Well, we didn’t intend to cross the Florida-Georgia line today, but circumstances intervened. We left Pine Island at low tide, which made for a little bit of a tense start. It’s a little nerve-wracking when the depth finder sounds its alarm, even though we know we have a two-foot cushion between what the depth finder says and the actual water depth.

Today’s trip took us through some narrow channels with homes on the side. The homes had large boat lifts and floating docks. The water was very brown through here. As creeks joined from the west, we could see the tannins-rich water streaming in.

As we went farther north, the houses disappeared, and the waterway opened up. The wind picked up and there was quite a chop to it. We intended to anchor near Fernandina, Florida, but we found the area to be too exposed to the wind and waves. It would have been an uncomfortable night. We went to our back-up plan, which was another anchorage with a little less exposure. It was still rougher than we preferred. The nearby marina did not appeal to us because the wind was so strong that it would have made for a dangerous docking experience. Thankful for the ever-later sunsets, we decided to head north a while longer and found on the map a protected anchorage at Cumberland Island. We decided that no matter how windy it was, it couldn’t be LESS appealing than our previous plans.

We have a couple tools we use to help us choose where we drop the hook. One is Navionics, an app that we use for routing information, too. It has a feature that indicates where people have anchored and includes reviews of those anchorages. The reviews go back 10 years or more, and they really offer good information. Sometimes, the authors don’t need to use a lot of words to say what they mean.

We passed a ship yard that was building some big ol’ boats. There was a security boat patrolling, so we were on our best behavior.

On the way, we had to pass a railroad swing bridge that only closes when the train needs to come through. We heard on the radio from boaters ahead of us that it closed just as they approached. It’s about a thirty-minute process, and they were bummed. We planned what we would do if we had to stop for that long in case it was still closed when we got there. It’s not like we could sit still in the wind while we waited around other boats doing the same. So we just slowed down a little bit to let the railroad bridge do its thing. By the time we got there, it was open and we had nothing to worry about.

With plenty of time to spare before sunset, we pulled into our anchorage at Cumberland Island. Because of the timing and our plan to leave early the next morning, we didn’t have time to explore the island. That was a disappointment, because Cumberland Island has a great history and some wonderful hiking trails. Just one of the bummers about needing to plan just for weekend travel. It’s on our list for “next time.”