Georgia ICW

11/26/07 Big Tom River
ICW 584 - 613

The Georgia marshlands are exactly what folks described to us, lots of “S” turns. You can see a sailboat several miles back or ahead – and it looks like it is just across the way. When the tide is high, there’s water everywhere. Today high tide is 9.7’ – not shabby! At low tide – there’s lots of mud.

Combining the tides and currents makes for interesting motoring; we’re either bucking the current or flying along at 9-10 knots. The most we’ve motored with, or against, to date is 3.9 knots. We did have our Genoa out for about an hour this afternoon; it was nice to see the sail again!

Today we passed Moon River, made famous by the 1960’s song “Moon River.” I fondly remember close dancing to that song my freshman year in college. In fact, I can still remember most of the words! The lyricist took great liberty with reality -- it’s no where near even a ½ mile wide! I am once again disillusioned! I’ll never be able to sing “wider than a mile” again.

We’re anchored in the Big Tom River this afternoon, very rural, very isolated, lots of bull rush and lots of current!

So…. tonight I decide Bob and I should watch one of the movies Andy and Barbara loaned us. Now remember – here we are in Georgia – in a boat - in the middle of nowhere – in a swamp – it’s the dark of the moon – and it’s thundering. Someone should have told me what “Cape Fear” was about and where it takes place BEFORE I decided to watch it tonight!!!!! I made Bob go out and check the anchor, get the key out of the dinghy, take the key out of the motor ignition, and lock the companionway. Now I’ll have to stay awake all night to avoid having nightmares about "Cape Fear!"

11/25/07 Herb River
ICW 565 - 584

Today was a most unusual day. Fields Cut is one of the narrow passages, shallow at low tide; we entered it at high tide with a 3 mph current against us. The fog started rolling in, and by the time we reached the end of the cut and were about to enter the Savannah River -- we had zero visibility. Our friends from “Second Spree” and a sailboat from San Francisco were with us. We collectively made the decision to turn around and drop anchor at the end of Fields Cut to wait for the fog to lift. The river has strong currents and, more importantly, is a busy commercial shipping lane.

We were the only one of the three boats with an automatic fog horn and AIS (automatic information system). Bob got his manual out and determined how to set the fog horn. For the first time since we left New England, we put our fog horn on automatic, blasting out one long, 2 short blasts every two minutes. It wasn’t more than five minutes when our AIS alarm went off. A 900-foot container ship was approaching in the commercial channel reporting zero visibility and broadcasting over the VFH, “Securite. Securite. Securite. This is the vessel ‘Hamburgo’ on Savannah River inbound to Savannah, coming up on the ICW crossing; standing by on Channels 16 and 13 for vessels with any concern.” With our foghorn on, we couldn’t respond on our VHF (design flaw…). “Second Spree” came back with, “Securite. Securite. Vessel “Hamburgo,’ there are three sailboats anchored at the southern end of Fields Cut in the ICW outside the commercial channel.” That was the first of four large commercial vessels that passed while we waited on deck and watched for traffic. By the time the 4th vessel approached, the fog cleared enough for us to see the channel markers in the river. We had been anchored an hour and a half.

The Savannah River at this location is the state line between South Carolina and Georgia.

Just before we reached Herb River, my cell phone rang. It was Bill Hooper from “Blue Frontier,” our Captain on the first leg of our journey. He was delivering a motorboat to Florida and thought he might pass us along the way – he was 30 minutes behind us! What a coincidence! His wife, Cheryl, was on board as crew. We gave Bill our anchorage destination and he stopped by for a very brief visit in “Wolf” -- a 40’ Abel built in Southwest Harbor, Maine. It was great to see him again. I passed a bag, via boat hook, with the sandals he had left on board and half a dozen of his favorite snack, Snickers.

11/25/07 Bull Creek
ICW 539.6 -565

We don’t have to be in Jacksonville, Florida until 12/8, so we are traveling fewer miles per day through Georgia. In addition, there are a number of narrow cuts in this area with shallow (“skinny”) water. We plan our days to pass through these cuts during, or at least close to, high tide.

Bob is becoming an “expert” at going aground and motoring/plowing us off -- number seven today. As we prepared to anchor in Bull Creek this afternoon, he found water that was 4’7” (shown on the chart as 6’). It took us about 10 minutes to work our way off. We had a “discussion” about whether he should head the boat to port or starboard to find deeper water. Our GPS indicated port; our charts said starboard. I went with starboard – and when Bob finally agreed – we found deep water and dropped our anchor.

Three dolphins seemed to be enjoying our maneuvering antics. When we had the hook planted, the dolphins lost interest, stopped swimming around DeLaMer, and went fishing along the shallow water at shore. They entertained us with their splashing; at times, they almost looked like they were beached. It has been fun to watch their antics all along the ICW; at times, they stick their heads above the water for a few seconds and seem to be looking at us to see what’s going on.