Jekyll Island GA to Beaufort SC

—Blogpost written by Bob

Jekyll Island to Kilkenny Creek

The outside temperature was only 52 degrees F when we woke up this morning, Thursday, May 7, in Jekyll Island, GA!  With the help of some friendly boat neighbors (who were doing the “loop”), we got off the face dock from between two others boats and into Jekyll Creek by 6:30 AM, right on schedule.  (The importance of staying on schedule today is that we need to get through Little Mud River at mid-tide and the tide level will be going down from our scheduled arrival time.)

We met an oncoming tug and barge near the northern end of Jekyll Creek. We just hugged the right side of the channel and kept our speed low. At this point I realized that we were bucking the tide on the north end of the creek (influenced by St. Simon’s Sound) and we had been riding a favorable tide on the southern end of the creek (influenced by Jekyll Sound)—Jekyll Creek connects both Sounds.

Lola lounging on the port side
of the companionway
during today's trip.

As we proceeded through St. Simon’s Sound, where they are still working on the disassembly of the capsized car carrier, we met a large ship, Titania, coming out from New Brunswick GA. After the ship passed us we crossed the shipping lane to stay on the ICW. Throughout this time, we experienced a brisk and cool 13-knot wind out of the north, resulting in a sea state (and tidal current) that severely limited our boat speed. At 8:30 AM we entered the Mackay River and it was relatively smooth going.

Today was a jeans and sweatshirt kind of day—the outside temperature never got above 70 degrees plus our blood was very thin from being in warm weather all winter!  Fortunately, the cool weather has kept the Georgia green head flies at bay—I consider them the Georgia state bird.  (We reduced Georgia's green head fly population by at least 12 today.)

We entered the Little Mud River at 10:50 AM, 40 minutes ahead of schedule and about one hour before mid-tide. The lowest water depth we saw was 11.5 feet. It was a complete nonevent, fortunately.

With Jekyll Creek and Little Mud River (two of the three notorious bad spots in Georgia) behind us, we decided to skip our day’s destination of Teakettle Creek and head further out to Kilkenny Creek, skipping an entire day of our travel plan. We were well rested from the time we spent in the marina yesterday and thought that we could handle the (quite longer) 70-mile day.

We nearly went aground at two places in Creighton Narrows. The depth sounder was reading 4.5 feet and the alarm was going off but we never stopped moving. We must have been pushing soft mud with our keel. I was glad to get out of that area, since the tide was not yet at its lowest point. (I will have to add waypoints in this vicinity to keep in deeper water for the next time we come through.)

At 2 PM we entered Sapelo Sound, the ugliest of the Georgia sounds. It is shallow and the banks are mostly mud. When motoring through, an ugly foam accumulates at the edges of the boat’s wake. (If someone offered me a home along the shore of this sound at no cost, I think I would decline it.)

The trail of foam behind the boat as
we go through Sapelo Sound.

By 2:45 PM we were in the South Newport River, the next body of water just north on the Sapelo Sound, doing only 4.6 knots against the tidal current. We traveled the deep and winding length of Johnson’s Creek into St. Catherine’s Sound. I went aground in Johnson’s Creek where a sand bar extended nearly a mile further south than shown on our electronic charts. (It took my entire 1-hour shift to traverse the length of Johnson’s Creek.) The tidal current was against us the entire way and the tidal level was very low (because of the recent full moon).

The mud banks along Johnson's
Creek--we went aground
on one of them.

We dropped anchor in Kilkenny Creek in 15 feet of water at 5:30 PM. We had a 70-mile day that was almost 11 hours in length. 

Kilkenny Creek to New River SC

When I first looked out of the hatch this morning, the 3-foot high swamp grass was right beside our cockpit!  During the night, we dragged onto a nearby mud bank.  At first, I tried to kedge off the mud bank by pulling on the anchor chain with the windlass but it simply dragged the anchor from near the middle of the creek to the boat. The boat didn’t move at all and the anchor moved rather freely back to the boat.

My next effort to get us off the mudbank was to use the engine.  By rocking the boat fore and aft a dozen or so times, I was able to loosen the grip that the soft mud had on our keel. Miraculously, I was able to back out into the middle of the creek and free us! This was how our morning started and this was all before 7:30 AM. (I didn’t even think about taking photographs.)

After thinking more about the calamity this morning, I think the problem was caused by the inability of the anchor to get a grip on the very soft mud bottom plus the swift tidal flow through the creek.  We’ve anchored in this creek several times before without incidence but it was not as far back into the creek as we anchored last night.

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Now, back to our normal programming...the outside temperature was only 55 degrees at 7:30 this morning. We waited until 9:30 AM to leave our Kilkenny Creek anchorage (we thought) so that when we hit Hell Gate the tide would be at mid-tide and rising. 

Before leaving we had scrambled egg tacos for breakfast, an unusual circumstance where we could actually have breakfast sitting down before we stated traveling. 

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I decided to check the cable attachment to the transmission (and the transmission fluid level) before leaving since I’ve noticed a delay in the transmission going into forward twice lately.  What I discovered was a nut that had loosened--this could not have created the shifting delay though. 

The loosened nut on the transmission
cable attachment had very little
to do with the shifting delay.

The transmission fluid level may also have been a tad low—it is very difficult to see the transmission fluid level on the silvery transmission dip stick.  I added a tad (maybe 1/2-cup) of transmission fluid but I don’t think this was much of the problem with the shifting delay. (I think I will adjust the linkage the next chance I get, maybe in Beaufort SC.)

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I couldn’t wait any longer to leave, we weighed anchor at 8:40 AM and got underway.  We were the last of the four boats in our anchorage to leave.  

At 10 AM Maggie’s tide app predicted our tide to be high near the present time (10:03 AM) and we were in sight of Hell Gate—so, our timing was perfect even though I made a planning error. (When I checked tides in advance when I was planning our day’s travels, I erroneously used the tide for the larger Hell Gate in New York, instead of the smaller one in Georgia.) We entered Hell Gate (the last of three notorious problem areas in GA) at 10:25 AM and were completely though it in only 5 minutes—it was just after high tide, so it was a nonevent.  All that planning and worry for a five minute passage!

A photo of Hell Gate looking back
after we went through.  It
doesn't look like much.

Shortly after noon we passed Isle of Hope. I’ve always been attracted to this place but we’ve never stopped here—maybe next time.

Isle of Hope is located at a bend
in the Skidaway River.

The Isle of Hope Marina.

At 2 PM we crossed the Savannah River--the outgoing tide was strong and swift.  So much so that it was difficult to cross the river without aiming 30 degrees upstream of where we wanted to go.

We anchored at 2:30 PM in the New River in South Carolina.  Expecting a blow tonight around midnight, we set the anchor bridle.  We have just under 120 feet of chain out in only 18 feet of water--almost a 7 to 1 scope plus the use of the nylon bridle.  The river bottom seemed to be a lot better quality for anchoring that Kilkenny Creek did last night.

I can hardly believe it--we got through Georgia after only spending two nights in the state!

New River SC to Beaufort SC

We weighed anchor at 6:45 AM on Saturday, May 9, 2020. We were 36 miles away from a 2-day stay in Lady’s Island Marina in Beaufort SC and the sun was just poking up above the horizon. The outside temperature was 62 degrees, a little warmer than it had been for the last couple days in the morning.

By 8 AM, we made it to Daufuskie Island, just south of Hilton Head.  We were bucking tidal current all along this stretch and only moving at 5.1 knots.

Looking back at the few homes on the
northern end of Daufuskie Island SC.

As we turned around the northern end of Daufuskie Island, we picked up speed due the incoming tide but we were still bucking a northerly wind (and it was against the tidal current) which degraded our sea state considerably but we were moving at 7+ knots!  An occasional wave broke over the bow and drenched the dodger window with salt water.

As we got into Port Royal Sound, the water got choppy, again the wind was against the tidal current.  We could only do 5.3 knots until we reached the entrance to the Beaufort River when our speed increased to a respectable 6.7 knots due to the tide going slack before changing direction.

We docked at Lady’s Island Marina at 12:30 PM, about 20 minutes after going through the Lady’s Island Swing Bridge.  After we docked we realize that we lost a fender (yep, a $70 one!)—we lost it between the bridge and the marina.

s/v Rainy Days on the face dock at
the end of A Dock at Lady's
Island Marina.

Now, for two days of rest in a decent marina--what else could we ask for?  Stay tuned for more of this season's adventure... 

Stay healthy and thanks for following our blog!