Monday, 1 December 32.8 SM
“O, frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! He chortled in his joy.” Lewis Carroll
This day at approximately 1500 hours, Steadfast slipped down Cumberland Sound, turned hard a-starboard and crossed the state line into Florida. Almost immediately, her speed improved and sun warmed the cockpit. What a great way to start her Flori-days.
TowBoat tries to help a big Beneteau sloop hard aground off Jekyll Point.
The current being what it was, it seemed prudent this morning to postpone departure from Jekyll to catch the tide as it came in St. Andrew’s Sound and ride it most of the way to Fernandina Beach, about a six hour run. Joe-the-Tow-Boat Guy, getting set to cast off his lines, confirmed the wisdom of waiting for a rising tide. He tried to explain how he happened to be headed out this morning.
“A doan know wha’ that boy wuz thinkin’. He jes’ curried the turn to 29-A and kept goin’, raht up on the shoal.” Shaking the mop of gray curls escaping under his faded ballcap, Joe added, “Ah doan think he’s goin’ nowhar’ fer awhahl.”
Green Can “79” is moved into position in King’s Bay.
The greens that mark Jekyll Point thusly were given a wide berth and, while there were moments when the depths dipped to single digits, this leg and the remainder of the day’s transit were without incident. For Steadfast, that is. Other vessels were heard alerting those nearby, “Don’t follow us. We’re aground!” Shoals abound down here.
There was some difficulty coming into King’s Bay, spotting Green “79,” the can marking the turn to port for Cumberland Sound. The difficulty was understandable. Ol’ “79” was underway at the time as the crew of a Coast Guard patrol boat prepared to put her back in service.
A number of boats lay at anchor off Cumberland Island. With pristine beaches and a resident herd of wild ponies, this national park is high on the list of “must see” stops along the ICW. The shadows lengthening, wind picking up, it was decided that Cumberland would be a “must see” but on the trip home in the spring.
Circa 1860, she’s not the oldest house on Amelia but one of few left anywhere built of hand-hewn lumber fastened with pegs.
Fernandina Beach is well worth a visit in its own right. Six Flags, eat your heart out. Fernandina claims to be the only site in the US that has been under eight (8) flags! Count ’em – France, England, Spain, Confederacy, well, you get the idea. A 50-block area of this city is on the National Register of Historic Places, resplendent in shades of pastel pink and yellow and lime green with a splash of white to brighten here and there.
A cargo ship loads at the Smurfit Paper wharf.
A touch of home looms on the waterfront: three-story tall conveyors spilling woodchips into house-sized piles, it’s a Smurfit Paper plant just like West Point!
Otherwise, it’s all Florida, including temperatures in the 70s, and we “chortled in joy!”
Steadfast out.
At Sea with Steadfast 
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