Kingsley Plantation and Cumberland Island

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's) 

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 13 - April 13, 2017

Patty here. We reluctantly left St. Augustine and headed north with a destination of an anchorage on the Fort George River in front of the Kingsley Plantation, part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve managed by the U. S. National Park Service. The plantation is the oldest surviving plantation house in the state of Florida. We anchored directly in the Fort George River in front of the plantation house, but it was too late to go ashore.

DAY 14 - April 14, 2017

The plantation opened at 9:00 a.m. so we took the kayak over to the dock and walked up to the visitor center where we picked up our audio device for a self-guided tour. We spent over an hour walking from place to place and learned a lot about the workings of this particular plantation. Interestingly, Zephaniah Kingsley, who spent 25 years there, bought a 13 year old slave, Anna, married her, and she ran the plantation while he was away on business. The original plantation house is there as well as the remains of 25 slave cabins, kitchen house, stables and garden.

We pulled anchor and headed for Ferdinanda Beach on Amelia Islan, a must-see stop according to several friends. Sadly, the entire marina is closed due to terrible damage from Hurricane Matthew last year. So we headed to Cumberland Island in Georgia. (Finally got out of Florida - it is the state with the second most miles of coastline, you know.)

Cumberland Island constitutes the westernmost point of shoreline on the Atlantic Ocean is the US. It is only accessible by boat. We wanted to take the Lands and Legacy Tour, a 6 hour van tour of the Island, but it was fully booked for tomorrow, and we did not want to wait another day. The island is owned 95% by the federal government and 5% by private individuals. We were very disappointed to learn that the areas close to the anchorage we chose are not accessible by dinghy as it is part of the private ownership - a problem when you have a dog. Baxter is no respecter of property lines, so he ran up on shore and pooped anyway! There is the African Baptist Church here where John F. Kennedy, Jr. got married in 1996.

We are trying to figure out where we want to be tomorrow night, and it looks like St. Simons Island is the leading candidate, but we will have to decide that when we get there.