Passage - Lang’s Marina, St. Marys, GA to Jekyll Harbor Marina, Jekyll Harbor, GA
8:20 AM Underway
1:16 PM Docked Jacksonville City Dock
5.9 engine hours 33 miles

Finally we got out of St. Marys, GA . It was a very pretty town but 4 nights was enough. We are careful with the weather and the forecasted really bad weather never developed. We could have moved on Sunday, as the heavy rain did not start until almost dark. Better safe than sorry is our motto.
I’m starting to need fuel and have been wanting to wait until we get to Brunswick, 42 miles away. I have enough with 10 1/4” in the starboard tank and 8” in the port. That should be still between 75 and 100 gallons by my calculations. Each tank holds 175 gallons in the specs. I’ve never filled up from empty. But then there is something called useable fuel. That’s how much reliable fuel can be drawn from a tank without sucking air. There is no spec stating that one thing you don’t want is to be in some rough water and start sucking air. Sure way to have a diesel stop is to suck a little air. It is very difficult trying to prime the engine to restart it in turbulent conditions with a storm or ocean inlet waves meeting the tidal flows in and out of an ocean inlet. I need 8 gallons max to go 42 miles. Like in a car, however, I get a little concerned when I’m at 1/4 tank. The sight tubes on the fuel tanks stop near the top of the tank at 21”. The tanks are tapered with the hull shape. So, 1” near the bottom of the tank is a whole lot less fuel than 1” near the top of the tank. A holdover from my technical background is that I keep daily records of how many inches of fuel I use. I also record how many gallons go in when I fill up from any particular inches starting point. Yep, it’s all on a spreadsheet.

Anyhow, enough about fuel calculations. We got underway and decided to skip Cumberland Island. That hurt. We wanted to go there. We took Liquid Therapy up the channel to the National Park Service docks. There was no dock space. So, we would have to anchor and dinghy in and lose the entire day of travel. It was very windy and I didn’t want to leave the boat anchored. We saw the wild horses from the boat. I took a few pictures. My great little pocket camera does not have a powerful lens, so the horses are just specs in the distance. We did get a great view with our binoculars. We could not see the Carnegie mansion ruins. We just might have to take a road trip back down here.

We had a nice ride by the Kings Bay Submarine base ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Submarine_Base_Kings_Bay ). It is sort of nerve wracking to pick up binoculars or your camera with the security boat patrolling. Its bow pointed towards Liquid Therapy and moved with us as we went by the facility. Just like getting on an airplane these days, you have to prove you are not a terrorist and every move is being watched. I heard a couple sirens in the distance and wondered if they were directed to me. However, I never got a call on the VHF radio. I saw one door on the giant buildings where the subs are housed and briefly looked with binoculars. I couldn’t see a submarine. Oh well.
The tide was running in from the St. Andrews Sound and the rest of the Cumberland River until we reached the sound. ( Did I mention the turbulence in the waters around ocean inlets and that I was concerned about air in the fuel? ) We got jostled about with the confused ocean waves meeting the Cumberland River on the South of the inlet and Jekyll Creek on the other side. Nothing dangerous at all, just conditions working against us, as we headed toward Jekyll. I rather enjoyed witnessing the ocean swells and the different ride on Liquid Therapy. We got to St. Andrews Sound a little after high tide. The tide range is 6 feet here so, I cut the channel a bit, shaving off some time. Now, though, the tidal flow was going out toward the ocean and once again I have a tidal flow coming out of Jekyll Creek slowing our progress making us burn more fuel than normal.
We arrived at Jekyll Harbor Marina and I took on 30 gallons of fuel in the port tank only, as it was much lower than the starboard tank. It bothered me that I was 9 miles short of Brunswick where the fuel is $1.75 / gallon and it was $2.40 / gallon here. Better to be safe than sorry, and I knew I would not suck air at all now.

Susan and I were promptly invited for docktails aboard YOLO at 5:30. Jeff, the captain, had helped us tie up at the Jacksonville dock. Before docktails, Susan and I took the marina golf cart for a spin to see the island and hit a grocery. Jekyll is a very small island and we drove the ocean highway a bit to see the beach, stopped at the grocery and headed back to the boat.
YOLO hosted several boats for the docktail hour and we had great fun talking with each other. Cruisers often have impromptu cookouts on a dock or boat. Lots of fun meeting people from everywhere that have the common interest of cruising and living on their boats.

Tomorrow we are headed to Brunswick Landing marina for a couple days. Then on to St. Simons for a couple days. Or, that is our loose plan.
Today’s picture is the welcome board at the very nice Jekyll Harbor Marina