After an early morning meeting with some dockmates at Jekyll Harbor Marina, we decided to take an alternate route and follow a group of three other boats. Fairly high winds from the east were predicted and that makes traversing Saint Andrew Sound and around Horseshoe Shoal challenging. We skipped going out to the sound and took Floyds Cut which is known for some shallow areas and requires careful navigating. We had to pick our poison today. Before leaving, a barge pushed by the tug, Sun River City passed by the marina. Around 9:00am (we had to give the tide enough time to rise) everyone started to take in their lines and depart the marina. We followed the three boats through some strong currents and waves, but after getting through the shallow cut, we made it through successfully joining up again with the ICW.

We thanked our new friends for leading us through and slowly passed them to start making better time. Trawlers are not known for running at high speed.

We made good time going down the ICW. Not too many obstacles to slow us down. We got to the submarine base at Kings Bay and had to slow down and avoid getting into trouble with the security boats. Martha took a picture of one of the submarines through the windshield and some other Naval facilities out the back. When we got to Cumberland Sound on the Saint Marys River, and began our crossover into Florida, we passed Sun River City pushing his load. He seemed a little annoyed when I radioed him about passing on his starboard. His reply was, "go ahead, everyone else has."

Finding the entrance to the ICW was a little tricky. The sun was low in the sky and there was a haze. On top of that, another tug towing a barge was coming out and there was other pleasure boat traffic. We went through the Fernandina Beach area, admiring some large yachts at the marina that was recently rebuilt after being destroyed by Hurricane Matthew. There were also many boats anchored out across from the marina. We immediately recognized the smell of pulp mills, so common in northern Florida. Fernandina has its share of industry, odor and all.

We continued around Amelia Island on our way to the St. Johns River and passed a railroad bridge that stays open until a train comes along. Fortunately, there was no train today.  As we passed, we got a few waves from the waterside bar near the bridge. A little later I heard Sun River City announce on the VHF that he was approaching the railroad bridge. A little later I looked back and saw him in the distance.

We continued our trip and crossed the St. Johns River. Once across, we got back on the ICW and headed to our home marina for the next couple of months, Palm Cove Marina. After fueling up, we got into our slip, adjusted all of the lines and settled in. Martha was anxious to use their new washers and dryers and quickly gathered up the dirty clothes. She also took a walk down the street to Publix to get a few things we need.
The boat is filthy and will get a good wash tomorrow if the weather cooperates. The salt water environment is very different than our brackish Chesapeake water. The salt gets all over everything. The humidity is also noticeably higher and everything feels damp.
Turns out that tomorrow is the Florida Georgia football game in Jacksonville. We made sure to put up out Gator burgee and have already gotten a couple of "Go Gators" from other boaters in the marina. The Florida Georgia game used to be considered the largest outdoor cocktail party in the world. I think the pandemic may be having an effect on that this year.
This will be the last blog post as we have reached our intended destination. We will return home for the holidays and come back here in January. We hope to spend a few weeks going to south Florida and hopefully the Keys. Thanks for reading!

We left Kilkenny Creek Marina early this morning after a beautiful sunrise. The local fishermen were up early and there was quite a bit of activity at the marina. Our departure was uneventful. We met up with more traffic on the water than previous days, both commercial fishermen as well as fellow ICW travelers. 

We had a few "trouble" spots to navigate, but the water was high enough that we got through without "polishing the props." We crossed a few sounds that were open to the ocean and were a little choppy due to the easterly winds. We took it pretty slow through the Little Mud River, following a couple of sailboats that were going typical sailboat speed. There are some tricky shoal areas and we didn't want to crowd them. We reduced speed and enjoyed the sights.Based on their movement, we could tell they were following some of the same recommendations from Bob423. Once through the river, we made some courteous passes and sped up to make some time. 

The most interesting sight of the day was when we crossed  St. Simons Sound Inlet and saw the salvage work being done on the auto carrier ship "Golden Ray" that grounded there last year. Apparently, they are unable to remove the ship intact, so they are slicing it into smaller pieces to remove. A large saw that can slice through the entire ship is onsite to do the work. It was quite a sight.

After heading a short distance up the Brunswick River, we turned down Jekyll Creek and headed for Jekyll Harbor Marina, our destination for tonight. Jekyll Creek is known to have many shallow areas, but fortunately we made the trek during high tide and had no problem. There was quite a current and wind to deal with when docking, but a couple of capable dockhands helped us get tied up securely.

The marina offers complimentary golf carts to tour around the island, so we took advantage of it and saw some of the historic sights. As with many of these coastal islands, the history includes winter homes of the rich and famous and the Jekyll Island Club. Some of the members included J.P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, William K. Vanderbilt, Marshall Field, and William Rockefeller. As expected, the "cottages" were beautiful as was the club, and all were surrounded by gorgeous live oak trees draped in Spanish moss. We passed many other modest homes on our tour. The island seems very quiet, although I imagine it is quite busy on summer weekends.

Tomorrow we reach our final destination of Jacksonville, but tonight we enjoy another sunset. We will have to bid farewell to the marina mascot rooster that hangs out around the marina office.

Some people we spoke with before, and even during our trip, suggested that we skip Georgia and go on “the outside.” As diehard Florida Gators, it did cross my mind that we should skip Georgia Bulldog country (As a matter of fact, I purposely have not put up our Florida Gators burgee flag.). But, we chose to take the ICW through Georgia anyway, and we are glad we did. It was a good four plus hour run today from Hilton Head to Kilkenny Creek Marina on Kilkenny Creek. The water was deep all day and we had just a few places that we had to slow down to no wake speed. We ran into traffic at the Savannah River, and just on the southern side we met up with a sailboat from Rock Hall, Breezin’ Up. I saw the boat in the Skull Creek Marina the day before, but didn’t see anyone on it. We had a conversation over the VHF radio and it turns out that their final destination is Corpus Christi, Texas, where they will be relocating. They had been keeping their sailboat at Gratitude Marina, which is the sister marina to our Osprey Point Marina. Small world!
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Once past the Savannah River, we passed a few well-known marinas and boatyards. Thunderbolt Marine is known for the many super yachts that stop there for work.

The treacherous spots on the ICW all have names infamous among cruisers. The ones we passed today were Fields Cut, Elba Island Cut and Hell Gate. It just required close attention to the markers to avoid an unfortunate incident. There will be a few more tomorrow, so we need to leave early and catch as much water as possible as the tide rises. We follow the guides carefully to make sure we navigate the tough areas correctly.


Today was a good day for seeing dolphin. It is hard to get a picture, but I was able to catch a dorsal fin on one of them. We are still waiting for some to swim alongside us. The coastal grasslands of Georgia are beautiful. It is truly a natural wonder. It reminds one of the grassy plains in the midwest, only there are rivers and creeks winding throughout them.

Our stop for tonight was up one of those creeks a couple of miles. According to the guidebooks it is a regular stopover for ICW cruisers, although as of 3:30pm we are the only cruisers here. There is a very popular cruiser restaurant next door, Marker 107. 

The marina is, well, different. The docks are wobbly, but floating. They float on blue barrels. The cleats are vertical 2 x 8s and some of the pilings move with the current, which is very strong. There are some good ole Georgia boys here, and the southern drawl reminds me of all the years spent in Lake City, FL with my grandparents and extended family. The huge live oak trees are beautiful with Spanish moss blowing in the breeze. It really is a step back in time, and I am glad we stopped here. It is beautiful and quiet. Completely opposite the mega yacht surroundings in Charleston. There is no wi-fi and the cellular connection is not strong, so it has taken much longer to get the blog out.

I just spoke to a gentlemen that does charter fishing trips in his small skiff. He had recently come in with two women that caught 15 fish. He cleaned the fish and prepped them for the ladies before they left. He apparently loves his work and is very proud of this area. He told me that the marina has been here since 1960 and that Walter Cronkite came here, loved it and stayed for quite a while. Apparently it was a plantation at one time. The modest plantation home is on the grounds of the marina. The adjacent grasslands were purchased when Jimmy Carter was Governor and are set aside as a preserve. He also told me that it is very dark at night. Since there are no clouds in the sky, it should be a great night for stargazing.

The boat is running well and we have been very satisfied with the comfort level and performance on a long trip such as this. We seemed to have provisioned the trip appropriately and may have a little food left at the end. So far, we have had the right clothes for the trip. We are fortunate that we can be inside the cabin while running. A lot of the sailboaters who have to navigate from the cockpit are bundled up like it is the middle of January in New Jersey, despite temperatures in the 60s and 70s. We will leave early tomorrow to get to Jekyll Island before it gets to low tide. We have heard that the approach can be a little dicey. We also have to pass a couple of large sounds with a potentially strong east wind, and of course there will be those few trouble spots that are susceptible to shoaling.

We left Charleston around 8:00am this morning hoping to beat traffic, but it wasn’t meant to be. Big ships were coming in and going out as well as some recreational vessels going all over. We took it slow and made it out of the Charleston channel. There were some large dredges working out in the distance, but we turned before getting to them. Once out we opened up and had clear passage to Hilton Head. It was an uneventful trip. We have decided that as much as we enjoy seeing the scenery by staying on the inside (following the ICW in other words), we enjoy seeing the activities on the ocean and avoiding the issues on the ICW. We don’t have to slow down to pass other boats, watch out for no wake zones and worry about water depth. The passage outside was clear and fast. We did have to avoid the breakwater on each side of the channel out of Charleston. We only passed a few boats and tugs during the trip. We keep hoping to see dolphin, turtles or whales, but mostly we get seagulls.

The entry into Hilton Head and Skull Creek Marina through Port Royal Sound is great. Deep water and wide open. The marina is in very well maintained and on the grounds of the Country Club of Hilton Head. The docks are beautiful, and a great overnight stop if you don’t need to provision or get to a restaurant. Not too much in the way of amenities, but it may be the most cost effective marina on Hilton Head, We could actually make it to Jacksonville on the outside from here in one day if we wanted to, but we do want to experience some of the local sights and culture

Our stop for tomorrow night should be really interesting. Be sure to stop back to the blog to find out how it turns out. From what we have heard, it will be the opposite of what we have been experiencing down the ICW so far, and I imagine we will be meeting some real Georgia “good ol’ boys.” One of our boat neighbors said that his wife characterized the marina as a scene from "Deliverance." It's also the day after the elections! Should be interesting.

​Thanks for reading.

We walked into town for a second day of exercise and looking around, partly because the marina shuttle was not running. Today we took the long way around the picturesque shore of Charleston. We saw so many beautiful homes and gardens. 

Since we got an extra hour of sleep last night, we got out of Georgetown a little after 8:00am and made good time to Charleston. It was an uneventful trip, especially since there was an exceptionally high tide this morning, giving us plenty of depth. That isn't to say there still weren't some challenges. There were a few areas that required special attention due to shoaling issues. We also slow down around other boats and docks as our boat creates quite a wake. I really don't want anyone in another boat to get hurt due to our wake. I feel the same about docks. Unfortunately, there is no real standard regarding boat wakes, so we err on the side of caution. Others do not. Early in the trip we passed a unique swing bridge ferry. It pivots on one side of the river and connects on the opposite side. We didn't see it operate, but could see how it works. The view today was mostly grassy swamp areas, but we did see quite a few dolphin. Some right next to the boat in the marina. It's hard to get pictures of them as the disappear as quickly as they appear. We'll keep trying.

We did pass some dredges today. These big vessel/machines are key to keeping the ICW open for mariners. Unfortunately, Mother Nature tends to erase the work they have done in a short period of time. Some areas of the ICW are just prone to constant shoaling. One new experience today was having the seagulls follow us. I guess our wake stirs up something they like to eat.

After going through a long slow section through the residences and docks at Isle of Palms, we finally saw the Charleston skyline and were excited to be here. The water was a little choppy, but we are getting more accustomed to that. Martha was a little intimidated when she saw the marina. We are docked amongst a number of super yachts. Encore looks a little out of place in the row of 100 footers. This is a huge marina and quite an operation. The docks are very substantial, which is good because the current in the river is quite strong  and bounces us around a little.

We took a walk into town before it got too dark. There are many historic homes and buildings. We will spend more time in town tomorrow as this is a two-night stay for us. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the marina as we walked back.

​Thanks for reading.