The last weekend of October 2012 will long be associated with Hurricane Sandy, the tragic loss of HMS Bounty, and the destruction along the mid-Atlantic shoreline from Sandy's landfall. Fortunately for us folks in Georgia, the "Bite" saved us once again as the storm passed well off our shoreline.

As Hurricane Sandy was headed north from Florida, I was driving to the coast to spend the weekend on Roma and to prepare her in case the storm turned inland. Friday and Saturday we experienced winds exceeding 35 mph with occasional stronger gusts. Not necessarily the kind of weather for sailing, but considering the alternatives it wasn't too bad.

I was more than happy to complete a couple projects on Roma until the storm passed by Savannah late Saturday night. Sunday brought clearing skies, cooler temperatures, and moderate winds in the 15-25 mph range, or as we say - "just right for sailing."

I did feel somewhat guilty going sailing while most of the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states were preparing for one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the area. Weather analysts had already named this super-storm "Frankenstorm" because it would most likely make landfall on or near Halloween.

I don't believe in tempting the sea gods or mother nature but: 1) Hurricane Sandy had passed us by, 2) the weather was perfect for sailing, 3) I happen to have a sailboat, and 4) I really needed to go sailing.

Just past high tide about 11:00AM, Joe Brasfield - good friend and skipper of s/v Sabrina, and I pushed off from the dock at Delegal Creek Marina and headed south for Hell's Gate on the backside of Ossabaw Sound. Hell's Gate is a man-made cut of about ½ mile in length through Raccoon Key connecting the North and South Channels of Ossabaw Sound. The cut saves cruisers running the ICW a disance of over 6 miles out and 6 miles back in Ossabaw Sound.

Hell's Gate is not an unique terminology for the cut through Raccoon Key. Many areas around the country have transitional water areas with this notorious name, which is generally associated with strong, confused, or potentially dangerous current.

Ossabaw Sound's Hell's Gate is generally narrow and shallow if traversed at low tide. With a flood or ebb tide running the current becomes the issue. Caution must be taken to remain near the center of the cut to avoid shoaling near Marker G89. Fortunately, we only saw less than 10' of water in this area one time.

Once we cleared the south end of Hell's Gate at Markers G91 and R92 we continued to sail south up the Ogeechee River near Marker R94 before turning back to sail the south channel of Ossabaw Sound. There is plenty of deep water for sailing in the south channel between Egg Island Shoal and Raccoon Key. We continued to make our way east towards Bradley Point on the north end of Ossabaw Island. Bradley Point is a popular beach area for boaters so we pushed Roma as close as possible to the beach to check out the water depths.

Once we cleared Bradley Point we were in the ocean and headed out to Marker G1 to start our turn into the North Channel of Ossabaw Sound. This is more familiar territory since we have sailed three boats through this channel over the past four months.

As we turned into the North Channel, our point of sail changed from a broad reach to a beam reach, and later to a close haul. Even though the weather forecast was for diminishing winds later in the afternoon we were experiencing the strongest winds of the day. Fortunately, I had swapped out my head sail from the 150% Genoa to my 75% jib before leaving the docks. With a full main and the 75% jib we were set up perfectly for the 15-20mph winds.

On our previous trips into Ossabaw we were sailing on a broad reach with the wind behind us. Now the wind was dead off our bow which meant tacking all the way back to the entrance to Delegal Creek. We learned that there is plenty of water for sailing in both the North and South Channels of Ossabaw Sound.

We sailed back into Delegal Creek about 4:00PM with the tide flooding and experienced no problems with depth at the entrance to the creek. Docking was relatively easy as the current was running towards us as we approached the slip.

Roma performed excellent over the 18.32 mile circumnavigation of Ossabaw Sound.