Voyages of the S/V Dolce Vita: Cumberland Island

859 nm N30 46.432 W081 28.234

Although the trip from Jekyll to Cumberland would be short, we got up early and were on our way by 7 am. The idea was to get to Cumberland Island early enough to go ashore with Bruce and Gayleen and hike some of the trails.

But the day dawned cold and overcast, and did not improve. We got to Cumberland and anchored just north of s/v Pearl. The wind was brisk and out of the north, allowing a lot of chop to build up in the anchorage. And it was drizzling. It looked like it would be a cold, wet dinghy ride in and back out, and with no sun to warm us, we all four decided to hold off until tomorrow, when the weather was supposed to improve.

The next day proved to be much better. The wind swung around to the NW and reduced quite a lot, causing the chop to die down, and there was partial sun and no rain.

Meanwhile, our daughter texted us that it was snowing back home!

We dressed warmly and went ashore. Cumberland Island has some of the most spetacular southern coastal foliage I have ever seen! The Live Oaks alone are magnificent, growing to huge twisted sizes and dripping with Spanish Moss.

A long boardwalk led over the dunes to the beach on the ocean side.

Next, we hiked south on the island to visit the ruins of the Carnegie Mansion. Owned by Thomas Carnegie, brother of Andrew Carnegie, this gigantic structure and the surrounding grounds was modelled on an Italian villa, and was named Dungeness. The Carnegies moved out of Dungeness in 1925. In 1959 the Dungeness mansion was destroyed by fire. The ruins are today preserved by the National Park Service as part of Cumberland Island National Seashore. They were acquired by the Park Service in 1972.