[Rhodes22-list] Day 5 the day we were pulled over by the Navy!

[Wally Buck]

Day 5 Tuesday

A great night sleep but the morning forecast called for continued heavy NE 
winds out on the ocean. It looks like we were going to be on ICW for a 
while. Not a problem I always wanted to see the area around Cumberland 
Island. I cooked eggs and ham for breakfast; we refueled, got some supplies 
and headed out around 10:30. We were moving slow and there seemed no point 
in rushing.

We motored out of the marina back into ICW and headed north. We passed the 
Fernandina Beach harbor area of Amelia Island. There are many contrasting 
things to see on this part of the ICW. Look one way and see beautiful 
marshes and beaches. Look the other way and see big industry at work.

We reached the St. Mary’s River and spotted a sub cruising into the sound. 
There was a beehive of activity providing support for the sub. The Air Force 
had helicopters speeding all around and the Navy and Coast Guard had large 
zodiac style boats with hard cabin and fore and aft machine gun turrets. One 
of these sped over and informed us we needed to get 1000 yards out of the 
channel and turn our bow away from the sub. We could enter channel once the 
sub was 1000 yards past. We followed orders; left the channel, turned away 
and snapped some pics.

After the sub passed we cruised passed Cumberland Island and headed up 
Cumberland Sound and the Cumberland River. This part of the ICW is Mother 
Nature at her best. Undeveloped sand swept shorelines all around. The 
currents and tides are quite strong and I was glad to have that big diesel 
driving us. We saw numerous dolphins including many mother dolphins with 
baby dolphins. You could see little tiny dorsal fins zipping all around. 
They were only a couple of feet long and they always kept their distance. 
Talk about cute! Every now and then they would jump in the air and try to do 
a flip. We would see dolphins everyday on this trip but the baby dolphins 
were really cool to see. Bird life was plentiful; Osprey, Brown Pelicans, 
Herons, Cranes, Egrets, and a variety of gulls were all around. Later that 
day we discovered that there are sub hangers on the west side of the river 
so now we knew the reason for the sub on the ICW. As we went by sub hangers 
the red helo and zodiacs buzzed us again.

Late in the day Brian discovered we had a water pump leaking so we decided 
to proceed to Jekyll Harbor Marina and purchase new pump. We crossed St. 
Andrews Sound and enjoyed the view of Cumberland Lighthouse of our stern. 
Unfortunately we got to marina after 6 and could not look for part until 
morning. We decided to try the restaurant and the seafood boil was quite 
tasty. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing drinking cold beers 
poolside and enjoying the hot tub. We only traveled about 36 miles due to 
late start and motor problems.

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