January 28, 2017 - January 31, 2017
I should have named this post "Going Aground in Fun Places" since that seems to be the theme of our travels in the final days of January, except going aground is no fun at all.
On January 29th after a hot shower, we left Beaufort early since it was our plan to make it to Georgia. It was cold and windy, but we were bundled up for that. Things went fine until just before the Savannah River where the chart we have been following showed skirting a shallow area by staying to the left when we really should have stayed to the right. We went hard around and all the maneuvers Bob and I tried didn't help. About an hour later we flagged down a boater who helped pull us off. After that harrowing experience, we decided to stay at Thunderbolt Marina in Thunderbolt, GA rather than anchor out as planned.
The next morning we both still felt beat up by yesterday's grounding and weighed the pros and cons of staying in Thunderbolt another day. We decided to keep going and Bob assured me there was no chance of going aground today. We travelled the ICW through some beautiful areas with magnificent homes.
On January 29th after a hot shower, we left Beaufort early since it was our plan to make it to Georgia. It was cold and windy, but we were bundled up for that. Things went fine until just before the Savannah River where the chart we have been following showed skirting a shallow area by staying to the left when we really should have stayed to the right. We went hard around and all the maneuvers Bob and I tried didn't help. About an hour later we flagged down a boater who helped pull us off. After that harrowing experience, we decided to stay at Thunderbolt Marina in Thunderbolt, GA rather than anchor out as planned.
The next morning we both still felt beat up by yesterday's grounding and weighed the pros and cons of staying in Thunderbolt another day. We decided to keep going and Bob assured me there was no chance of going aground today. We travelled the ICW through some beautiful areas with magnificent homes.
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| This home is a great example of Southern architecture with Corinthian columns and a wide front porch, all in the shade of live oak trees. |
Right after lunch I was looking ahead on the chart and found a spot called Hell Gate - this can't be good. I looked it up in the guide book and found out how really bad it was, but we were upon it before we could make the decision to do anything else. Bob piloted through the mile long area carefully at slow speed and when the shallow water alarm started beeping we only scraped bottom a bit. We arrived safely at our anchorage in Kilkenny Creek just off the ICW and celebrated our "no going aground" day with a bottle of champagne. I've found that sailors celebrate just about everything on a journey like this.
It was still very cold and windy in the morning, but we left our anchorage by 7:30 in order to cross the next shallow section of the ICW at high tide. Things went smoothly until a missing navigational marker caused Bob to cut a turn too short and that alarm went off again and before Bob could change directions we were aground. Again he tried several maneuvers to no avail. I suggested backing up and that did the trick. It was smooth going until we anchored. The scenery all day had been stark marsh grass with a few trees. The natural beauty was marvelous and it lead to an exquisite sunset.
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| The most stark and natural scenery can be the most beautiful. |
This morning it was still cold, but we had the prediction of a 70 degree day. Mud River was our challenge today. We left at 8 am so we would traverse the 15 miles of shallow areas ahead of us during rising and high tide. We have learned our lesson from our previous incidents of going aground. We took it slow through the most treacherous areas of the ICW and came through safely. The scenery now included homes and boat docks as well as marsh grass and trees. We anchored in St. Simon's Sound just before the entrance to another tricky section of the ICW. By the time we anchored I was in capris and t-shirt. This weather is closer to what I expected on this trip. Tomorrow looks challenging, but we can do it!!!!
Thanks for reading my blog.
