On to Jekyll Island, Georgia -- June 6

We took our leave of Tom and Cathy's house and were underway at ten, with 64 miles to go to get to the Jekyll Island Marina. We had booked a room at the Jekyll Island Club earlier, and were looking forward to returning after our first visit on our Intracoastal cruise two years ago. We pulled into the marina fuel dock around 2:45 and took on 119 gallons of fuel. (The Captain was very pleased with himself for his fuel management in avoiding the expensive diesel in northern Florida -- about $5/gal -- to load up with less expensive stuff at Jekyll Island at just $4.10/gal.) Once we were squared away at our dock we had the hotel shuttle come pick us up and checked in. The Jekyll Island Club is a lovely old historic hotel -- highly recommended for folks that like such places. We were in a wing of the hotel built in 1901 with ten-foot ceilings and a glassed-in porch (with windows that opened) where we sat and watched the sunset after dinner. Unfortunately it wasn't much of a sunset.

Here is the front entrance as seen from our porch.

 

Most of our ride today was on rivers and creeks running through enormous fields of sea grass. Absolutely gorgeous, but hard to capture with a cellphone camera. The tide in this area runs about eight feet so there were strong currents, but as we moved from one watershed to the next they sometimes ran against us and other times helped us. When running at a steady 3200 rpm our speed varied between 14 and 19 mph. 

We also got to see some interesting man-made sights today, including this oil products tanker, the Seakay Sky, leaving Jacksonville running light down the St. Johns River. The internet says she is American-flagged, which means she must run petroleum products between various US ports, as this can only be done by American-flagged ships per the Jones Act. Such ships can't compete for international trade because they are expensive to operate due to US labor requirements. 

 

Here are some navy ships being worked on at the BAE Systems shipyard on Fanning Island near the mouth of the St. Johns River. Wikipedia says that this British defense contractor is one of six largest suppliers to the US Department of Defense.

The town of Fernandina Beach at the northern end of Amelia Island at the border with Georgia has a very interesting waterfront, with an active shrimp fleet, a nice municipal marina,

a big WestRock papermill, 

and an active marine terminal, where the Thamesborg (Dutch-flagged) was working.

We also saw this poor cabin cruiser that somehow managed to get stranded way back in the sea grass just outside Fernandina Beach. 

Fort Clinch was built in 1847 to guard the mouth of the St Marys River at Cumberland Sound, but was abandoned fifty years later. It was restored and turned into a state park in the 1930s.

 

The US Navy's Kings Bay Base houses nuclear submarines on the Georgia Side of the St Marys River. The channel leading to the base is dredged to fifty feet, which is deeper than typical commercial channels. Perhaps this is to allow the subs to come and go while submerged and unseen.  

We had a nice visit at the Jekyll Island Club -- and got to catch up on the blog.