Cumberland Island - last day

Sarah's main occupation on the island, taking photos of the wild horses

This morning we had pancakes for breakfast, I had two of them and they were really good. I read some out of my book and then we decided to go to the island. We saw four horses, they were so pretty and were in a field. There were palm trees that were pretty the grass their names are London the biggest horses, the small one Ella, and Lena. They were one little pack, then we walked aways and saw two more horses, a foal and mom. They had pretty white spot on there snout. I called the big one Tulip, and the tiny one Ginger. I took a lot of pictures, then some people said there more up ahead, but we didn't see any. After that we went back to the boat, I read up on deck because the breeze felt so nice and I wanted to enjoy my last day at this horse wonderland! After that we headed back to the island we saw Tulip and Ginger with the other horse now. We went down the path to go to the lily pond and on are way there we saw another horse. She was so pretty I named her Lily since we were headed to the lily pond. We saw the pond that was so pretty it had a palm tree in the middle almost like a tiny island. Then we headed back out and Lily was still there chewing some grass. We took a different path back that lead closer to the horses in the field. We went around them and said good bye. That's when we heard the horses talking to each other, with Lily. They talked a little bit and then we saw her running so beautifully to the other horses. It was interesting to see horses interact with each other. Then after the greeting we had to go, and I said bye to my wild friends. I drew some of the horses when I got back to the boat. I will miss them, but It will be an experience I'll never forget! Well we are having chicken for dinner bye. Sarah

They were used to humans and didn't run away but we didn't approach too closely

On a settled night, the anchorage here is great. I don't expect it to be so good if winds were kicking up 20 to 30 kts but with the winds less than 10 kts it's perfect. Early this morning there must have been fishing boats going out the inlet around 5:00 am since we rocked quite a bit. Once they cleared the channel, the anchorage settled back down again and was calm the rest of the day. 

The live oaks grow into really strange shapes. The wood has to be strong to support the long, horizontal branches

Our morning trip took us to the southern set of docks that were closer to where the wild horses roamed. The grounds looked perfectly manicured with the grass very short and the obvious reason was the horses. They were grazing constantly and the grass had no chance to grow to any height. The grounds were also covered with live oaks. We were told that much of the timbers for the early frigates of the new USA came from here. The live oaks are known for their durability and strength as well as growing in shapes that fit the odd bends in a boat hull. The wood is no good for furniture since the wood is full of a swirling pattern of grain. However, that mixture of grains make for a very strong wood since there's no fracture path through the swirls. 

Sarah was enchanted with the horses. They ran free all over the place. She must have took over a hundred photos! Luckily, they are all digital. She found one she especially liked and she's making a drawing of the horse. 

Monday is a new week for Sarah and algebra restarts. She's doing well in the subject and is working hard on the word problems. Sarah and I spend at least an hour a day during the week on algebra. Ann's covering French and English and for literature they are reading "To Kill a Mockingbird". 

We'll leave for Fernandina on Monday and anchor just outside the mooring field. Anchoring works best there since with the current, our boat does better with the anchor as opposed to a mooring ball which can start knocking up against the hull in the middle of the night when the tide changes and there's any type of wind opposed. At anchor, that does not happen and at Fernandina there's plenty of room to anchor. The marina allows anchored boats the use of the dinghy dock for a small fee, $3/day.