Tuesday, April 30, 2013 – Isle of Hope (Mile 590) to Beaufort (Mile 539):

            Awoke to a dramatic sunrise, but there was no time to enjoy it.  Slack tide was coming up shortly and we were sandwiched in between two boats, and we had to make tracks to leave before the current started running again.  We ate a quick breakfast and told Kitty Cat to head for the covers.  The nice man who lived on the catamaran next door who played Jimmy Buffett music till the wee hours came out in his bathrobe and helped us get off. 

Sunrise at Isle of Hope, Georgia

            There is another factor in this area that I now realize we have to deal with and that is BUGS!  Especially those nasty “no-seeums.”  Annoying little bitey things.  The laundry room was full of them yesterday, and we had to keep the boat closed up because they are so small they can get right in through the screens.  Oh well, you have to take the good with the bad!

            After we left the Isle of Hope Marina we headed back up the Skidaway River.  The tide is low right now and the shoreline is interesting with the muddy banks exposed.  One very nice thing about the morning is that the wind is very calm.

            There are some huge, palatial homes along this stretch of Georgia.  I suppose as we are close to Savannah, this stretch along the water is more affluent.  We also pass Thunderbolt Marine along this stretch, and I wondered if the “boat-munching” shrimp would remember that they fled our boat when they saw all the mega yachts at this marina on our trip south, and would they return to our boat as we passed by going north.  Bob also remembered that Thunderbolt advertised that they offered their customers Krispy Kreme donuts.  I still wonder why we didn’t stop there!

Cemetary near Savannah

We approach the Sam Varnadoe Bridge (which I think used to be called the Causton Bluff Bridge), and I radio the bridge tender and ask him what his clearance is, and he replies 30’ (usually there is only 22’ at mean low tide, but we are lucky and can easily get under the bridge without an opening today).  We are motoring very slowly this morning (which I love) in order to get the right tides and currents as we approach the Savannah River, Field’s Cut, and the Port Royal Landing Marina where we will spend the night.

Two men fishing on the banks

The sky is bright blue, but, unfortunately, there are huge, billowy white clouds mixed with some dark, rain-filled clouds trying to take over the blue sky.  I hope the weather holds out for us today.  As the tide is low, there is a decaying vegetation odor around here from time to time.  However, the shoreline is stilled lined with one McMansion after another, though some of them are quite beautiful with lovely landscaped grounds.

The Skidaway River runs into the Wilmington River, and then you turn left into the Elba Island Cut and then cross the Savannah River and on into Fields Cut which leads to the Wright River, then left into Walls Cut and into the New River.  From the New River you turn right into Ramshorn Creek and right again into the Cooper River.  All these little twisty, windy rivers are quite beautiful in the morning and incredibly quiet.  We are the only boat out here other than for a few people fishing again.

It looks like the boat is aground in the marsh but it's really in the river

WE ARE NOW IN SOUTH CAROLINA!

The Cooper River finally takes you into Calibogue Sounds and past Hilton Head.  We head up Calibogue Sound and turn right into Skull Creek and then cross Port Royal Sound.  You are not supposed to cross Port Royal Sound if the wind is coming from the west, but today it is just a little breezy and the water is calm.  We get across all this water with no trouble at all.  From Calibogue Sound you turn up into the Beaufort River and there the green and red marks reverse!  So you have to pay close attention to what you are doing! 

The Beaufort River takes us to Port Royal Landing Marina, which is just outside Beaufort, South Carolina, one of our favorite places.  We have a much better arrival at this marina today than we did when we came here in November.  I won’t go into all the gory details again, but I will still say that it was all my fault and I took full responsibility because I had angered the Sea Gods.

They have a little restaurant here at the marina, and Bob has suggested we go there for dinner.  That works for me!

Tomorrow – we’ll see what the weather holds!

Monday, April 29, 2013 – Big Tom Creek (Mile 614) to Isle of Hope (Mile 590):

            Last night Bob was checking the anchor and decided he didn’t like the looks of the boat as it was swinging around in the creek, so he decided to turn on the engines and move.  I told Kitty Cat what was about to happen, and when the first buzzer when off, her eyes got a little big, and she just looked at me kind of strangely, but when the second buzzer went off, she headed for under the covers!  Well, Bob decided that we were really ok, so we turned off the engines, and I thought Kitty Cat would never come out now, but she scrambled right out and looked at us like, “Well, what was that all about?!”

Shrimp boat we passed yesterday

            No strange guttural growling noises this morning.  Just the twittering of a few birds as we woke up to a gray, dreary, rainy sky.  We had rain last night, and I was hoping the skies would clear up.   We were on a rising tide, however, and that was a good thing, and there was very little wind.

            One of the reasons I like anchoring is that you don’t have to worry about lines and fenders and getting away from the slip or dock.  At anchor you just pull up the hook, and slip quietly away.  So easy!

            Thankfully, the winds have really calmed down.  These rivers today would be serenely beautiful if it was sunny.  But they’re not bad under gray skies either. 

A view of the shoreline as we travel along

            So out of Big Tom Creek and into the Bear River for our short run to Isle of Hope Marina.  Once again, I didn’t see any bears - or any other significant wild life, for that matter, other than the usual dolphins and birds.  From Bear River we turn left into the Florida Passage (again I have no idea why it’s named “Florida” passage!  The Florida Passage takes you to the Ogeechee River and left into Hell Gate which was not a problem at all since we were going through there at high tide.  However, there is a very narrow little part of Hell Gate where the marks are very close together and on either side of them are “danger – shoal” signs.  We still had 12’ of water, but you do have to be very careful in here.

            Dark skies are starting to hover over us about now and Bob checks the weather on the chart plotter (we have Sirius weather that comes with the chart plotter), and there seems to be a “whole lotta rainin goin on.”  We are pretty much by ourselves so far, but there are a few fisherman out here in little skiffs running back and forth.

            We now enter the Little Ogeechee River and then head up into the Vernon River.  When we were in the Little Ogeechee River we could feel the motion of the water change, which I assume had to do with the crossing of Green Island Sound and it’s proximity to the ocean.  I don’t know why we didn’t feel this change when we crossed other sounds.  Bob says we were feeling the affects of the Ossabaw Sound.  Who knows – whatever it was, I think it was enough to make me think I wouldn’t really like to go out in the ocean in our boat.

            From the Vernon River we turn into Burnside River and pass Moon River, which I believe is the river that the song was named after.  There are dolphins in here and we pass by a section of nice homes along the shoreline.  Next up is the Skiddaway Narrows Bridge, and as we are following a sailboat we decide to follow him under the bridge.  The Waterway Guide says the bridge has a vertical clearance of 22 ft., but when I call the bridge tender to tell him we are following the sailboat he says, “We have 27 ft. right now – you don’t need the bridge up, do you?”  Whereupon we reply that we don’t really, and he closes the bridge as we are going through.  Well, that worked out ok, but it still didn’t seem right to me to have the bridge closing as we went through!

            Just beyond the Skiddaway Narrows Bridge is the Isle of Hope Marina where we will spend the night, and once we get tied up, we have lunch, then borrow the  marina car and head to the grocery store to reprovision perishables.  Now, I know I shouldn’t complain, and I’m not really – I am only offering a description of the vehicle that is the marina’s loaner car.  Anyone who has read this knows that I am eternally grateful for a vehicle, any vehicle, to drive to the store and run errands – especially after having to ride those horrible folding bikes.  But – this car, which was an older Honda van (and I love Hondas – I drive one!) had a few issues!  Number one – there was a sign that had been affixed to the left rear passenger side door that said “DO NOT OPEN!” which we obeyed religiously.  I have no idea what would have happened if we had opened that door, but I’m glad we didn’t find out.  The remote door locks didn’t work – you had to unlock the doors manually by pulling the lock up after you unlocked the driver’s side door.  We couldn’t figure out how to operate any of the inside controls and it looked like other people had also gotten frustrated by the dysfunction of the controls as it looked like someone had tried to scratch-out the readout panel with a key or perhaps a hammer since the panel looked rather “crinkled” up.  None of this is terribly crucial, but once we got to the store, we noticed that two of the tires looked like they were trying very hard to go flat, and on our way back to the marina, the “maintenance needed” light came on.   But really, we were just glad to have the use of a car, seriously! 

After that exercise, I have to wash clothes and this is when I find out this marina only has one, yes, that’s right, only one washing machine for the tons of boats that are in here – oh yeah, and only one dryer.  Fortunately, no one else is using them, and I have them all to myself, but, of course, it takes twice as long as it normally would have.  It is also more expensive to use their one washing machine and dryer.

Well, I’m thinking and hoping that this will be the last time we have to go to the grocery store or do laundry before we get home.  Bob says that is wishful thinking on my part but I’m thinking it anyway!

As I write this and wait for the last of the clothes to dry, there is a gentle, soft drizzle falling.  The guy next door is playing Jimmy Buffett music so all can hear him, and that would be ok if he would just make margaritas for everyone!  I am going to poach some salmon and sauté some spinach for dinner and then crash!

Tomorrow we will be in South Carolina!

Sunday, April 28, 2013 – Wally’s Leg (Mile 666) to Big Tom Creek (Mile 614):

Sunset in Wally's Leg

            I woke up this morning very early to a low, guttural, growling noise somewhere outside the boat.  I hopped out of bed thinking it might be an alligator, but a quick look out the windows revealed nothing.  I quickly put on my shoes and grabbed the binoculars and camera and quietly went outside.  I didn’t see anything but the one thing that struck me was the calmness of the morning and the water.  The wind had died down some time during the night, and it was completely still.  There was not a ripple on the water, and it reflected the surrounding landscape and the clouds and the full moon that was still lounging around up in the sky.  It was striking to see the moon and sky reflected so perfectly on top of the water.

            The tide was low, and I kept searching the muddy banks for some sign of what could be making that noise as it seemed to be in more than one place.  I actually tried to “google” the noise when we anchored for the evening, but all I could come up with was an Atlantic Puffin, panther (nah…), a frog (maybe), and, of course, there were many sightings of “Bigfoot” (definitely, nah…).  So I am glad I am not making a documentary of our waterway excursion, because I am sadly lacking in facts.  It was interesting though and really held my attention as the banks were exposed.  Another “show” I got to see were two egret type birds who got into a squabble over their breakfast territory and put on quite a display defending their fishing territory.

The banks of Wally's Leg at sunrise

            It was getting to be time to use up some of the “stuff” in the refrigerator, and since we had a little bit of extra time this morning, I made a breakfast of scrambled eggs, diced ham, tomatoes and cheese, and a couple of muffins I had previously frozen for just such an occasion.  However, after breakfast, it was definitely time to get going as the tide was coming in, and it is always better to go through Georgia on a high tide!

            So we pulled up the anchor, which came up surprisingly clean and headed out of Wally’s Leg for the last time.  It might be a little disconcerting to some people to be in here as it is completely isolated, but along with the isolation comes an incomparable beauty that is hard to match as the marshy landscape changes with the tide.  As we leave we turn left and head north in the Mackay River. 

            The Mackay River runs into Buttermilk Sound (isn’t that a wonderful name), and as the wind had died down, it was a peaceful quiet boat ride through this part of Georgia’s waterway.  We pass a sailboat, then a southbound tugboat heads our way, but there is plenty of room to pass in this body of water.  We hear some radio chatter, but right now we are all alone out here.  From Buttermilk Sound you turn left into the Little Mud River, which you must go through at high tide.  This is a notoriously shallow area and even though it was high tide we saw 9’ of water at times!  This area would have been mud flats at low tide!  It is beautiful in here though and looks just like you are driving through the marsh.  Even though it is called Little Mud River, right now there is plenty of sunshine and the water sparkles.  The Little Mud River eventually flows into the North River at Mile 651, and from the North River we cross Doboy Sound and head into the Old Teakettle Creek.  It’s worth the trip just to travel on these rivers with such quaint names and wonder how they came to be named what they are.

Tugboat that passed by us

            It’s funny that there are spots we clearly remember cruising by and others that don’t seem familiar at all.  Perhaps it had to do with heart stopping moments at low tide!  As you travel through here it is funny to see boats way ahead of you that look like they have wandered off into the marshes. 

Shrimp that we passed

            We still see dolphins every day, but there have become so commonplace that I forget to mention them, but they are with us everyday – mostly they are all business about hunting for a meal and not leaping in our wake.

If the tide had gotten much higher it would have covered this mark!

            At Mile 643 we head into Creighton Narrows, which takes you into the Front River and into Sapelo River and then Sapelo Sound.  This is where we saw a fishing boat with some partying people who had run aground on Dog Hammock Spit as we were traveling south, but these folks didn’t seem to mind that they had to either wait for the tide to come up or have someone help them get off.  The weather is not as friendly as it was earlier and there is a definite demarcation line between the coffee grounds blue of the water and the sky blue gray of the sky.  It is very windy in here, and I am glad when we turn left and head into the South Newport River and up Johnson Creek.  We were going to anchor in here for the night (in Cattle Pen Creek) where we anchored on our way down here, but we had made such good time that we decided to keep going.  So we left Johnson Creek and headed into the North Newport River and then across St. Catherine’s Sound (yes, windy again!).  We turn left into Bear River, and then into Big Tom Creek where we will stay for the night.

            By now, the wind has picked up again and is blowing like a gale!  There are clouds of “mare’s tails” swishing in the sky, but they are being driven out by puffy black and white clouds.  We drop the hook and settle in.  As soon as the engines are turned off, I say, “Kitty Cat – we’re here!” and she comes scampering out to check out the view and to look for the buffet table!

Big Tom Creek on a falling tide

I think tomorrow should be an easy day, except we have to go through Hell Gate…

Saturday, April 27, 2013 – Cumberland Island (Mile 710) to Wally’s Leg (Mile 666):

            We had to get up early this morning in order to go through St. Andrews Sound at slack tide and Jekyll Creek at high tide.  We weren’t the only ones with this game plan as a Grand Banks who was anchored near us left just before we did, and then later we heard a sailboat on the radio who was anchored in Cumberland Island with us also and must have left a little bit after us.

            The wind died down during the night, but by the time we left the anchorage by 7:15 a.m., it was piping up again and the waterway was a bit choppy.  It was a sunny, bright day however, and this made traveling a little more enjoyable.

I guess this is one way to get to work!

            As we headed up Cumberland Sound we started to hear some chatter on the radio between the two boats ahead of us about conditions in St. Andrews Sound being pretty bumpy and perhaps it would be a good idea to take the alternate route starting at Floyd Creek. 

            I’m thinking this is going to be another stomach-churning, nail-biting day.  “Bumpy” conditions in St. Andrews Sound (you will recall, this is where we have to go out into the ocean for a bit)?  You might as well tell me that we are going to have to negotiate 20’ seas.  The “alternate” route – I look at the chart and there are places I can’t find any water.  Yikes!

            Well, we listen to the chatter, and the first boat is telling the second boat that he has done this route before, and it’s really ok if it’s high tide, which it is.   So we think, “OK, this will be an adventure.”  The second boat in this parade radios the first boat that he has never done this before, but he would like to try it and to please keep in radio contact with him if there is anything he should be aware of as he follows along.  We get on the radio to the second boat and let them know that we will also be in the que, and we also hear the sailboat behind us say he wants to do this route also.

            So, we turn left at Red mark #40 from Cumberland Sound and head into Floyd Creek.  The water is coffee-colored here (as is most of Georgia), but it is deep so far – 20’.  It is beautiful in here, peaceful and serene, and pretty much out of the wind although it still gusts from time to time.  You have to flip to the back of the chart book to the “inlets and side channels” page or use the big chart book to follow the chart in here.

Weaving around through the grasses

            Several seagulls appeared to be having quite a disagreement as they followed our boat in here squawking and carrying on something awful as they chased and dive-bombed each other.  Maybe they were displeased at the parade of boats that may have disrupted their breakfast.

            At A24 and 25 you turn into the tiny Floyd Cut, which takes you into the Satilla River where you head up and at A17 turn right into the tiny “Land Cut.”  From there you turn right into Dover Creek and at A14 turn left into the “Dover Cut”.  You wind around in here until you come to A8 and A9 and turn right into Umbrella Creek, then turn left at A6 into Umbrella Cut which takes you to Jekyll Sound and from there into Jekyll Creek.  (You all know this is not to be used for navigation, don’t you?)

There would be no water in here at low tide!

            You cannot do any of this at anything but HIGH TIDE!!  Don’t even think about it at any other time.  We usually saw plenty of water (20 feet) in most places, but there were a couple of spots where we saw 5’.  At low tide there would be no water in these places!  It was well worth the side trip to do this.  The channel made twists and turns as you weaved in and out through the green and gold marsh grasses.  It was just lovely, and I would recommend this to anyone on a sunny day at high tide for a nice little diversion from the “tried and true” path.  It also helped that we only draw 4 ½ feet!  The boat that was leading the rest of us through here did radio to us when we would be approaching a very shallow area, so we were prepared!

            Once we got into Jekyll Creek we headed up to Brunswick River.  Jekyll Creek certainly looked a lot different at high tide than it did when we came through here in November at almost low tide.  No nail-biting this time!

In Jekyll Creek - there is a picture of this boat at sunset earlier

            Now we head into St. Simons Sound which is not a problem at all which made me wonder if St. Andrews Sound might have been ok after all, but I’m glad we went the route we went.  Than we head into the Mackay River and into Wally’s Leg to our anchorage for the night.  Wally’s Leg looks much like the alternate route we took today – a relatively wide body of water for a creek with banks on both sides lined with various marsh grasses and other plants with birds chirping all around.  As the water recedes with the tide, little birds hop along the exposed banks looking for morsels not available at high tide.  Hmmm, we came in here and anchored in 13’ of water and now we have 6’ of water.  Oh well, that’s a foot and a half more than we need.  Yikes!  Here’s hoping we have hit low tide!!

Wally's Leg

            All in all it was a good traveling day with no glitches or hair-raising incidents, unless the tide falls a little farther in here!  Here’s hoping we can keep it this way for the rest of the trip back!