To begin our third week we sailed outside to the St. Johns River (near Jacksonville) where we came back in past the Mayport Navy Base with the JFK aircraft carrier group. We went a few miles north on the ICW and anchored off the beautiful Kingsley Plantation National Historic Site on King George Island. On Wednesday morning we took the dinghy over and toured the grounds of what is the oldest remaining plantation house in Florida. Following our trip ashore, we motored on up to Cumberland Island to anchor for the night. This put us in Georgia and the beginning of an area of large Sea Islands that were pre-civil war plantations growing cotton and indigo. At Cumberland Island, which is about 20 miles long, the Carnegie family built a series of mansions as summer homes. Cumberland Island is now a National Seashore and we spent all day hiking and looking at the history and wildlife which includes birds and wild horses. Another cold front was due, so the next morning we backtracked southwest about ten miles to a dock in St. Marys, Georgia and enjoyed a rainy day followed by a windy one. By Sunday morning we were back on the ICW headed for a planned stop at Jekyll Island for food and laundry. The area west of the large Sea Islands is a vast marsh with tides in this area being six to eight feet. At low tide you motor along a river with grassy banks hoping you don't run aground, while at high tide you can see for miles across a grassy plain with water everywhere -- thank goodness for navigational day marks! Pumping this much water in and out every six hours means fast tidal currents, so we plan our day based on time and tide. We motored north for three more days with great anchorages well away from civilization. On the third night we had more rain storms but the associated cold front was quite weak. By Friday April 8 we were looking forward to a layover week in the Savannah area. We had arranged to meet some old friends from Wisconsin who now live here. We knew Dan and Linda from sailing on Green Bay 29 years ago, and we've enjoyed a Christmas-letter relationship ever since. We docked overnight at their Delegal Creek Marina on Skidaway Island 20 miles southeast of the city before coming here to the "Isle of Hope" where we are spending the week. It has been really great to renew our friendship and meet their son's family as well -- not to mention the private tour which they provided. Being invited by their friends Becky and Wendell to sit in real living room furniture and watch the final round of The Masters on a large screen TV was a real treat, too! After getting the initial lay of the city with them, we ventured downtown on the city bus this week, took an official "tour", and walked from one end of downtown to the other, both ways. Savannah is a very historic city with gorgeous "squares" of green space among narrow streets with lovely old homes and a very large "historic district". We even took a tour of the Mercer Williams home made famous by the book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". Savannah really has been an enjoyable stop made even nicer by the hospitality of friends. We are currently at mile 590 of the ICW. We will be departing Savannah this weekend and heading up the coast of South and North Carolina and on to "Mile 0" at Norfolk, Virginia.
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