Last view of St. Simon's Island before heading out to sea.
Nat at the helm.
Interior of Cumberland Island, GA
They were so close!
Amazing, almost Jurassic looking flora
Sunset
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Cumberland Island Photos
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Heading Through The Skinny ICW In Georgia
The last few days have been terrific. Cold and challenging at times, but terrific. I now understand why most people choose to head outside of the ICW in South Carolina and skip Georgia. The shoaling is pretty extensive in spots and the navigation keeps you on your toes. Not fun watching the sounder hit 6-8' here and there! But we're glad we decided to head through this stretch. The scenery has been phenomenal. The huge expanses of marsh give you a horizon-to-horizon view, almost like a Western landscape. Great wildlife viewing too. And the tricky stretches have given Betsy and me a good opportunity to brush up on our navigation skills and get a feel for how Chere handles in different conditions. Here's what has happened the last few days. (Sorry if these are long and include too many place names; we're using this blog to keep track of things as much for our own purposes as to keep folks up-to-date).
Saturday, Jan 14
We left Hilton Head Saturday morning. It was clear and breezy and very, very cold -- in the high 20s when we woke up. We realize that this probably sounds warm to our friends back home (my buddy Willy told me it was -15 at the top of Cannon that morning). But it felt very wrong to be cruising by white beaches with palm trees when the wind chill hovered around 15 degrees. We had to hit the tides right at a few cuts that day, so we left the dock early and pushed hard down Calibogue Sound and around Daufuskie Island (taken from "da" "first" "key") to Daufuskie Landing, our first tight spot. We cleared that area without much trouble and caught the tide through Walls Cut and then across the Savannah River into Georgia through Elba Island Cut, where again our sounder started to show some pretty shallow depths. The entire section from Daufuski Landing through Elba Island Cut was a bit nerve-wracking with a stiff 20 knot wind, pretty shallow depths and some large commercial traffic heading down the Savannah River just to make things more interesting. But once we made it through that stretch, we had a nice glide down the Wilmington River to Isle of Hope, a small riverside town with some jaw-dropping antebellum architecture. Once again, we saw dolphin everywhere along the way. The marina we stayed at in Isle of Hope had loaner cars, so we were able to head to a local watering hole and watch the first half of the Patriots game while chowing down on a huge basket of fried pickles. Good eats. We car-pooled with a nice couple from Falmouth, MA, who tied up at the same marina right in front of us (in the "Rachael J."). They are one of only two boats that we've run into heading South in the ICW. And we've only passed a handful of boats heading the other way. They've made this trip over 10 times and have given us some great advice over the radio during the last few days.
Sunday, January 15
We all slept well after staying up late to watch the Pats blowout and woke up to another cold morning; ice covered the docks. After debating whether to stay another day, we finally decided that we needed to head out in order for the tides to be right in a few tricky areas on Monday. We were off the dock 15 minutes later and cruising down Skidaway Narrows (yes, it's pretty narrow) past Moon River (yes, that Moon River) and into the Ogeechee River. From there, we headed through the ominous-sounding and somewhat notorious Hell Gate, which is a narrow cut toward the mouth of the Ogeechee River that keeps the guys at SeaTow quite busy. Betsy steered us through that cut and Florida Passage without breaking a sweat; she's a natural at the helm. After another tricky spot we cut across St. Catherine's Sound, down the North Newport River, and then headed waaaaay up an offshoot of the ICW called Wahoo Creek, where we anchored for the night next to a small island in the middle of the marsh. It was an incredibly remote and beautiful spot. Once we were on the hook, the boys and I jumped in the zodiac and headed to the island. It was covered with small palms and large pines and had a earilly Jurassic feel to it. I'll post some pics. One strange thing -- in the middle of this island -- which, again, was in the middle of a marsh miles and miles from anything -- we found an electrical junction box. I half expected it to see "The Darma Initiative" painted on it. That night we hung our shrimp lights over the side of the boat to see what we could attract. No shrimp, but we had fun netting some good sized Silversides. Thank Nana and Grampa for the lights and nets!
Monday, January 16
We were off the hook by 9am and on our way to catch the right tides at the last shallow run we needed to get through in Georgia -- the Little Mud River. The folks we had met back in Isle of Hope had warned us about this stretch, and in fact they had grounded out there last year for a while. After some tense moments here and there with the depth sounder hitting close to 6 feet, we made it through just fine. Betsy and I took turns at the helm and navigating, and the boys enjoyed the views, shipwrecks and dolphin along the way. Toward the end of the trip, one dolphin followed right alongside the cockpit, coming up again and again just feet from the kids. Very cool. We ended the day at the Lanier Island Marina, just off St. Simon's Island. After some showers, fresh laundry and a hot meal, we're all in good shape and ready to head out again. Our plan for today is to do a short outside hop down to Cumberland Island, where we'll spend a day and a couple of nights exploring the island's fort and ruins, and looking for wild ponies and armadillos.
On the big picture side of things, everything is going very, very well. We're all feeling as if Chere is home, the boys have settled into life on a boat, we've all put together good routines when it comes to docking, anchoring, cleaning, navigating, etc. Life is good. We probably won't have the internets for a few days, but we should have cell coverage.
Saturday, Jan 14
We left Hilton Head Saturday morning. It was clear and breezy and very, very cold -- in the high 20s when we woke up. We realize that this probably sounds warm to our friends back home (my buddy Willy told me it was -15 at the top of Cannon that morning). But it felt very wrong to be cruising by white beaches with palm trees when the wind chill hovered around 15 degrees. We had to hit the tides right at a few cuts that day, so we left the dock early and pushed hard down Calibogue Sound and around Daufuskie Island (taken from "da" "first" "key") to Daufuskie Landing, our first tight spot. We cleared that area without much trouble and caught the tide through Walls Cut and then across the Savannah River into Georgia through Elba Island Cut, where again our sounder started to show some pretty shallow depths. The entire section from Daufuski Landing through Elba Island Cut was a bit nerve-wracking with a stiff 20 knot wind, pretty shallow depths and some large commercial traffic heading down the Savannah River just to make things more interesting. But once we made it through that stretch, we had a nice glide down the Wilmington River to Isle of Hope, a small riverside town with some jaw-dropping antebellum architecture. Once again, we saw dolphin everywhere along the way. The marina we stayed at in Isle of Hope had loaner cars, so we were able to head to a local watering hole and watch the first half of the Patriots game while chowing down on a huge basket of fried pickles. Good eats. We car-pooled with a nice couple from Falmouth, MA, who tied up at the same marina right in front of us (in the "Rachael J."). They are one of only two boats that we've run into heading South in the ICW. And we've only passed a handful of boats heading the other way. They've made this trip over 10 times and have given us some great advice over the radio during the last few days.
Sunday, January 15
We all slept well after staying up late to watch the Pats blowout and woke up to another cold morning; ice covered the docks. After debating whether to stay another day, we finally decided that we needed to head out in order for the tides to be right in a few tricky areas on Monday. We were off the dock 15 minutes later and cruising down Skidaway Narrows (yes, it's pretty narrow) past Moon River (yes, that Moon River) and into the Ogeechee River. From there, we headed through the ominous-sounding and somewhat notorious Hell Gate, which is a narrow cut toward the mouth of the Ogeechee River that keeps the guys at SeaTow quite busy. Betsy steered us through that cut and Florida Passage without breaking a sweat; she's a natural at the helm. After another tricky spot we cut across St. Catherine's Sound, down the North Newport River, and then headed waaaaay up an offshoot of the ICW called Wahoo Creek, where we anchored for the night next to a small island in the middle of the marsh. It was an incredibly remote and beautiful spot. Once we were on the hook, the boys and I jumped in the zodiac and headed to the island. It was covered with small palms and large pines and had a earilly Jurassic feel to it. I'll post some pics. One strange thing -- in the middle of this island -- which, again, was in the middle of a marsh miles and miles from anything -- we found an electrical junction box. I half expected it to see "The Darma Initiative" painted on it. That night we hung our shrimp lights over the side of the boat to see what we could attract. No shrimp, but we had fun netting some good sized Silversides. Thank Nana and Grampa for the lights and nets!
Monday, January 16
We were off the hook by 9am and on our way to catch the right tides at the last shallow run we needed to get through in Georgia -- the Little Mud River. The folks we had met back in Isle of Hope had warned us about this stretch, and in fact they had grounded out there last year for a while. After some tense moments here and there with the depth sounder hitting close to 6 feet, we made it through just fine. Betsy and I took turns at the helm and navigating, and the boys enjoyed the views, shipwrecks and dolphin along the way. Toward the end of the trip, one dolphin followed right alongside the cockpit, coming up again and again just feet from the kids. Very cool. We ended the day at the Lanier Island Marina, just off St. Simon's Island. After some showers, fresh laundry and a hot meal, we're all in good shape and ready to head out again. Our plan for today is to do a short outside hop down to Cumberland Island, where we'll spend a day and a couple of nights exploring the island's fort and ruins, and looking for wild ponies and armadillos.
On the big picture side of things, everything is going very, very well. We're all feeling as if Chere is home, the boys have settled into life on a boat, we've all put together good routines when it comes to docking, anchoring, cleaning, navigating, etc. Life is good. We probably won't have the internets for a few days, but we should have cell coverage.
Heading Through The Skinny ICW In Georgia
A very choppy Hilton Head.
Drainer tide at Skull Creek. 
Deer along the shore.
COLD!!!!!!
Skidaway Narrows bridge.
Capt. Hazlewood asleep at the nav station.
Movie time!
Spanish Moss and oaks line the streets in downtown Isle of Hope.
Isle of Hope house.
The boys and I went to church in Isle of Hope (well, we looked at one).
Betsy steering us through the notorious Hell Gate and Florida Passage. No problem!
Interesting shorelines everywhere.
White Pellicans hanging out on a spit.
Heading off to explore The Island.
At anchor in the Wahoo River. Kind of pretty.
Sunrise on the Wahoo.Saturday, January 14, 2012
Safe and sound in Georgia
We made it through a couple of shallow cuts in a nasty, cold wind and are safely tied to a dock at Isle of Hope, GA. Photos and details to follow. Still cold but we are making good progress. We've secured a car to take us to a restaurant/bar to watch the Patriots beat the Broncos!
Friday, January 13, 2012
And We're Off!
The last two days have been busy, eventful and fun! Here's a quick summary:
Thursday, January 12
We left the dock in Church Creek early in the morning, excited to get underway but also wary of getting through the maze of uncharted bars that the delivery captain, who owns the dock we were using, had been warning us about for the past week. GPS is useless in the creek (it showed us going over dry land) and the water is too murky to see any structure, so all we had to help us navigate were a few recent aerial photos of the creek from the local county, and some instructions scribbled on a sketch of the creek that the delivery captain gave me. After making it through the first few bars on the rising tide without any problems, we managed to bump on the end of the last bar. But after 5 minutes, we were floating free and on our way. To paraphrase Nigel Calder, if you're not touching bottom, you're likely to be missing some excellent gunkholing possiblities. That's certainly the case with the upper end of Church Creek.
The rest of the day was excellent, with Betsy and I navigating through miles and miles of the incredibly beautiful but desolate lowlands of South Carolina. It felt great to be heading South. Throughout the day, we saw loads of ducks, merganser, pellicans and shorebirds, and pod after pod of bottlenose dolphin. Quite a few of them followed alongside the boat and our zodiac (which we were towing) and put on a show for the kids. I'll try to post some photos or a video. Eventually, we came to our first bridge. Like many bridges along the ICW, this bridge was a "fixed" bridge with a height of 65', the minimum fixed bridge height in the ditch, as the ICW is fondly known. Our mast is 59' tall, which gives us a few feet off wiggle-room. But I have to say that my heart was in my throat as I watched the masthead pass under the span.
After weaving through a few shallow "cuts" that connect different creek systems, we passed close by a marine base north of Beaufort, SC that is home to seven squadrons of FA-18 Super Hornets. About 10-15 put on a private airshow for us, with a few swinging overhead really, really low. Darn those things are loud. Soon after, we came to the Ladies Island Bridge, which is a swing bridge in downtown Beaufort, SC. The kids had a blast watching the bridge swing open and waving to the bridge keeper as we passed by. 10 minutes later we were tied up at the Port Royal marina, where we rode out a nastly blow last night. I saw the anemometer hit close to 40 knots at one point. After toasting our first day over a great dinner, we all crawled into our bunks and fell asleep despite the noise in the rigging. A great start to our trip.
Friday, January 13
What a difference a day makes. When we went to bed, it was about 60 degrees; when we woke up, it was about 30 degrees. With the stiff W wind, it felt even colder. Over our morning coffee,
Betsy and I figured out where we were going to head next, and when. We checked the weather, tides and charts and decided to keep moving south through Georgia in the ICW, as opposed to heading out to the ocean and making an outside run. The stretch of the ICW through Georgia is known for its shoaling and shallow cuts, and to make sure that we hit the next series of cuts at the right tide (rising), we needed to be about 20 miles further down the ICW by the afternoon. So after Betsy finished up morning school with the kids and I finished a few projects on the boat, we cast off the lines and caught the outgoing tide down to Paris Island, and then up Port Royal Sound to Skull Creek. After poking around one anchorage and deciding that it wouldn't work, we tied up at Skull Creek Marina on Hilton Head Island. We then went for a walk down to Fort Mitchell, which is a civil war fort that the Union built to prevent Confederate troop and ships -- especially the ironclad CSS Atlanta -- from heading from Savannah to Port Royal Sound. Pretty cool. Back to the boat for dinner and some facetime chatting with friends back home, and then we're off to bed. Our plan is to head down to either Thunderbolt or Isle of Hope tomorrow. And if at all possible, we'll try to catch some of the Pats/Broncos game, somewhere. Go Pats!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Working late
Still preparing the boat for tomorrow's departure; moving fuel,tying down surf boards, filling the water tanks, closing up the car, stowing food, stubbing toes, feeding children...... We are leaving in the morning with the incoming tide and depending on the weather and the bridge schedule we may push to Beaufort. The boys enjoyed the first half of the rainy day with Legos and schoolwork. It was raining and blowing hard. The change in the weather makes us want to go further south!
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