And what a beautiful anchorage. We anchored north of the Sea Camp dock in about 7 feet of water (MLW). So yes it was 14' deep at high tide! And the tidal currents turned us 180 degrees with each change in tide (approximately every 6 hours). Pretty strong tidal currents that would have been more interesting with strong opposing winds, but fortunately the winds were quite light for the two days we spent here. Anchor did well catching first try, resetting with each change of current direction and full of a ball of mud when it came up a couple days later. Our arrival welcoming committee.
Anchored safely near Sea Camp dock.
We launched the dinghy and went to the Sea Camp dock to explore the island. We saw 3 or 4 separate groups of horses, armadillos, turkeys, but thankfully no alligators or snakes. We hiked for a couple hours. Part of the hike we toured the ruins of the Carnegie family (yes the steel folks) mansion Dungeness that was built in the late 1800's but burned in 1959. So it is just ruins but there are some fountains, statues, garden remnants and some great photos of the grandeur of the 37,000 (yes thirty seven thousand) square foot mansion.
Hiking to Dungeness.
There are other mansions on the island still standing as the family provided a home for each married child. We toured Plum Orchard, one of the mansions. On the 7 mile family vehicle ride to visit Plum Orchard.
It actually has some of the furnishings from Dungeness (as it was abandoned before the fire) and is also an incredible mansion, albeit only 24,000 square feet.
Tiffany lamp
The heated indoor pool. 9 feet deep. Actually larger than it looks in the picture.
The basement included the first commercial sized icemaker. Yes a large compressor, evaporator and an ice bin was in the basement. The system also powered a large refrigerator in the basement as well.
The wiring in the house was originally DC and was to be fed electricity from Dungeness about 8 or 9 miles away. Well, guess what, the engineers didn't plan on the loss of power to resistance over such a long distance and only the porch lights could be lit with the power received. So a generator plant was built here too. Circuit board.
Speaking of generators, how about this old Kohler!
As with all similar period mansion. there were separate servants entrances, staircases, rooms, etc. The National Park Service should be commended for allowing such a thorough tour. With today's litigious society it was nice to be able to tour a facility without handrails, lots of low head bump hazards, slippery floors, etc. Adequate signage warning of the hazards existed and we hope these tours can continue. It was really well done. And we should add, this is done by a volunteer who signs up for two months at a time and actually lives in the mansion. Hats off to the National Park Service for this fine park in general.
Our hiking also took us out to the beach and through the camping area. Oh and we did find that elusive alligator....he was just motionless floating in all the algae.
We also had a good cell signal here at Cumberland and really enjoyed connecting with friends and family we had not talked to in quite a while. Thanks for calling or taking our calls and for following us on the blog!
At evening cocktail hour on the fly bridge our last night here we noticed a some sort of large wasp (or ???) going under the canvas instrument panel cover repeatedly. So Julie left the bridge and I pulled back the cover to find a cigar type nest about the size of my pinky finger already started....two days and a nest full of dead spiders to eat later I presume. The nest broke into powder and the spiders were inside it. The wasp came back and explored the broken up nest and when it departed again I completely cleaned it up and removed the canvas. The small spiders were still "juicy". No stings thankfully. A couple more days and I'm not sure what we would have had to deal with.
We arrived at Jekyll Island late morning on Thursday and the marina even had a special welcome on the board to all arriving boats for the day including Sum Escape. A nice touch. We immediately got our folding bikes out and explored the historic cottage district here. It was a short bicycle ride and included lunch at the Crane Cottage restaurant.
Jekyll Island was another rich and famous playground and the Crane Cottage was the cottage of the Cranes of plumbing fame. It was the largest cottage and probably the most elaborate according to what we could find out.
We ate lunch in the courtyard in the rear of the Crane Cottage.
Cottages of the Goodyear, Morgan, Gould, Vanderbilt and all the other big names of the era were here and all were part of the Jekyll Island Club. The island was very exclusive and locals were only here as servants, etc. It is said the members of the Club controlled 1/6 of the world's wealth at the time. I guess you can say exclusive for sure! The cottages (if that is what you can call a 10,000+ square foot home) are all well preserved and just gorgeous.
the island is just beautiful with beaches all along the eastern shore and paved bike trails all the way around and throughout the island. Here we are along one of the trails that goes between a couple of the golf courses on the island.
And speaking of golf, how about this for a water tower!
On Friday we took the cottage tour ride and toured two of the cottages. The first was actually the "developers" home where potential members could be wined and dined to solicit new members. The second cottage we toured was owned by a gentleman who made his money in importation of marble but his name escapes me. Anyway he retired in his 30's to this life of leisure on the island due to the fortune made in his business. The tour took us around the properties and pointed out the servant dormitories, power plants, etc. All in all a very interesting tour. No indoor pictures were allowed.
For dinner we biked over to Latitude31/ The Rah Bar Restaurant and had some very good seafood! It was packed due to it being Friday night of Memorial Day weekend. The island was very quiet on Thursday but by Friday night the holiday crowds were starting to arrive. The sunset from our fly bridge at the dock on Jekyll Island.
We moved on to Brunswick Landing Marina on Saturday. After 5 miles or so we got a port engine "Oil pressure short circuit, reduce power now" message. Then a "Low oil pressure, derate, reduce power now" message so we went to idle. This is the same engine that was giving this message before in Spanish Wells, Bahamas and we had the mechanic clean and reconnect the sensor. When we got a more severe message and the engine went onto "derate" mode which I guess is a sort of limp mode as the engine sort of shuddered when the code came up. So we shut it down and restarted it a while later just to dock. Of course the oil pressure was fine then. So we think it is just the sending unit/sensor and will have someone look at it on Tuesday after the Holiday weekend. Fortunately we planned to be here at least a week so all should be good. What a beautiful bridge!
Went to the farmers market after arriving and bought some great fresh fruit, veggies and crab cakes. Went back to get more blueberries and crab cakes! Yes, locally famous crab cakes made by "Earlene". They were still warm because she had to go home to make more! They are now in the freezer for another day. It is blueberry and peach season here in GA so they are so good!! The market is open every Sat, Tues and Thurs so we will be hitting it a few more times!
Rode our bikes to the Winn Dixie about 1-3/4 miles away and got a few items we needed. It was a bit windy with the winds from the NE, probably from the tropical storm hitting the SC and NC coasts, but a nice ride.
On Sunday we took a two hour walk and toured the historic sites in the city. The memorial to the workers who built the Liberty ships for WWII was quite interesting. They built 99 of these 400+ foot troop transport and supply vessels to support the war effort. Over 16,000 employees worked 24/7 to make these ships. They even say that crews donated their time to the war effort on Christmas day one year as they were working to beat their monthly quota of 6 ships delivered. They did, they actually delivered 7 ships! Over 700 of these ships were lost in the war so their efforts only replaced some of the losses. But they say this was one of the most efficient yards to build them. Hat's off, a fitting Memorial Day weekend tour here.
We also toured the parks, the historic downtown, etc. Here are some photos of our walk.
The wind was from the NW and there is a paper plant (they make the material for Pampers baby diapers) is only a couple miles NW. So childhood memories of the Muskegon paper mill came back through Julie and my sensory capabilities...our noses! The odor has not changed in 50 years!
On Memorial Day we took a walk and attended the Glynn County veteran and heroes ceremony.
It was pretty well attended and they had a community meal after (which we did not attend) at the Elks lodge. Looks like quite a few people did attend it though.
In the evening we went to the marina Memorial Day dinner / potluck. They provided pulled pork. baked beans, mac and cheese, potato salad and beer /wine and a live band. Everyone brought a side to share. A pretty good attendance and we had fun talking to others about their Loop experience, the Bahamas, etc. Very nice party but the bugs came out so we retired to the boat. Fireworks were shot up after dark as well!
The wifi is pretty good here, even allows us to stream Apple TV and Amazon Prime videos. So this is what we have done as we await seeing our good friends John and Becky, our former neighbors in Hudsonville for 10+ years. They have a home on St Simons Island and we will see them this upcoming weekend.
May statistics:
Miles travelled: 513 /Trip to Date: 3926
Travel days: 10 / 83
Engine hours: 58 / 449
Locks: 0/35
Bridges opened: 1 /15
Days on hook or free wall: 4 /34
Gallons of diesel: 371 / 2965
Just shy of 4000 miles....never thought we would travel that far by boat! Priceless!
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