April 23, 2010 - Day 8

We up anchor and start moving almost before we can really see. We need to make it 12 miles and get through the worst trouble spot in GA. It’s a stretch about 2 miles long known to be extremely shallow, 5’ or less at low tide. The water in one spot there is only 2.5’ at MLW and we will be arriving at 2 hours before low tide.

When we arrive I almost decide to hold up, but foolishly went ahead anyway. It was a real nail biter all the way through. Right at the very end, we hit the bottom, which was soft mud. I revved up the engine to keep our speed from slowing and plowed through. I saw the depth meter reading 3.9’ but Donna said she saw it read 3.1’. Fortunately we had enough speed to “plow” through. As we popped out of the mud, the depth meter display suddenly jumped to 4.5’, 4.9’ and then slowly climbed to 7’. Whew!! We made it.

I spent a few minutes just unwinding. The rest of the day was more motor jibbing with the help of a good SE breeze. Quite a bit of it to be exact. We didn’t stop until reaching the anchorage next to the Isle of Hope Marina. We dropped the hook about 1910. A very long, nerve wrecking day.


Location: Anchorage next to Isle of Hope Marina, GA - MM 590 (South of Thunderbolt, GA)
Distance Traveled: 75 mi

April 22, 2010 - Day 7

We get an early start and are underway at 0645. We have trouble spots to get past which require a little tide timing. The first one was at Cumberland Dividings. The tide was near the bottom, but we followed other cruisers advice and stayed uncomfortably close to shore (15 -20 yards) and managed to find deep enough water to pass through.

We reach the tidal current line between rivers/inlets and pick up speed. In fact we did so well, we reached the next trouble spot, Jekyll Creek, only a couple hours after the bottom of the tide. This creek is so bad you need to be ¾ high rising to safely transit with our boats draft. To kill some time we stopped just before the bad stretch at the Jekyll Harbor Marina. We filled one 5 gal. jug with diesel fuel and then went to lunch at the on-site SeaJay’s Waterfront CafĂ© & Pub. We had a couple of brews and a great lunch. By the time we were finished, the creek water was up enough to continue on.


On we went. I started calling it “Motor Jibbing”. That’s motor running with the jib rolled out to get a little boost to our speed. We motor jibbed across St. Simons Sound and then up the Mackay River to Wallys Leg where we stopped for the night.


What a difference a few months make. We froze our butts off in Wallys Leg back in December and tonight we are sleeping under sheets with upper 60s for temperatures.


Location: Wallys Leg, GA - MM 665
Distance Traveled: 46 mi

April 21, 2010 - Day 6

We get underway about 0700 heading for the GA/FL line or somewhere close. Nothing much to report on. It’s a typical day of motoring, motoring, motoring with nothing outstanding to see or write about.


We pass Fernandina Beach and continue on into that hell hole called GA. We anchor off the seadock at Cumberland Island. The wind is expected to be light so the only concern is the usual fast moving current associated with the large tide swing.


Good bye FL, hello GA.
Location: Cumberland Island GA, Just North of the GA/FL line - MM 711
Distance Traveled: 54 mi