More Spring Charters 2018
Category Archives: outings
Spring Outings 2018
Sea Scouts!
Conch Republic
Here is a hodgepodge of photos from the February Key Largo trip. Click on photo to zoom.
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Fall Outings 2017
Peak Beautimosity!
Maximum Happiness. Great friends, food, music and weather.
July 4th 2017
Perfect weather this year for sunset and fireworks! Wind SSE 10-15. No clouds.
Memorial Day 2017
and some memories were made…
St Augustine
We spent the first night in Crooked River anchorage after a quick stop on Cumberland Island at Plum Orchard Mansion. There is a nice dock there, on the Brick hill River. I don’t know what the deal is with it, but nobody was around so we tied up. The mosquitos were so fierce we only stayed long enough to snap a few pictures. We will definitely have to go back later this winter, and spend some time. The mansion is just about a half mile above where the Brickhill converges with the ICW, actually the Cumberland River. The Crooked river empties into almost the same spot from the west. When going in, if you hug its north bank for a few hundred yards, there is ten or twelve feet of water in there with room to swing, a gentle current, and many less bugs.
Bath day on the Tolomato River. Another good anchorage about ten miles North of St Augustine.
Castillio de San Marcos, from the north mooring field where we spent the night.
Patty and Thad joined us for breakfast on Sunday morning. It was Thad’s birthday! We had pancakes with bacon, eggs and sausage as we watched the town come to life.
There is a launch that runs every two hours from 8am-6pm. EXcept Sunday when the first run is at ten. So…
The trip home we had some fog in the mornings
Drydock at Mayport.
passing a fellow traveler
This was “Brother” Jim’s third trip on the Spirit of St Simons. A talented teacher, artist, chef, story teller, and all around good company.
We saw a good bit of damage from Hurricane Matthew. At Fernandina we counted over a dozen good sized boats on the beach. The city dock was completely closed down. Fuel was available at Amelia Island Yacht Basin, but their channel is narrow and fairly shallow. We got in and out OK at low water, but with a deep draft you would be tide dependent.
A Good Time Was Had By All!
A nice afternoon sail with Buddy, Judi, Frank, Debbie, Rob and Suzy.
Northwester. Cool, clear and dry air, 12-15kts. Once you clear the Lanier Bridge, heading East, there is enough sea room to tack back and forth across the river without losing too much ground. On a flood tide, you don’t lose any ground, so it’s even better.
Cannon’s Point
The ruins of the big house at Cannon’s point are visible from the Hampton River, at green marker #19 The foundation and chimney are about all that is left.
Just a few yards away to the west is the tabby floor and chimney where the kitchen stood. It had a huge brick hearth, that is still intact, with multiple ovens and fireplaces for constant meal production.
There are tabby ruins of slave cabin foundations, and an ice pit, lined with tabby, where they packed block ice in sawdust. A long unpaved avenue runs up the center of the peninsula, to the old home site. The dock is long gone, but you can still row ashore at any of several bluffs along Jones Creek on the west side. It is best to go in cool weather when there are no snakes
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Most of the St Simons Island inhabitants fled the coast during the War for Southern Independence. The following account is from the diary of a Col. Dean, a Union blockader, who was stationed off the Georgia Coast in 1861. It was Copied from T Reed Ferguson’s John Couper Family at Cannon’s Point
… We anchored in the Altamaha Sound in December 1861, after the fall of Port Royal to our cannon.The dark woods on a marshy spine of land could not hide from view a large home on a bluff above the river and, as we had been so long on board our ship and desired to explore this wild mainland, Henry and I took a dingy and rowed ourselves land-ward. We tied up at a dock beneath the house and walked through a large garden. On all sides were what appeared to be palm trees of several kinds, many with dark red fruits growing from spiky projections of a strident yellow.
The first story of the house was constructed of the same rough stone and shell [tabby], we had seen in several coastal buildings, and the wooden house, white painted with green shutters, rose high above this foundation. Crossing a wide piazza, Henry and I entered the front door, and in some haste, for the house, though deserted, seemed full of its former occupants, made a tour of inspection and left. As we departed, I picked up from the library floor several old letters amongst the papers scattered there. Their dates showed to be some 75 years old, and I thought to keep them as souvenirs…
These letters turned out to be correspondence to John Couper. The really remarkable thing about this tale is that it did not end there. Almost 50 years later, In 1909, this same Col. Dean, by then retired and living in New York, made a chance acquaintance at a social gathering, with James Maxwell Couper, John Couper’s great grandson. Upon learning the latter’s name, Col. Dean recalled the letters, went home and found them, and then returned them to the Couper descendants! They are now an invaluable primary source material for historians and authors.