Wednesday November 10 – We’re at anchor in Red Bird Creek south of Savannah, Georgia. We should both be tired since we have been up since 06:00 am yesterday however we still have a small bit of remaining energy left. We spent the morning yesterday saying goodbye to the others at dock and preparing to do an offshore run ourselves. We filed our Float Plan with our friend Paul, which is something we do whenever we go offshore. Our float plan details everything about us, the boat, our safety equipment onboard, departure and expected arrival times. We file it with someone and if we are delayed we call or if we don’t call then they are instructed to call the Coast Guard. So we make sure we call if we are going to be delayed. If we don’t have cell or sat phone coverage then we call the Coast Guard on our VHF radio and ask them to do a ship-to-shore call. We did that when we were anchored at Main Duck Island on Lake Ontario.
We left dock at noon on Tuesday October 9th and headed out the Cape Fear River. We timed our departure so that we could take full advantage of the ebbing tide. At 10+ knots we were soon rushing out the cut and on our way to Atlantic Ocean to run overnight along the coast. Hobo II (Port Credit), H2OBO (Port Credit), Reboot (Ridgewood, NJ), Marjorie E and Saber Tooth (Port Credit) who were over for cocktails last night did the same. Sylvie aboard EOS (Green Cove Springs, FL) remarked last night that she thought she was in Canada and not North Carolina with all the Canadian boats at dock. We kept 7-10 nautical miles offshore but the others (all sailboats) went out 20 nautical miles overnight. Winds were supposed to be N & NW 10 -15 all night and all day however in actual fact they were southwest and increased slightly at dusk. We watched the sunset faded and the sunrise the next morning.
Sunset over the ocean
During the night the moon was only a sliver. It was lighting the water head of our bow for a few hours which helped to guide our way. With no clouds the millions of stars in the sky twinkled brightly and we spotted many shooting stars throughout the night. The waves were running 3 – 5 feet off our starboard bow and winds increased to 15 but everything was quite manageable. Ted & I took turns sleeping during the course of the night. I took the first sleeping shift and slept till midnight when Ted woke me to add a quarter of oil in the engine (which we do every 12 hours). After that I took my turn at the helm, looking at the charts for any obstructions and the radar for any boat traffic. Otherwise I started out into the night, looked for any boats that might not show up on our radar. We kept in radio contact with Saber Tooth during the night and said our good-byes at 02:00 am as we arrived near the Charleston, South Carolina inlet. They would be heading into Charleston at first light and spending the day touring around the city. We will catch up to them again in Florida. Once we approached Charleston Harbour I woke Ted so that we would both be awake to cross the channel and sort out all of the lights and markers on radar. The last time we crossed this channel we had a large ship coming out and other ships at anchor just south of the harbour. Tonight things thankfully were quiet. At 03:00 we were clear of the harbour and Ted took over for the next 2 hours. At 05:00 I took over the sunrise shift. This is my first time doing the sunrise shift because Ted usually likes this time of the day. I watched as a sliver of light appeared in the east a good half hour before I started to see the sun rising.
At 06:00 Ted woke up, made coffee and we planned our day. Our intention was to go to Hilton Head, South Carolina, but we decided to keep going further since we had a good forecast for the day and we were rested. For the next hour I checked and double checked our route options. We wanted to be able to get to the entrance of a Sound during daylight hours. At 09:40 we set a waypoint to St. Simond’s Sound in southern Georgia, but quickly discovered it would be 8 hours 40 minutes and we could not do the run in daylights hours. We altered course to enter Tybee Roads Inlet which was long inlet but had a well marked entrance channel. We checked in early with Paul to report on our Float Plan and to let him know we were headed in the inlet. As I was talking to Paul on the phone, I noticed something in the water beside us. Upon closer inspection I discovered that we were surrounded by thousands of jelly fish floating around the boat. Once we were in the inlet, we passed a ship coming out with a pilot boat. This time there was lots of room and the ship stayed in his lane, unlike the tug in the intercoastal a few days ago who edged us out of the channel into 3 feet of water.
Ship with pilot boat
Behind the big ship is the pilot boat going out with the ship to pick up the pilot who is onboard escorting the ship through the channel. It is said that the job of a pilot captain is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. The pilot boat comes along side the ship as it is moving (sometimes going 18 knots) and climbs up a ladder on the side of the ship. He goes on board to take control of the navigation to escort the larger freighter in and out of harbours. Once he is done he then goes back down the ladder onto the waiting pilot boat. They do this in fair or foul weather. You can see by the picture above that the pilot boat is not that big, maybe 30 - 40 feet long compared to the ships that are 600 to 800 feet long.
Twenty four hours after we had departed dock from Southport, North Carolina we entered the ICW near Savannah Georgia. We had completely bypassed South Carolina on the outside! Having slept a few hours during the night we decided that we were both rested enough to continue cruising all day. There were 90 boats waiting in Beauford, North Carolina when we passed there. There were another 50 boats that we travelled with in North Carolina. As we escape the crowds and leave the vast majority of the traffic behind us we enjoying cruising again in the Intercoastal. We see only a few sailboats and a couple of trawlers all day and all of the chatter on the VHF airways has settled to the occasional call when boats want to pass.
Cruising along the ICW in Georgia is not a straight line but rather a series of S and hairpin turns. The distance along the coast is approximately 85 miles on the outside and the inside ICW route is 130 miles and flat like a big coastal plain. It almost seems like the prairies but with water. We passed very few towns along the waterway, just vast open waterways. The only notable town was at Thuderbolt with a bridge spanning the canal with marinas lining the waterway on both sides. This is where we spotted Georgia Girl and a BIG shipyard.
Georgia Girl
Shipyard along the canal. The little boat on the left out of the water is probably 40 feet.
We spot only the occasional floats in the water along this section of the waterway. I did manage to capture a picture of a fisherman checking his traps. You will notice a float in the water behind his boat as well.
Fisherman checking his traps (Georgia 035)
Only two bridge today that we need clearance for, however we discover that we can sneak under both with 2 feet to spare at low tide. Both bridge tenders are cooperative and read the tide board on the side of the bridge for us that indicate the clearance. We wish them a good winter and we’re off leaving the sailboats behind us to wait for a bridge opening. The waterway curves between Sounds (entrances from the ocean) where the water floods in or ebbs out depending on the tide cycle. The Sounds are sometimes an hour or 1 ½ hours apart, so halfway in between the two we lose our speed, when it drops to around 7 knots and then once we get to the Sound and start heading the other way the speed increases to 9-10 knots until we reach the half way point again and the cycle continues all day.
We cruised till 16:07 and dropped anchor at Red Bird Creek. As I am working on the blog I am interrupted by the sound of dolphins swimming around our boat, they sound like they are huffing and puffing when they come up for air. We talked to them and they come closer sometimes just 5 feet off the side of the boat. Sadly the water is brackish so I can get good pictures of them beneath the water. We tried to count them but quickly lost track. We’ve never see this many together in the Bahamas. Today we have dolphins surrounding us and a martini at sunset having left all of our worries on the ICW (Inter Coastal Waterway).
Dolphins playing around the boat
After dinner I struggled to keep my eyes open till 8 pm. Much like jet-lag, we have found that if you stay awake after an overnight cruise and go to bed at a regular time in the evening, your body is able to adjust much better than if we went to bed in the morning and slept for 6 hours.
In the past 28 hours we cruised 230 miles averaging 8.2 knots speed (or 15 kilometres per hour). Since we left Toronto on October 4th we have now logged 1365 nautical miles (or 1570 statute miles or 2526 kilometres) under our keel or 2/3 of our trip south is now completed. Our southernmost destination in George Town Great Exuma is 2085 nautical miles.
Our computer chart shows the twists and turns in Georgia ( Georgia 002)
Thursday November 11th
Now that the clocks have changed it is light at 06:00. We were up early to prepare for the days cruise. This morning we had to squeegee the decks and the cockpit windows. Everything was covered in dew and even the canvas was soaked right through. The two other sailboats that entered our anchorage in the river are still asleep as we ease out of the creek and into the ICW. Although they call them creeks in Georgia, they resemble small rivers with STRONG currents. Last night as we dropped anchor the current help us set the anchor very quickly. We spun around in the creek ever six hours during the night with our anchor held firmly in place. In the morning we are pointed in the opposite direction from last night indicating that the tide is ebbing which gives us a push and additional speed, at least unit the next Sound. We briefly contemplate heading out of the nearby Sound but we are not comfortable with what we hear on the weather forecast and the shoaling at the end of this Sound near the ocean. Rather we take the safer route and spend the day cruising inside. Like yesterday the traffic is minimal and we spend the day weaving around the turns. No more toques and fleece sweaters now that we are in Georgia. We start our day in t-shirts but by 09:00 we are putting on sun screen and cruising in our bathing suits. We open the side windows of the flybridge to get a breeze. It’s November 11th and it is 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degree Celsius) and we are in Georgia. Our last trip through this area was in May 2006 and at the time we were swatting flies all day.
Around noon we hear a call between two cruisers which was distressing. We listen to the conversation on the VHF radio ... “This is Scott Free. We have a fire in the engine room and we are dropping anchor now”, then nothing. We wait for a mayday call but nothing is heard. An hour later we discover a sailboat at anchor to one side of the canal. No one hails us and no one is on watch. The boat should have done a SECURITE call on the VHF to advise the rest of us their position and the status of the emergency. Some boaters still lack experience and common sense. Half and hour later Towboat US is there to tow them into Brunswick. As it turns out they had smoke but no fire from a transmission hose that leaked fluid onto the hot manifold. They lost enough fluid that they needed to be towed in for repairs.
We saw a few isolated homes with no road or hydro. These appeared to be on island in the swamp with no road access. We passed one small house on stilts. We saw dolphins rushing to play on our bow and along our wake beside the boat. They seems so happy you can almost see them smiling.
We anchored on the Frederica River at St. Simons Island near Brunswick Georgia. We debate going to the marina nearby but prefer to stay at anchor rather than battle the 3 knot current near the marina. We are anchored in 10 feet however as the tides drops we discover that we are in 5’7” at low tide. This area has one of the highest tide ranges of 7’8”. As night falls the wind drops and we sit calmly at anchor. The only sound is the nearby church bells that peel out on the hour. At seven pm we discover that the church bells ring to the sound of Amazing Grace. Clearly the most beautiful sounding church bells we have ever heard.
Friday November 12
Friday November 12
I awoke to Ted singing our traditional family birthday song. “It’s your birthday, the day you were born. You will have it every year and you’ll always get a cheer, on your birthday, the day you were born” Hooray, it’s been a good year! We re-opened the Boatel, visited by family in New Brunswick twice, spent time with our children and got back to cruising again. Life is good. People worry about getting old but in my opinion life just keeps getting better. I am doing what I want to do when I grow up. Today we have 34 miles to go to Fernandina Beach, Florida which is the first town on the Georgia – Florida border.
Along the route we spotted wild horses on Cumberland Island and manage to grab a picture of them. They are the only inhabitants on this protected barrier island refuge. Cumberland is probably the largest of all the barrier islands only the Georgia coast. The ICW runs between these islands and the Atlantic.
Wild Horses
We get cheers from a group of children on a pontoon boat out on a school trip near St. Simon Island. They cheer and wave as I take their picture. By noon we are in Florida. I got the best birthday gift from Ted – a trip to Florida!
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