Sailboats are made to travel and experience the adventure of new ports, but's it still a bittersweet moment when you leave a place you've grown to call a second home. After 12 years in the Golden Isles and Brunswick area, we made the difficult decision to move s/v Roma to Delegal Creek Marina in The Landings on Skidaway Island, Georgia.

Several of our "C-Dock" friends from Morningstar have already moved to Delegal Creek Marina and we thought this would be a great opportunity to relocate so we can experience Savannah, Hilton Head, and Beaufort by water.

Final preparations for the trip were completed in August and all that remained was hoping for a perfect weather window. Hurricane Isaac threatened to spoil our plans but the storm moved into the Gulf and made landfall near New Orleans just before Labor Day, and then traveled into the heartland and away from the Southeast coastal area.

The forecast for Sunday September 2 was for mostly clear skies and favorable but light winds of 8-10 mph blowing from the Southeast. The plan was to buddy sail with Steve Barrow on s/v Elbaba, who was also moving to Delegal Creek Marina. Crewing with me on s/v Roma was Joe Brasfield, the skipper of Sabrina. We needed to depart at 8:30AM in order to arrive 11 hours later at Delegal Creek Marina at mid-tide or around 7:30PM.

Less than five minutes away from Morningstar Marina, Steve reported an overheating problem with his engine on s/v Elbaba and had to turn back. Although we were disappointed for Steve it was much better that the issue occurred where he could make a safe return to the marina.

Facing a light headwind in the Frederica River and a flood tide on our bow, we raised the mainsail and never looked back. By 9:00AM s/v Roma was passing the St. Simon's Lighthouse for the last time, at least in this chapter of her life. At 10:30AM we reached marker R4 and made the 90° turn north on a course of 29°. We were already enjoying winds of 6-8 miles per hour coming from about 180°.

The total trip from marina to marina is about 74½ miles, but it is 9 miles from Morningstar Marina out the St. Simon's Bar Channel to R4, which is earliest point there is sufficient water depth to leave the channel headed north. The open water distance between Ossabaw and St. Simon's Sounds is approximately 51 miles.

Even though the wind was consistently the SSE, the velocity continued to increase to about 12-15 miles per hour. We were on a broad reach to a run downwind for the entire open water passage. S/v Roma handled the trailing seas well even though it was difficult at times to keep her on course because of the rolling waves.

We had estimated that we could motor sail and maintain an average speed of 6-8 miles per hour and burn about a gallon an hour of fuel. My 6 gallon tank lasted about 6.5 hours, which meant that our fuel consumption was on target. Roma also has a 12 gallon tank and I had an additional 8 gallons of fuel in auxiliary containers for a total of 26 gallons. I burned about 10 gallons on the trip so I had over 160% amount of surplus fuel.

(Click here for video clip of the trip)


As in previous trips up the coast the threat of afternoon thunderstorms is the main concern. About 10 miles from the entrance to Ossabaw Sound we noticed a thunderstorm building over St. Catherine's Island so we played it safe and reefed the main and genoa jib. Even though the thunderstorm passed well south of us reefing early proved to be a good action as we did catch the stronger winds entering Ossabaw Sound as the storm passed.

Joe brought his Garmin chartplotter since it had two previous tracks laid down for entering the sound. We essentially split the tracks and laid down a new and improved track through the North Channel of Ossabaw Sound and experienced good water depth all the way to the entrance of Delegal Creek.

We dropped sails as we entered Delegal Creek and arrived at the marina at 7:14PM, just 16 minutes ahead of schedule. With the tide flooding I pointed s/v Roma into her slip on C-Dock and we made a very soft and easy landing.

Our plans are to stay at Delegal Creek Marina for one year, and then move back to Morningstar Marina at St. Simon's Island. For now, let the new adventure begin.

(Click here for photos of the trip)