Finally!! No more having to work the tides

It was not a great visit to Cumberland Island. The park is closed because of storm damage. They still have rangers there to shoo you away if you try to land. The anchorage was fine till about 1am when unforecast 15 - 20 kts winds from the NW sprang up. They created 1 - 2' waves which were not too bad till the current swung us broadside and then we rolled. The rolling motion is the WORSE. My water tanks start to slosh then and it is noisy.

This morning we had to wait till 10:30am to leave to use the tide to get around the top of the Amelia River. There are 5' and less spots three at low tide. We hit it around 1 hour after low tide and threaded the needle between G1 and R2 with no issue but then we couldn't find the deep water. It appeared to be mostly on the red side near shore. I found one spot with 5.7' and it scared me but then went back to 9'.

With such a late start and having to fight the ebb tide we made slow progress towards Pine Island. We hit Fort George River around 2pm and needed at least 5 hours to make Pine Island so we stopped here. We were first boat in and had the pick of the place. Since then 3 trawlers have come in and are crowding us.

Poor Fernandina Municipal Marina got hit hard by the hurricane. Lots of damaged docks and big signs say closed do not land and do not use the mooring field, do not land dinghys. Other docks along that side were also severely damaged or just GONE.

We will leave early to use the tide to get out of here -- the Fort George River - because at low tide you can't get in or out. After this area we will no longer have to time the tides. The water from here south is pretty good provided you stay in the channel.

Strong winds are forecast for Saturday so we will probably stay put at Pine ISland. There we have some shelter from N, NW, NE winds, little fetch, and great holding.

We were going to take a mooring at St Augustine tomorrow but after last nights experience at Cumberland with only 20kts we decided not too. Too much wind fetch there.