Moya Mreeya: 39. Georgia to Charleston

The route through Georgia meanders through serpentine rivers and across open sounds that can be choppy when the wind kicks up. It winds past the barrier islands of Georgia and is an entirely different ICW than in Florida. There has been no money for dredging for the past few years and it is important to stay in the channel even when crossing a wide open sound and to pay close attention to the tides. The tidal range here is 8 to 9 feet and to add to the mix, strong winds and the lunar cycle affect the tidal range. Thus it is critical to traverse the difficult area at mid to rising tide.

Someone had a sense of humour as some of the problematic spots have names such as Jekyll Island or Hell Gate while others have seemingly innocuous names such as Field Cut. Currents are incredibly swift and if the current is flowing in the direction you are heading, you can gain up to 3 knots of speed. If it is streaming against you, you must fight for every mile losing up to 3 knots/mile. Sometimes the current will change as you are entering a sound or river so you must be vigilant at all times. Planning is key and, even with planning, your trip it does not always work out the way you would like it to. On the day we went through Hell Gate, high tide was at 4:30 p.m. that day. We started out at 6:30 a.m. with first light to get to Hell Gate at mid to rising tide. We travelled for 12 hours straight anchoring at 6:30 p.m. in Turner’s Creek near Hogan’s Marina where we spent several days last fall getting our rudder fixed. We dinghied to Hogan’s Marina and who do we see but Stephen who had driven us all over Savannah. He had planned to go start out for the Bahamas shortly after we left but he never made it. His boat was hit by a large motorboat. Fortunately he is fine but he spent the winter repairing his boat and going to court.

Shoaling is an ongoing problem when the waterway is not dredged. We went through Field Cut in a rising tide but it was not high enough. We grounded.

Viking Angel tried to pull us off . In the picture above you can see one side of the rope that is attached to the bow of Viking Angel. The other side is attached to our bow. Behind Viking Angel is a cruiser that we asked to make as large a wake as possible hoping that the waves would help us off the shoal. The cruiser said that it was the first time a sailboat asked for a wake. Usually sailboats just complain about the wakes. We tried and tried but to no avail. We told Viking Angel to continue without us and we waited several hours for the tide to rise. Then we just floated off.

Other boats were not so lucky. Apparently the sailboat above went aground two weeks ago. There is hole in the hull and it cannot be towed.

We don't know the story behind this one.

Several days later we were in Charleston and it was wonderful to see Chad from Cambyration with whom we had travelled for several weeks in the fall. Chad and LeeAnn are very happy in Charleston. Both are working. LeeAnn is taking college course via internet and Chad is working on their boat. They are planning to go to the Virgin Islands and work in St. John’s for the winter.

We encountered many birds in our travels.