Dreamtime Sailing

Wednesday, 2 December

For the first time, Christina stepped off the boat and helped push Dreamtime off the dock as someone else was aboard playing crew.

Bob and our friend Ben took off for the 2.5 hour transit to Brunswick Landing Marina and Christina enjoyed a couple hours on land.  The trip by car from Hidden Harbor Marina to Brunswick Landing Marina takes literally 12 minutes, even with traffic lights, so Christina had time to enjoy a leisurely morning with some shopping before making her way to the marina to meet the guys and the boat.

Bob reported the trip was pretty uneventful but a dolphin sighting did occur, meaning our record of daily dolphin sightings continues.

We enjoyed an afternoon exploring Brunswick and St. Simon’s Island with Ben before saying good-bye until next time we pass through.

We spent the next day doing boat chores.  We discovered an awesome Caribbean restaurant for dinner and were back on the boat for an early evening.

Tomorrow we again get to sleep in as we are planning the short transit across St. Simon’s Sound and through Jekyll Creek (another shoaling area) for high tide around noon to Jekyll Island Marina.

Tuesday 1 December – New Teakettle Creek to Brunswick, GA

Through the night we would check the GPS just to be sure the boat was securely anchored and would be in the same location in the morning as when we set the anchor yesterday afternoon.  We were happy that was the case.

We woke up to heavy fog this morning.  The weather forecast predicted the fog would lift by 1000 and thankfully we weren’t planning our departure from the anchorage until then anyway.  But as the hours ticked by whenever it seemed like the fog was lifting, a new wave would appear and sock us in, making us wonder if we would be leaving the anchorage today as planned.

But true to the weather forecasts the fog lifted enough for us to feel safe enough to start the engine, lift the anchor, head back down the creek and re-enter the ICW on schedule.

We were glad we had planned to transit Little Mud River at high tide when we saw shoaling on the south end with depths of 11 feet.  With an 8 foot tide that would mean that at low tide there would have only been 3 feet of water and the river would have been impassable for us.

We continued to wind our way through the Waterway on this quiet day.

Way back in October as we started this adventure we first saw another Gozzard (s/v Belle Bateaux – who we met in Goderich, Canada in April at the Gozzard Reunion) as we crossed under the Annapolis Bay Bridge in the Chesapeake Bay.  We would hear them on the radio off and on throughout our travels but were always a day or two behind or in front of them it seemed.  Today we finally saw them on the water as they came up behind us and passed us as we exited the Waterway to make our way up a small channel to Hidden Harbor Marina in Brunswick, GA.

The journey along the ICW really is a small community of the same boats passing each other along the way, leap frogging each other as one boat stops at one place for a few days and another at another place.  It is not uncommon to see folks we met a week ago at a new marina.

We are starting to see native palm trees along the way….yay!!!

This marina had been an old fishing camp that was renovated into a townhouse/marina community.  But timing is everything in real estate and due to the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, only half the the townhomes were ever built.  They really didn’t sell as predicted and you can see the two story foundations that had been poured but never built.

The managers of the marina have the reputation of being the friendliest and most helpful along the ICW.  True to their reputation they kindly offered to drive us anywhere we wanted to go for shopping or dinner.

Instead of taking them up on their generous offer, we connected with a friend who lives in Georgia.  We had met Ben a couple of years ago on a sailing expedition in the South Pacific.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner and catching up in nearby St. Simon’s Island.

We made plans that tomorrow Ben would join Bob for the 2.5 hour transit to our next marina in Brunswick (Brunswick Landing Marina) while Christina would drive his car the short 12 minutes the trip takes on land.

 

Monday 30 November – Kilkenny to New Teakettle Creek

We woke to an awesome sunrise and enjoyed another absolutely beautiful day winding our way through Georgia.  We only saw three other boats on the water today.

The dolphins were out and about swimming around the sounds and rivers we transited.  

We took a break from our tour of the marinas along the ICW and headed up a small creek to anchor for the night.

Being at anchor by 1300 meant we had the afternoon to work on our tans and enjoy the absolute quiet only broken by the birds flying and fishing for themselves.

The solitude of being the only boat there was awesome.

Tomorrow we will be transiting a known shoaling area called Little Mud River and want to time that with high tide.  This means we get to sleep in and enjoy a quiet morning tomorrow.  But for now, another beautiful sunset.  

Sunday 29 November

Today included transiting the infamous Hell Gate.  Albeit relatively short, this is a very narrow and extremely shallow channel that we have heard horror stories about all along the ICW, with reported depths of less than 4 feet at times of low tide.  (Remember – our draft is 5 feet – and you can easily do the math.  More boat than water means grounding.)

We were sandwiched between two boats on the long dock and had to strategically figure out how to leave the dock, with the strong current coming the wrong way, and very little maneuvering room without hitting either boat.  With the assist of two neighbors on the docks handling some of our lines, Bob pulled off the maneuver by backing down on the spring dock line (tied to mid ship cleat), thereby pointing the bow of the boat away from the dock and the stern into the dock, then moving forward pulling away from the dock, retrieving dock line and not having the dinghy get caught up on the power pedestal.  It is a maneuver that takes excellent timing (and a bit of faith and confidence).

We timed our departure from Isle of Hope Marina so we would be passing through Hell Gate at high tide.  We followed the strategically located markers and had no problem with the channel, not ever seeing depth any less than 11 feet.  No regrets on over- planning this one.  

From there we winded our away through the river to our marina for the night.

Many cruisers prefer to avoid Georgia on the ICW because the rivers wind back and forth adding miles  to the trip.  But if you don’t have a particular agenda and are in no hurry to get to your destination, the winding rivers of Georgia are quite pleasant.  Bob took advantage of the wide deep rivers by sitting back for a while and letting the auto-pilot have control.  

We chose to stay at Kilkenny Marina which is actually a fish camp with few amenities.  But it did have electricity and clean shower facilities, and made for a lovely evening swatting at nasty biting sand flies.

 

Saturday 28 November – Hilton Head, SC to Isle of Hope, GA

After contending with the strong current again as we left the marina, the rest of the day was very pleasant and relative easy.  We timed our departure of Hilton Head to have us transit the Fields Cut at high tide.  

The Fields Cut takes you right into the busy Savannah River which you have to cross to continue on the ICW.

We watched a large shipping container ship coming down the river while we wound our way through the cut.  The AIS showed he was traveling at a brisk 20 mph, and we figured (and hoped) he would be clear of the channel by the time we would be exiting.  We were glad we wouldn’t have to contend with a close encounter.

As we crossed the Savannah River we kept looking both ways to be sure we wouldn’t be surprised of any other traffic, and also said farewell to South Carolina as we entered Georgia.

We continued down the Waterway and made our way to Isle of Hope Marina which is located on a bend of the channel.  We borrowed the loaner car to drive to the supermarket and stock up on some provisions to get us by for the next couple of days.

Returning to the boat we enjoyed a quiet evening watching boats and dolphins pass by.

Friday 27 November 
Beaufort to Hilton Head

Bob enjoyed what he said was the easiest day of navigation on this trip.

We passed by Parris Island where Bob spent (can’t say he really enjoyed)  3 months for boot camp when he started with the US Marines Corp.

We saw sandy beaches – but not with palm trees yet…but a precursor of sights to come.

When Bob made the comment that this was the easiest day at the helm so far that was a until we had to make the 90 degree turn to approach the Marina.  

He knew there was a strong current as we had been taking advantage of it maintaining a speed of over 8 mph with the throttle pulled back.  He had to make the left turn to enter Harbor Town Marina in Hilton Head, South Carolina and this meant the current would be pushing us sideways.

As he made the turn we did the crab walk between the markers, with the boat at a 45 degree angle, in order to move in a straight line through the  channel.  All  this was done while having to avoid a trawler on our port side and doing whatever was necessary to ensure we would not be swept up into the pilings.

Bob did a great job maneuvering and  we safely entered the Marina and its very sheltered water.

Bob easily backed the boat down the fairway and into the slip where we were greeted by a dockhand and a free bottle of wine…. A nice last evening in South Carolina.

Thursday, 26 November 

Happy Thanksgiving!

The marina hosted a Thanksgiving potluck.  They provided the turkeys and hams.  The side dishes were provided by the boaters which created an awesome spread of food.  

Bob was recruited for barbecue duty, cooking and shucking the oysters for the first course during the initial socializing.  A great time was had by all.

The group was a good mix of residents that call this marina home and transients who are passing through.  Everyone shared stories, experience and much laughter.  A group of strangers who may never see each other again, gathered to share a meal and create a sense of community.  This is one of the unique and special aspects of this lifestyle that we are getting to enjoy.

Wednesday,  25 November 

You know the old saying, “there’s an app for that….” Well never is that more true than in sailing.  There are apps to report the wind, the predicted wind, to determine and some that provide tidal information. So with all these apps you would think we would have an upper hand in figuring out what to expect when and be able to effectively plan.  Our problem is that the apps seem to always contradict each other or even themselves a lot of the time.  

This morning was supposed to have 10-15 knot winds.  Thankfully we had assistance from the dockhand getting off the dock as we set off with winds that were definitely blowing closer to 25-30, as evidenced by the waves we were pounding into.  (Not quite captured effectively in this photo.)  At one point it felt like we were sitting still and not moving.  But the instruments showed we were moving along at 6 mph, thanks to the current.

Our daily dolphin sightings started early.  Shortly after we left Dataw Island Marina we spotted a few and they continued as we motored along with a pod of for quite a ways.

As Bob is focused on finding deeper water and day markers in the water, Christina gets easily distracted with each dolphin sighting, similar to a dog when they see a squirrel.  

We had planned our departure time to leave the marina near high tide, to transit the one slightly shallow area easily and to arrive at the next marina at slack water so there would be less current to contend with as we maneuvered into the marina.   With the greater tide swings due to the full moon, we didn’t need to worry about the shoaling during high tide as we always seemed to have 9 more feet under the keel than the charted depths.  

With the strong currents pushing us along we were moving along at over 6 mph even after Bob pulled back the throttle and we approached the marina over an hour earlier than expected, which meant the tide was still going out and we would have to contend with the strong current.

Thankfully the dock master arranged for us to go into a slip that was straight in from the channel, and therefore we wouldn’t have to maneuver through any fairways or tight situations.  

The dockmaster  wanted to orient us in a way that would be easiest in and easiest out in the morning of our departure.  But those two orientations were in different directions.

It is easier to dock and maneuver when you are heading into the current, and as we were arriving earlier than expected this meant that we arrived before slack water which meant that we were heading into the current as we approached, and a bow in orientation was best.   But when we were going to leave on Friday morning the current would be running the opposite way, meaning it would be significantly easier if we would be able to be docked stern in and go straight out of the slip in forward when we departed.

So after we were safely docked in the slip it was agreed that in an hour or two, when the tide was changing the dockmaster and dock hand would come back and we would back out of the slip and turn around and back in.  

The dockmaster said they do it all the time with boats and said we didn’t even have to start the engine if we didn’t want to, because they were going to attach a long line to the stern, walk the  boat back turn it around and walk it back into the slip.  We didn’t know how this was really going to work with another boat right next tour.  Bob opted to have the engine running, and assist in the maneuver using the bow thruster as necessary.

Things did not go totally as planned, and it was a good thing Bob had control of the boat because as they were trying to control the stern to rotate the boat the bowsprit and anchors were becoming close friends with the dinghy on the boat next to us.  Bob had to use the bow thruster to push us away, which meant the stern was moving even further out of reach for the dockmaster who was losing hold of  100 feet of dock line attached to the stern.

Eventually Bob got the boat clear and turned around and safely backed into the slip and securely tied.  (Yeap two dockings within a few hours of each other.)  We still would like to experience how the proposed maneuver was supposed to work, but for now we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.

Tuesday, 24 November

Today we knew we would have two shoaling areas to transit, and again planned for transit during high tide.  The water was deeper than expected and the currents were strong.  But no dramas or complications were experienced and we enjoyed a lovely day.

We commented on the crazy currents to the dock master at Dataw Island Marina, and that is when we learned we had hit the spring tide effected by the full moon.  We could expect the water to rise by 10 feet when the next high tide came in.

With the greater tide swings the currents would also be running stronger.

This also meant that low tides would be lower – so we definitely knew we wanted to time shoaling areas with rising or high tides for the next day.

So with everything else we have to keep in mind for life on the boat we are learning we must also consider lunar cycles.

 

Monday 23 November –
Charleston to St. John’s Yacht Center – still Charleston

Today’s itinerary was for a very short day, leaving Charleston City Marina and making our way 5 miles south to St. John’s Yacht Center located in the outskirts of Charleston.

The primary reason for this was just to stage our departure for the next day which is going to be our longest planned day so far.  But to do that we had to schedule around a bridge opening which doesn’t have its first opening until 0900 which would mean we would be forced to navigate a known shoaling area at lower tide than desired.   By spending the night on the south side of the bridge, we would be able to leave earlier in the morning and transit the shallow area with deeper water.  

Just past the bridge we encountered Elliot’s Cut which is a small channel known for strong current.  And indeed the current was swift.  We tried to plan the day for slack water but there was nothing slack about it.

We were glad we didn’t encounter any other boats in the tight quarters with the current making maintaining control of the boat a bit of a challenge.

Once through the cut we headed to the Marina.  As Bob was navigating through the channel finding the deep water,  we saw a grounded sailboat which because we were at low tide we could see the full hull of the boat sitting on it side.  (The photo was taken the next morning at high tide, so you can’t see the hull in the photo.)  We decided that was not where the deep water would be found.  

When we had called to make the reservation with the marina the dockmaster told us he was putting us in a slip that would be an easy in and easy out.  We would not have to contend with the strong current to navigate a fairway – excellent news.  

But….we also wanted to top up the fuel and pump out the waste.  To do that we would have to make our way down a fairway with a strong current coming at us crosswise.  Bob basically had the boat angled at a 45 degree angle and the current pushed us down the fairway going sideways  (Imagine how a crab walks sideways and that is what it looks like.)  

So much for trying to plan for slack water….these currents are crazy.

Once full and empty we made our way back up the fairway and into our slip with no incident and enjoyed the afternoon at this very friendly marina.