ve been having some dinghy engine problems (the freaking thing won’t stay on plane) and were frustrated.

Keep Moving South

We called it.  Our original plan had been to explore the island that afternoon, and then leave in the morning.  After deciding to just leave for Jacksonville or St. Augustine in the morning without actually touring Cumberland Island, we spent a few hours shopping online for a stronger dinghy engine and got a good night’s sleep.

Mother Nature insisted that we not give up.  She sent a dense layer of fog and encouraged us to hang out for one more day.  If we were staying – we were getting on that freaking island.

We hopped on the paddle boards and just paddled over to the public dock as soon as the fog lifted.  We didn’t ask – just hauled our boards up to land and went about our way.  There was a new Ms. Park Ranger in town who very nicely welcomed us to the island and applauded our efforts (i.e. stubbornness) to see the sights.

We started out with a walk over to the beach – and picked up an inordinate amount of trash.  It clearly washed up with Hurricane Matthew – as this was the only place on the entire island that we saw any trash.

Molly had a blast on the beach – so much so that she wore her little 4″ legs out before we even got to the ruins.  She insisted on chasing every crab and bird within a 2 mile radius.  But it was great to see her out running and enjoying herself.  Both Molly and Libby are getting pretty old, so I love it when we can give them a good day of fun.  (Libby’s idea of a good day of fun was to have the boat to herself for a few hours.  Win/Win!)

After the beach, we walked across the south end of the island to check out the cemetery and the ruins of the Carnegie residence.  Check out this link for more of the official information on the island.

Mother Nature Knows Best

We are both glad that we hung around and checked out the island.  While I am not a fan of chemical bug sprays, I do have to recommend that you take some Off!, or equally toxic mosquito spray with you.  Except on the beach, we couldn’t actually stand still without being swarmed.  I had little bloody mosquito carcasses all over my legs and arms by the day’s end.

The next morning we really did pick up anchor and head south in the ditch (Intracoastal Waterway) to Jacksonville.  We are currently waiting on a part to arrive Tuesday.  Luna Sea has been anchored out here since Thursday, and we are getting antsy.  At least we’ve had the Blue Angels airshow flying overhead to keep us entertained all weekend!  Some other small projects and cleaning up are also happening while we wait.  Don’t worry – there won’t be a video of our time sitting here twiddling our thumbs.

About Author

Jennifer

Artist, food nerd, SUP/yoga enthusiast and travel obsessed blogger – chronicling the process of going from land to sea. Selling all of her worldly possessions so that she can set sail into the sunset with her husband and two dachshunds – searching for that next sunrise paddle. Follow along. It’ll be fun 🙂

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