Beaufort SC to Jekyll Island GA

—Blogpost written by Bob

Beaufort SC to New River SC

We got hot showers, filled our fresh water tanks, and bailed all the rainwater out of our dinghy before departing.  At 9 AM, we left our slip in Beaufort's Downtown Marina, motoring out against a 2-knot tidal current and about 14 mph crosswinds, all while trailing our dinghy.  Fortunately, the rain had cleared out, the sun was shining, and it was a bit warmer.

These next four days involve traveling through my least favorite section of the ICW, the lower eastern coast of South Carolina and the entire eastern coast of Georgia.  I made a point in my travel plan of spending only 3 nights in Georgia.  The extreme tidal range is a big part of my distaste for this region.

As we motored down the Beaufort River past Parris Island, the 20-knot north wind was behind us. Four sailboats were about a mile ahead of us. (I believe all of them were Island Packets.)

We experienced some rough seas while
coming down the Beaufort River.

Lola was a little scared by
the rough seas.

At the mouth of the Beaufort River we entered Port Royal Sound—we crossed it diagonally (a distance of about 4 miles) and entered a narrow area of the ICW called Skull Creek where the wind had negligible effect on us. We then motored through the area around Hilton Head.

It was soooo nice having bright sunshine and reasonably warm temperatures inside our cockpit enclosure all day. What a change from the dreary rainy weather we had the last few days!

When we got close to our designated anchorage for the day (Wright River) we decided to change plans and anchor in the New River because the Wright River appeared on our chart plotter as being shoaled at the entrance.  We didn't take the chance.

We can see a large container ship going out the
Savannah River from our anchorage
on the New River.

Another sailboat shares our anchorage on the
New River.  The Savannah River is in
the distant background.

New River to Kilkenny Creek

We departed our anchorage according to our planned 8:45 AM departure time so that we could go through the first bridge while “on demand” and hit the tide just right for a passage (Hell Gate) later on in the day. 

It drizzled a bit early in our trip. The sun frequently peeked between the clouds of the mostly overcast sky. The temperature was comfortable (in the high 50’s) at the start of the day and went up into the mid to low 60’s by afternoon.

We passed two dredges working on Fields Cut just before the Savannah River. When we got through Fields Cut we met up with a large container ship leaving Savannah—we waited for it to pass in front of us before crossing the Savannah River.

We figured that it was a good idea to yield right
of way to this large container ship
in the Savannah River.

After traveling the circuitous Wilmington River, the Causton Bluff twin Bascule Bridge opened for us. One side of one span wouldn’t open and we had to navigate around it. There is a high fixed bridge being constructed at this site which, I’m sure, will replace the Bascule Bridge by the time we return northward in the Spring.

We passed by Thunderbolt Marine at 10: 15 AM. (We’ve stopped here several times in the past.  Thunderbolt Marine has the best showers along the ICW!)

A shrimp boat at a dock
in Thunderbolt GA.

At 12:50 PM we got to the entrance of Hell Gate, our primary obstacle of the day. Hell Gate is a cut between two rivers: the Little Ogeechee River and the Ogeechee River. We understand that it has been dredged recently and it was nearly high tide. This was the first time that Maggie took the helm through Hell Gate—she did fine. (I remember us going through here in early 2017 and it caught us by surprise at nearly low tide.) Going through Hell Gate, we didn’t encounter any depths less than 20 feet until the exit at 17 feet.

We originally planned to anchor in Redbird
Creek (shown above) but decided to
go a little further to Kilkenny Creek.

We decided to go on to Kilkenny Creek to anchor for the night—this was about 7 miles further than we originally planned. (We,ve anchored in Kilkenny Creek two times previously.) We anchored at 2:45 PM and began Happy Hour a bit early.

A view from our anchorage
in Kilkenny Creek.

As we were setting the anchor this afternoon, a crunching sound seemed to be coming from beneath the boat, maybe from the anchor chain.  I never figured out what is was and I have to presume that it was the anchor dragging through some big rocks, as odd as this seems.

Finally, a spectacular sunset
on Kilkenny Creek GA.

Kilkenny Creek to Wally's Leg

My revised planning yesterday afternoon set our departure time at 7:45 AM so that we could make Little Mud River on a rising tide.  However, we anchored about 15 minutes away from the ICW, so we departed our Kilkenny Creek anchorage at 7:30 AM on Tuesday, November 19, 2019.

As I raised the anchor, my presence disturbed a blue heron that was looking for his breakfast on a nearby mudbank.  He squawked loudly in protest as he flew away.

One other sailboat departed Kilkenny Creek when we did—it looked like a Pearson ketch of about 42 feet in length. It is the only other cruising boat that we’ve seen in two days. (It is very unusual in our experience to see so few cruising boats while underway. There were a lot of cruising boats in Beaufort SC while we stayed there.  In fact, cruisers in the Follow-the-Sun rally were staying there.)  Later in the day, we saw more cruising boats.

The sun was warming up our cockpit as we crossed St. Catherines Sound and we were riding a rising tide going into the North Newport River.  (We ended up riding the low-to-high part of the tidal range most of the day.)  Going 7 knots really made a difference in how far we could travel for the day but we spent a fair amount of time with the current against us too.  As we were underway, we changed our day’s destination from Buttermilk Sound to Wally’s Leg (a little bit further away but a much better anchorage).

We spent a lot of time in the Sapelo Sound, motoring south into it and then west for about four miles before entering the Front River. As we were entering the Front River, we passed by our friends from two years ago on s/v “Sequel to...”. We had a short chat on the VHF radio before proceeding too far ahead of them.

Maggie made Eggplant Parmesan while we were motoring in the morning. She popped it into the oven just before noon. It made a great lunch!

The water was real skinny (as they say) coming through Old Teakettle Creek (just south of Creighton Narrows). Even at a relatively high tide the water depth dropped to 7 feet in spots—this area would be pure hell at low tide. With good waypoints and high tide we got though this area completely unscathed.

This is an image from our chart plotter of
the area around Old Teakettle Creek
where the water was so skinny.

We anchored for the day in Wally’s Leg at 3 PM.  This is the first time we've anchored in Wally's Leg.  There was a lot of room for other boats and good water depth.  We anchored in 20 feet of water.

Today, we traveled 51 miles in 7-3/4 hours for an average speed of 6.58 mph.  We had no opening bridges today but a wide variety of current conditions which impacted on our boat speed.  (It seems that 6.5 mph is a good average to use for planning on the ICW, at least for our boat.)

Wally's Leg to Jekyll Island

The only obstacle we face today is the Jekyll Creek and it was recently dredged.  We still plan on hitting it a few hours after low tide and on a rising tide.  To do this, we must leave our anchorage at 8:30 AM.  Before leaving, I called St. Augustine Municipal Marina to see if we could move our mooring reservation a day ahead--we were able to do this which was great news for us.  I then re-worked our travel plan for the next couple days to save a day.

We raised anchor right on schedule at 8:30 AM on Wednesday, November 20, 2019.  We spent the earliest part of the morning traveling on the winding (but deep) Mackay River to St. Simon's Sound.

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Shortly after we reached St. Simon Sound, we could see the car carrier ship called the Golden Ray over on its side.  The ICW veers out toward the ocean in this area and gets pretty close to the wreckage.

The wreck of the Golden Ray
in St. Simons Sound GA.

Another photo of the Golden Ray
from a slightly different angle.

For background information, the wreck of this 656 feet long ship occurred at 1:35 AM on September 8, 2019.  Twenty four crewmen were rescued by the Coast Guard over a 34-hour period.  The Golden Ray was carrying about 4,200 vehicles when it lost stability after it departed from the port of Brunswick GA.  

More than 250,000 gallons of fuel have already been removed from the ship.  The ship cannot be re-floated and is in the process of being dismantled on site.  They are attempting to remove all the vehicles from the inside and possibly some valuable onboard equipment.  When we came by, there were three cranes mounted on barges that were actively working on the salvage operation.

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We got through Jekyll Creek without incident (it was recently dredged) and arrived at Jekyll Harbor Marina at 11 AM where we had a slip reserved for the night.  Immediately upon arrival at Jekyll Harbor Marina we topped off our fuel tanks (16 gallons on diesel).  After hot showers and a delicious lunch at the on-site restaurant, we used the loaner golf cart to get some groceries nearby.

s/v Rainy Days docked at
Jekyll Harbor Marina.

We spent the afternoon filling our water tanks, washing down the boat's exterior, getting caught up on our blogs, and luxuriating in the warm sun. The afternoon high temperature reached 74 degrees!

Our next blogpost will cover our travel from Jekyll Island GA to St. Augustine FL...


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