10/25 Submarine Leaving St. Mary's River and Kings Bay Naval Base

 At Fort Clinch State Park I knew there were often a lot of military helicopters flying around.  A couple of years ago, I discovered that they were there whenever a submarine entered or left the nearby King's Bay Submarine Base.  Apparently, the submarines cannot submerge when they leave the base and travel through the St. Mary's River on their way to the Atlantic.  This means they pass the state park just before they reach the open ocean.  

All of this means the navy and Coast Guard provides them with extra security until they are in deep enough water to submerge.  This involves a couple of Coast Guard ships coming out of the port first, along with a police patrol along the beach.  The submarine is also accompanied by a large supply ship and a larger Coast Guard cutter.  

So, when I was down at the pier today taking photos of the beach and birds, I noticed a couple of unusual coast guard boats, and could see the supply ship and submarine at the river entrance about half a mile down the beach.  So, of course, in order to get some good photos, I started to run, and then fell flat on my face on the beach!!  Luckily, I was not hurt.

After getting help getting to my feet and brushing the sand off my camera, I continued to walk fast, but not run, closer to the river entrance and took as many photos as I could on my way.  (Note to self:  I need to read the manual to my camera as I ended up with a lot of fuzzy cameras, so clearly I do not understand how this newer camera focuses!)

Here are the photos I took in the order I took them.  The first photo shows one of the two initial Coast Guard boats that led the exit from the river. 

The large supply ship is leading the submarine. 

You can see the large Coast Guard cutter following.

A close-up of the submarine.  The photo is a bit hazy as it was windy, and there was a lot of salt in the air, plus this was taken with a telephoto lens.   There are two guys on top of the tower, and one is either holding a gun or a guitar????  (A guitar does not make sense, but that's what it looked like.  More likely it was some kind of weapon.)  In any case, the two men look very small, which shows you how big this submarine really is.  

The Coast Guard ship is definitely armed!! 

Wonder where this sub is headed???

They are getting close to going around the tip of the far end of the damaged pier. 

I'm going to try to get closer next time, if there is a next time before I leave here in a few days.  Also, I will try not to run on the beach anymore or fall again.