March 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week I was away from Shorty. I got a sneak preview of what is to come to the north of here by helping some friends move their boat toward North Carolina for a couple of days. I said I could help them because I am not leaving here till Monday of the coming week. I hoping that as I move north then spring will kind of accompany me on the move. Back to the preview, we left Brunswick Landing Marina bright and early Wednesday morning as soon as the marks were visible. Our first turn was to the left and through St. Simon’s Sound Next to Saint Simon’s Island. From there we continued on across the Altamaha Sound, the Doboy Sound, St. Catherines Sound across the Wassaw Sound and up numerous pieces of rivers and the intercoastal Waterway to Thunderbolt Marina in Thunderbolt, GA just before you get to Savannah, GA. The next morning we left Thunderbolt and crossed the Savannah River and a couple of other short stretches of river past Tybee Island and then we were in South Carolina where we next crossed the Port Royal Sound and passed Hilton Head Island, Parris Island where the Marine basic training is held and then across the St. Helena Sound where the boat was docked at Ross Marina just below Charleston, South Carolina for the night. They brought me back to Brunswick Landing today and then there son will help them move the boat the rest of the way to Mebane, North Carolina where it is at home. The weather for crossing all of the above areas Wednesday but Thursday it became more windy and blustery and then we woke up to rain this morning. All of the areas and crossings need an extra pair of hands and eyes on the charts because you are constantly going from one patch of river and winding right around and into another Sound. Some of the markers are hidden by vegetation on the shores and some places seem to have just a few markers to keep you out of trouble while going long distances between them. We used the binoculars a lot during the trip and sometimes it would take both of us checking the marks to make sure we were on the right path. We also passed Beaufort, SC where I plan to stop at. we did not go up the river to Savannah and I think I would like to go there as well. We went through long areas without seeing a marina and without seeing anyone else. It was funny because when you did see another boat coming towards you at low tide in the marshes you would only see the top of the boat because low tide looked to be at least five feet in depth when it was all the way out. We saw houses with docks that were close to quarter mile in length to get to their boats on the Waterway. We went past Daufuskie Island which had ferries running between it and Hilton Head Island carrying people and one we met was carrying work trucks and another had a barge load of heavy equipment. Some of the islands we passed only have the ability to be reached by water. In the two days under way we probably passed a half million acres of marsh. There were lots of crab pots set out everywhere including the channels of the waterway.
This meant that you were on watch all the time because at high tide some of the pot markers were pulled under the waters surface and you would just see this little vee in the water running away from it and then you knew when you got closer what it was. Most of the time the water was pretty deep. But a place called the Little Mud River we had only about three and a half feet of water so our boat was almost touching the ground as we went through at idle. We were fortunate that a boat passed us and radioed back that he drew about three feet eight inches and was touch bottom at times with the skeg of the boat. That was one of the scarier moments other than sometimes having problems locating the marks even though you knew they had to be there. The wind blew hard enough that it would push you sideways in some of the channels so you had to check behind you not only for traffic but to see if you were going in a straight line as the tide was also either coming or going at the same time. The tides were fairly strong all day long and when we would go into them you could hear the engines pulling harder and we would lose from 1-2 knots of speed and then going with them we would pick up an extra knot of speed. The tides also affected the boat in strange ways in some of the channels cut from one river into another. You were thinking advantage for the boat, wrong; the tide would be coming against you when we thought it would be going the other way. Sometimes small birds are sitting on the crab pots and until they fly off you really can’t be sure what it is you are looking at. You also know there is not much maneuvering room when there are herons about ten feet from the boat and only knee deep in water and the depth finder is showing you in ten feet of water. So on Monday morning if the weather is okay Shorty and I will begin our adventure through the above area and rest assured it will be different from the one experienced above because the sand is constantly being moved around by the tides and shoals can occur anywhere at any time. This is what makes it an adventure instead of just following a bunch of markers all the time. It is now getting to be prime time for people to begin moving their boats toward the north. The ones in the Carolina’s start first followed by those from the northern states. They are still forecasting a low of 35 degrees from the front which is passing us today and which will have moved on South by Monday so spring has not yet really sprung. And the old sailors adage of, “Red sunrise in the morning, sailors take warning,” is still very much a fact because the weather started to get windier and blustery after the red sunrise on Wednesday and culminated in the rain and thunderstorms of today in the Carolina’s this morning.

We just now got a little shower of rain here in Brunswick and are looking for more tonight. I hope the wind blows and keeps the no-see-ums away as they are awful when the wind is calm. Anything you seem to put on has no effect. They just go ahead and bite anyway. When they get in your hair like they did to us on Wednesday of the trip it feels awful and I have little welts all over and itching that is worse than mosquito bites but I guess that is part of it. The locals hate them as much as we do. The wind is now whistling in the rigging of the sailboats and that is bad news for the no-see-ums as they are not very good flyers in the wind.