Cumberland Island

Cumberland Island, formerly a Native American settlement, a Spanish settlement, a slavery era plantation, and a winter retreat for the privileged elite, is Georgia’s southernmost and largest barrier island. Most of it is now under the National Park Service management as a National Seashore. A fun fact is that the westernmost point of US shoreline on the Atlantic Ocean lies in Cumberland Island. The only way to access the island is by boat, as there’s no bridge to the mainland. We spent three nights anchored in Cumberland Sound, and accessed the island by means of Gecko, the dinghy.

On our last day we received a tornado warning on our cell phones: “a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado” would reach us in ten minutes. What do you do to prepare for a tornado in ten minutes, when you are out there anchored? Let’s see… where’s the basement? Oh, we don’t have one. A room with no windows? That would be the engine rooms, but the hatch cannot be locked from inside, not to mention that they are kind of small. Scratch that. Next would be to go to the nearest sturdy building. The dinghy was already in the water, but it would still take us at least twenty minutes to get to the nearest building, which was likely not the nearest sturdy building. So, staying on the boat it was. Now, I know, at least in theory, what to do to prepare the boat for a hurricane, but that would take a full day, if not more.

So what could we do? I came up with an answer: not much. And that’s exactly what we did. Well, I did take some pictures, mind you. And I removed the outboard engine from the dinghy and stowed it in a safer place, as I figured a flying dinghy would be less dangerous without the outboard attached to it, particularly for my wallet.

The storm did not spawn any tornado, so all that meticulous preparation was in vain.