Stats for May 5, 2019

Origin: Jacksonville Beach

Destination: Cumberland Island Anchorage

Distance: 38.4 miles

Speed: 8.3 mph

Time on the Move: 4 hours and 40 minutes

We were slow moving heading out of Jacksonville Beach after such a long, hot, fun day at the water park. The marina was like a ghost town compared to the day before (Saturday) when it was full of boats. We took care of pre-departure chores and pushed off from the dock about 5 minutes before our friends on The Blessing, who were not far behind us, asked if we checked the weather. Of course we didn’t check the weather?! It was hot and sunny out as far as we could tell.

So we checked the radar and sure enough, there were big storms passing through. We outran them for a while, but this one was creeping up to us pretty fast, moving at 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph, including hail and lots of lightning. We decided to find a spot to anchor to ride it out, but within about 10 minutes we realized that it was going to pass just south of us. It seemed there were bigger storms to the north and to the south, but we were in a calm area right in the middle, so we picked up anchor and set out again. The weather was overcast off and on for the rest of the day, but no other storms came close. Whew!

**Somewhere around here we passed into a new state!! First new state since mid November!! Welcome to Georgia!**

We were excited to see the wild horses that we have heard so much about on Cumberland Island, and we were lucky enough to see them from the boat as we headed into our anchorage. These horses are the descendants of those left behind by Spanish settlers about 500 years ago. I’m not a big horse fan, but it was exciting to see them free and roaming on the beach.

After setting the anchor and having a quick dinner, we headed to the island to do some exploring. We were greeted with huge trees arching over sandy pathways–it was beautiful.

We followed this short path about half a mile across the island to the beach. The boys were set on “catching” a horse, so they brought some ropes and homemade traps (grappling hooks, apparently, which we don’t have any, so…). All we saw on the walk across was trees, spanish moss, and nature.

As soon as we made it to the beach we saw these two horses down by the water’s edge and another half dozen or so further down along the sand dunes. Colin wanted to test out his trap, but of course I wouldn’t let him get too close. Hayley was interested in watching the horses, but she didn’t dare get too close.

We were amazed by our good fortune at seeing the horses again so easily. We weren’t quite sure how comfortable they were with people, so we kept our distance and they let us pass right by as we walked down the beach. We practiced writing numbers and cursive in the sand (Tobin and Hayley, respectively–no cursive pics, unfortunately) and Colin worked on making a corral for the horses out of twigs he found (guess he thought of another way to catch them!).

There are cars on the island (there are some inhabitants), but the only one we saw was on the beach. There were several other groups of people on the beach, maybe about 15 total. The beach was huge!! It was very wide and went pretty much as far as the eye could see.

Eventually the horses from along the sand dunes went down to the water to join their friends. We wondered if it was the cool breeze they enjoyed down there. The horses seemed very calm and undisturbed by people walking by at a good distance. There were 2 foals in the group which was fun to see.

After watching the horses for a while, we were ready to head back to the boat because the sun was getting low. But Tobin and Hayley found some friends to roll around in the sand with and Colin was still working on his corral, so we were kind of dragging our feet and I’m so glad we did. All of a sudden, the horses started moving in 2 groups right towards where we were sitting. They actually came uncomfortably close and I moved out of the way, but Mike stuck it out and stayed in our spot. The horses headed straight for Colin’s corral and actually walked right through the thing!! We were all amazed, both at watching them walk by together and at the fact that they knew they were supposed to go in the corral. The foal knocked down part of the walls, which Colin thought was hilarious, and we were all in awe at watching them move so close to us. I thought someone was going to jump out of a horse suit and yell SURPRISE! It just seemed so surreal.

We found some boaters to talk to that wondered if we were horse whisperers, and while we were discussing our boating plans, the kids were hard at work playing in the sand again.

The horses were still hanging out along the edge of the dunes. What a beautiful view with the sunset behind them and an amazing experience for our first time on the island!!

The next day we were anxious to head back and explore ruins and nature paths on the island. The island was originally built on in 1736 by James Oglethorpe, founder of the state of Georgia, as a place to hunt. It switched hands several times throughout the years but always kept the original name for the house of Dungeness, which was after Dungeness, England, and it always was held by wealthy and prominent families. Nathaniel Greene was a Revolutionary War hero who owned the home at one time, followed by the Carnegie family from the 1880’s through 1925. Each new family seemed to build on and incorporate the home of the previous owner. The island was turned over to the National Park Service in 1972.

We visited this small museum that gave a history of the island and showed off several artifacts. The pictures of the Carnegie children were particularly interesting to me, as the island seemed like the perfect natural playground for their many children. Later, each of the children had their own mansions built nearby so they could enjoy the island with their own families.

One interesting thing to note about this island is how important the women were in the building and decision making. Nathaniel Greene died before his house was ever built here, but his widow built a home on the property regardless. Lucy Carnegie was the driving force behind her family’s purchase of the land here, and after her husband Thomas passed away shortly after buying it, she continued to make renovations and expansions on the property until it was left by the Carnegie’s in 1925. This is interesting because we sure do hear about a lot of widow’s from this time period, but we don’t hear about too many of them having the money or the power to build fancy homes.

There are many other large houses in this area of the island. Most of them are probably Lucy Carnegie’s children’s homes that she had built for all of them; however, they weren’t open, so we didn’t get to walk through them.

Next we headed to a boardwalk over the mud flats. We watched lots of crabs scurrying down below and enjoyed the calm peace of nature.

Next we continued on our walking loop towards the beach. We were met with a surprise along the way!! This armadillo was foraging in the grass for things armadillos eat. It was interesting to see him–what strange animals!!

We ended up back at the same area of the beach where we saw the horses the day before. Colin was desperate to climb some trees he saw on the trail here so the kids and I headed that way while the captain got in a beach workout.

We enjoyed the beautiful nature on Cumberland Island and the rich history as well. What a great adventure!! Thank you for reading and following along!