After 2 years of "Looping" from our start in Tennessee, Happy Happy crosses back into her home port state of Georgia. This is a special time as she has spent all the 28 years of her prior life in the landlocked freshwater reservoirs of North Georgia until now. Our crossing of the St Mary's sound from Amelia Island to Cumberland Island is smooth, but because of shoaling in the mouth of the inlet requires us to "go out" the Amelia River and then turn back in the St Mary's. Being back in the land of 6 - 10 ft tides is evident as our cruising speed out goes from 9 - 12 mph and then back down to 4 mph coming in.
Along the way we must transit the security restricted channel of the Kings Bay nuclear submarine base. Because of the natural path of the channels, this requires that you go very close to the mouth of Kings Bay before making the sharp turn to Cumberland Island. In these times of high security, a patrol boat with a 30 caliber machine gun mounted on the bow and idling at the mouth of the channel is stationed there 7/24 to make sure you don't have any "accidents"!
The docks at Fernandina are still closed and awaiting repairs from Hurricane Matthew
The Kings Bay Base. The big "hangers" keep pesky Russian satellites from seeing the special things that happen when the subs need to be above the water.
Don't Even Think About it!
Our first nights anchorage way back up Brickhill Creek on the northern end of Cumberland Island.