Frampton’s March Through Georgia

We had another fog delay this morning for about 45 minutes. It was quite thick with visibility less than 300 yards. Once visibility improved some we decided to untie and get going. The first hour was very slow progress as we didn’t go any faster than 4.5 knots per hour. When the fog cleared, we put on the speed to make up some time.

​We had a good night at Morningstar Marina. The full moon was clearly visible and I could see the lights of the Golden Ray project in the distance from the marina.

I had forgotten how open Georgia is on the ICW. The rivers are pretty wide, especially during high tide and there were not many boats on the water. All of the sounds where the rivers meet the ocean were calm. No water over the bow today. There really are a lot of beautiful places in Georgia for boaters as development along the coastline is limited.

The only commercial traffic we came upon was the Sun River City tug pushing a barge. I thought the name sounded familiar, so I checked my pictures from November and found that it was the same barge we saw at Jekyll Island on November 6. Later that day we passed the barge on the way to Jacksonville. We made a safe pass at Sapelo Sound today and a few hours later the tug passed us at the marina. I don’t know where he was going, but I wonder if we will see him tomorrow.

Every day on the water provides at least one adventurous moment (read anxiety). It seems these events happen at the end of the day, and reason is that we have high tide early in the morning and by the time we approach our destination, the tide is low. The full moon is causing the tide to be even lower than normal. I am trying very hard not to run aground and damage the props. There were two anxious moments today. The first spot is appropriately called “Hell Gate” and is a short, narrow and shallow connection between the Ossabow Sound South Channel and North Channel. We took it very slow and made it through ok. The last mile or so was almost as bad. The channel was very narrow and the close shoreline looked ominous. Fortunately the channel was deep enough.

We got the the Isle of Hope Marina on the Isle of Hope, fueled up and settled in at the dock. The folks here are very nice and helpful. The marina was busy since it was a Saturday, but I think it will be a quiet night. Martha and I took a walk around the neighborhood after dinner on the boat. There are some very beautiful historic-looking homes here surrounded by huge live oak trees draped in Spanish Moss. Many of the residents were out riding around in their golf carts. A number of the residents were gathered around one live oak with a resident owl. Apparently there are some baby owls in the nest and it seems that everyone on the island wants to catch a glimpse of them. We only saw the momma owl.

Tomorrow we leave Georgia on our way to Beaufort, South Carolina.