Buckhead Creek South of Savannah, mm 608

Coordinates:  31 degrees 55N, 81 degrees 5W

WOW!  Thanks so much for the many wonderful comments.  It really means a lot to know someone is reading this.  But it means even more that you are enjoying it! 

Since we left Charleston, most of the view has been of marshes and beautiful, large homes.  We spent last night at Beaufort, SC.  Refueling was a big “ouch”.  Gas was $3.50/gal.  We stayed at the Downtown Marina.  After docking we walked the town, about four city blocks, than walked back along the River Walk.  It was nicely landscaped with Bermuda grass and large two person wooden swings hanging from concrete structures.  It was too dark to take photos.  We ate out at a local favorite where they had TV’s.  What a treat!  JB got to watch sports and I watched Glenn Beck!  It was another treat to get back to the boat and watch TV.  It had only been a week.  And, naturally, I saw ‘Dancing with the Stars’ again.

Back to more marshland.  It was overcast with light rain this morning.  I stayed below and gave myself a manicure.  Meanwhile our course was so winding that JB couldn’t use the auto pilot.  Around noon, when it cleared up somewhat, I went topside and he was talking about anchoring out because it was so difficult to steer.  Honestly, it was so bad we would have surely gotten lost it he didn’t have his laptop set up as a Garmin showing us where we were.  So many ‘islands’ of marshland and so many ways to turn. YIKES!  I didn’t blame him.  So I looked ahead in the Cruising Guide for an anchorage only to find that we were 20 miles from Hell Gate.  The Cruising Guide has always been very conservative, but caution prevails and it was very explicit in that this was a very dangerous 1 mile cut between two rivers that always shoaled in.  It strongly advised that the safest time to attempt it was mid-tide and rising.  Now I don’t know how people navigated these waters prior to all the electronics we have on board.  We both searched for the Tide App on our phones and learned that we were in the rising tide.  High tide was in two hours.  We agreed to go for it!  With 15-20 mph winds whipping around us as we twisted around the marsh islands and through Hell Gate, we safely conquered the cut!

 

         

When we entered SC, the tide variances grew to 3-6’ and all docks where floating.  I tried to capture the extreme length of these docks (makes ours look tiny).  At the end of the dock is a floating platform.  Most boats are kept on lifts. 

 

The tides in GA have an 8’ variance.  I thought it was really great when I saw the moon cycle was part of the weather news.  So many homes are built so close to sea level.  It just isn’t logical to me!  I can’t imagine what happens during the flood tides from storms and hurricanes.

 

We are in shrimp country.  I keep asking JB to stop by one of the many shrimp boats we have seen to buy several pounds cheaply, but I haven’t convinced him yet.  We will make it to Brunswick tomorrow.  In fact, he says its the last place to buy cheap gas before FL.  Haven’t given up on finding cheap shrimp yet!  And “Yes” we did pass up Savannah.  The negative information from the guide talked us out of it.  We decided to save it for a land trip.

 

This gives you a little idea of what it has been like today.  We traveled through Thunderbolt and Isle of Hope.  We are currently in an 20’ deep anchorage with three sailboats under the word, “Bing.”