Georgia On Our Minds

On Wed. the 7th we traveled on the “outside” (the Atlantic Ocean) instead of the ICW, the “inside”. We went through the St. Mary’s Inlet out to the big water and had to go a long way to get past the jettys. We motor-sailed awhile until the winds shifted. We were able to go with sails alone for part of the day at least. We went in at the St. Simon’s Inlet – we had to share the channel with this big guy coming in.

We anchored between two islands – IN GEORGIA! We saw 10 ft. of water when we anchored around 5pm. When we went to bed it was showing 20 ft. The tidal action is still a novelty to us.

The next day we left the anchorage a little before 8am to have the tide in our favor as we were going to be on the inside. We’d heard a lot about this part of the ICW having problems with depth and not being that well marked. We went past Brunswick, GA and were on the Mackay River which led into a series of small rivers and sounds. It was very meandering and marshy. We picked up a swarm of huge greenish flies that only bit occasionally. We’d heard it would start to get buggy around here so we have our bug spray handy (thanks, Sandy!) Around 4:30 we anchored off St. Catherine’s Island in Walberg Creek with two other sailboats. The best thing about this spot was we picked up a really strong wifi signal. The wind really picked up (the second night in a row for that) and with the tidal current keeping us from pointing into the wind it wasn’t that pleasant. Paul was afraid the anchor line might be wound around the keel but thankfully that didn’t happen. Check out the swirling water, definitely not what we’re used to anchoring in back home!


On Friday we left early to get through Hell’s Gate, a notoriously tricky spot, at high water. We passed the mouth of the real Moon River, made famous by the Johnny Mercer song. We saw dolphins, a few shrimp boats and an island populated by wild hogs.


I guess Ginger wasn’t all that thrilled with the scenery.

I don’t think we’ve ever seen a realty sign like this; three private islands could be yours!

We came in to the Thunderbolt Marina in Thunderbolt, GA which is about 6 miles from Savannah on Friday. We’d planned to spend a couple of days seeing Savannah anyway but now we had another reason to stop there. Paul discovered this morning that our alternator went out and this marina has a yard that could do the work. Our refrigeration is giving us problems too we’ll have that checked out as well. This used to be a Palmer-Johnson operation and is now a repair facility for some huge yachts. This is the marina that treats you right. They bring a small box of Krispy-Kreme doughnuts and a morning paper right to your boat – very nice!


Since it was Friday afternoon, the work couldn’t be done until Monday so after one night in the marina we headed to a nearby anchorage, Herb River, for Sat. and Sun. nights and planned to come back to the marina at least once. Saturday night was very calm but Sunday was another story. It was definitely an unusual Birthday/Mother’s Day for Mom as we weren’t even able to get off the boat. There were thunderstorms and high winds; even heard of tornadoes not that far south of us. Going to church and eating out after didn’t happen but Paul promised to take me out today instead. We’ll definitely take a tour of Savannah before we leave the area too.

All for now from the Live Oak Library in Thunderbolt, Georgia.