Beaufort SC to Jekyll Island GA - 2017

--Blogpost written by Bob

Beaufort SC to Skidaway River GA

We left Beaufort’s Downtown Marina at 7:30 AM. It was very difficult getting out of the slip with about 3 knots of current against us. When Maggie released the bow line from the pier (while the spring line was still attached) the current quickly pushed our bow away from the pier.  I had to motor off to avoid careening into other boats. Maggie threw the last two lines onto the deck and I picked her up at the fuel dock.

McTeer Memorial Highway Bridge is located just below
Beaufort SC on the ICW.  Beaufort is on the
right side of this image and Ladies
Island is on the left.

As we entered the Port Royal Sound from the Beaufort River we got blasted with 25 knots of wind on our bow. The wind was against the incoming tide, making short steep waves. It was like riding a bucking bronco with the bow shooting into the air and then coming down into the waves.  We didn’t tie our anchor down before we left and it soon came loose. (When the bow dives into the waves, the rushing water opens the chain stopper gate which allows the anchor to become loose.)  We noticed it before any damage was done.  We turned away from the wind until we could get it secured.  When we got into Scull Creek the waves had diminished to almost nothing and we were shielded from the wind—it was like being in a whole different world.

This is a page in our chart book that shows Port Royal
Sound.  We were traveling from the top of this
page to the bottom, following
the magenta line.

From Scull Creek, the ICW continued onto Calibogue Sound, skirting Hilton Head Island. This was the nicest part of today’s trip because the sun was shining and the water was calm.

As we crossed the Savannah River and entered Georgia, I got this feeling of being tired of being on the move. I yearned for a nice place where we could have a week-long rest from traveling. This was unusual for me because we just had a two-night stop in a very nice marina. It is difficult to understand why I got this feeling today.  Maybe it was because I don't particularly like the ICW through Georgia.

We anchored in the Skidaway River, just south of Thunderbolt, GA and just north of Isle of Hope, at MM 586. We anchored in 11 feet of water and it was 3 PM (low tide). Fifty statute miles was our total distance traveled for the day, longer than I expected.

Skidaway River to New Teakettle Creek

Forty-four degrees was the outside temperature when we woke up this morning. The first thing I did was start the propane fireplace for warmth. Last night was our first night in Georgia—we have only two more nights to go in this state according to my revised travel plan.

Warming the cabin up while making morning
coffee on November 20

It’s 6:30 AM and we are both up waiting for the sun to rise while getting warm. Maggie is making coffee (and hot tea for me today) and warming up (low-carb) quiche in the oven for breakfast while I am running the engine to warm it up and getting prepared for today’s journey. We left our anchorage at 7 AM.

This is Isle of Hope Marina as we came
by early in the morning.

Two hours after leaving our anchorage, we started transiting Hell Gate (an appropriate name) and we’re completely through the toughest challenge of our day by 9:06 AM. We timed it perfectly—50 minutes before high tide. We didn’t see a depth of less than 12.5 feet. Of course, the tide at this point was +8 feet.  So, it would have been much more challenging at low tide since we draw a little over 5 feet.  Our trip planning really pays off!

This is a photo of the approach to Hell Gate--it is just to
the right of the center of this image.  What you
can't see is the shallow water on both sides
of a very narrow dredged channel.

The best way to describe the remainder of our day (except for passing through Catherine’s Sound and crossing Sapello Sound) on Georgia’s ICW is “marsh meandering.” The salt marshes are actually very pretty but after hours and hours of motoring in between winding marshes, it gets just a tad boring.

Near the end of the day we experienced another challenging area, Creighton Narrows, about an hour before low tide. At one point our depth alarm (set at 6 feet) went off but we never touched bottom.

It was nice and warm inside our cockpit enclosure, particularly in the afternoon sun. At the end of the day, we were dressed in t-shirts.

We anchored for the night in New Teakettle Creek (near MM 646) at 3 PM for our second night in Georgia—we have just one more to go.  We anchored in 16 feet of water with about 100 feet of chain (6-to-1 scope)—the longest we’ve used this trip. (The reason we used so much anchor chain is allowing for the 9-feet tidal increase from this point. At high tide, sometime during the night, our scope will reduce to 4-to-1.)

This view is looking back out the entrance to New Teakettle
Creek.  We are completely surrounded by salt marsh.

In this anchorage, we are surrounded by salt marsh.  We think that there is not a house within ten miles.  The Little Mud River, our second challenging area in Georgia, is just 7 miles south of our anchorage.

We made good time today as result of favorable tidal current most of the afternoon. We traveled 60 statute miles in 8 hours, averaging 6.5 knots (7.5 mph). Not a single bridge had to open for us today.

Sunset over the salt marsh in Georgia.

New Teakettle Creek to Jekyll Island

We planned arriving at the New Mud River, our second challenging area of Georgia, at 8 AM--2-1/2 hours before high tide.  The state of the tide when we enter the trouble area we calculated to be +6 feet.

Just before sunrise on New Teakettle Creek

The pastels of early morning on display.

We left our anchorage on November 21 at 7:10 AM and proceeded down the ICW.  We entered the Little Mud River at 8 AM—the tide was 6 feet above MLW (mean low water). The lowest water depth we saw coming through (in the center of the dredged channel) was 10.5 feet but at low tide this river would have been impassable for us (at 4.5 feet of depth). We exited Little Mud River shortly before 8:45 AM.

The sky was overcast as we transited the Little Mud River. The temperature was 70 degrees and there was no wind at all. I felt relieved that we were through the Little Mud River—now, only one more ICW challenge remains in Georgia, Jekyll Creek.

We listened to the Brunswick (GA) Cruisers Net on Channel 69 at 9 AM. We heard that there was nine days left in hurricane season and no hurricanes were on the horizon—that’s always good news. It started to rain at 9:30 AM—this is the second time we spent traveling in the rain on this trip but it stayed nice and dry inside our cockpit enclosure. The rain only lasted about 30 minutes and then the sun broke through the clouds for a short time but it remained overcast most of the day.

As we got closer to the Brunswick River, we determined that we could make it through Jekyll Creek before mid-tide today instead of anchoring and waiting for the rising tide tomorrow morning as we had planned.  We called ahead and made a slip reservation at the Jekyll Harbor Marina, located just after Jekyll Creek and just south of the Jekyll Island (fixed) Bridge.

This fixed bridge, the Torras Causeway Bridge, is
just north of the Brunswick, Georgia.

We crossed St. Simon Sound and motored into the Brunswick River to the northern entrance of Jekyll Creek. We entered the notorious Jekyll Creek at 11:30 AM—the state of the tide was +7 feet. We were all the way through Jekyll Creek by 12:15.  We filled up with diesel fuel (a whopping 17 gallons) and tied up to the only slip remaining at Jekyll Harbor Marina (MM 684).  We're glad to have the last of three problem areas of Georgia's ICW behind us!

Rainy Days is tied to the face dock at Jekyll Harbor
Marina--we got the last available 
transient slip for the night.

We used to courtesy golf cart to drive around the island for an hour and a half, just enough time to see the old mansions from the road and to pick up a few things at the little market.  Tonight, I have to re-work our travel plan since we traveled further than expected today.  Our next blogpost should be published from St. Augustine FL--we'll be there on Friday.

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