On Tuesday 5/17 we anchored overnight off Fernandina, FL. We are now in 6-7 foot tides and strong tidal currents. We put down two anchors off the bow last night because the tidal currents change directions 180 degrees during the night. Our anchors did hold well despite thunderstorms and dramatic lightening and we slept well. We woke this morning to find a Manatee in the area and a pod of porpoises swimming by.

On 5/18/05 we raised anchor and going North on the intercostal entered Cumberland Sound and were on the lookout for the nuclear submarines that enter here from the Atlantic Ocean for their base at King’s Bay. Fortunately we did not encounter them or their security escorts. We found the navigation challenging because the numbers on the navigation buoys were changed in the last six months.

We turned west and went two miles off the intercoastal waterway and the historic town of St. Marys, Georgia. Founded in 1787 by a British land grant the town still has many of its colonial and ante bellum homes. We visited the First Presbyterian Church of St. Marys completed in 1808 and established as a Presbyterian congregation in 1828. The first floor of this lovely old church was used as a public school and the upper level for church services. We also toured Orange Hall, a striking ante bellum home – www.orangehall.org. Its history is murky and investigations are underway by archeologists. The history of the old South is represented by the slave gallery at the First Presbyterian Church in St. Mary, the slave quarters at Orange Hall, and the slave market in St. Augustine. Today’s South in Florida and Georgia has a cosmopolitan citizenry and outlook. Tomorrow we hope to visit one of Georgia’s barrier islands, Cumberland Island, former home of the Carnegie family.