Back on the ICW
25 November 2012 | Skull Creek, SC to Brunswick, GA
sunshine-rain-wind-thunderstorms, etc
I'm a bit behind in keeping the blog current, but here's the catch-up:
After a good night's sleep in the quiet anchorage in Skull Creek, the new day dawned. Traveling with Chanticleer we've come to expect our “good morning” text message. This day was no different, but with a postscript – “How about a short and easy day – say 30 miles?” We wholeheartedly agreed to the plan. While we cursed this unlit anchorage the night before, morning and sunshine brought a different perspective. Skull Creek is quite a pretty spot, in spite of it's name, and we were tucked in with tall grasses all around us. While we all lingered over coffee, we enjoyed a beautiful morning.
Once on the ICW again, somewhere after 9:00 am, the motor down Calibogue Sound turned out to be a sleigh ride – with the current working with us we saw as much as 9.3 knots of speed. This was the first of our current riding so far on the trip, a welcomed advantage. We kept our speed for the most part and enjoyed the sights. Our stop for the night was Turner Creek and while we worked our way carefully up the creek, depths jumped from 5' to 17' but neither Chanticleer nor Chinook touched bottom. Almost to the head of the creek we found room to anchor and dropped our hooks. Pat and Bob launched their dinghy for the first time on this trip and made their way to land to stretch their legs. Mike and I remained on the boat, pondering our shaft over-heating problem. On their way back the skies opened up on Pat and Bob but they took time to stop and have a celebratory drink with us on Chinook toasting our challenging but successful ocean leg and their 24th wedding anniversary! Pat and Bob headed back to Chanticleer in the rain; we had a quick dinner and retired.
Tuesday morning brought a change in weather – overcast and chilly. Plans were to make up for our short day yesterday and put 60 miles behind us. It was a long motor, current working in our favor for most of the sound crossings - mostly uneventful typical Georgia switch-backs which was good because Mike spent the day adjusting the engine shaft in order to to avoid its over-heating. Destination – Crescent River and we found it to be a very good anchorage; protected and deep water close to shore. Through the night the winds picked up and by morning the weather report was nasty – rain, winds, and thunderstorms. It was an easy decision – stay the day and wait for things to clear. Mike and I enjoyed a relaxing morning – knitting and reading – then tackled the shaft problem. Adjusting, testing, adjusting, testing; Mike finally found the balance so we lifted the anchor and motored up and down the river until we we pretty sure everything was back to normal. Still other projects kept our attention, but when the day was done, we knew we'd addressed some necessary fixes.
Less wind but still cloudy and cool, we planned our departure to coincide with high tide in the Little Mud River. Our last trip through had been some of the shallowest water we saw on the whole ICW so we didn't want to repeat that adventure. An easy pass-through; never saw less than 15 feet. Now that's the best way to enjoy the Little Mud River! We continued south and arrived at the Brunswick Landing Marina around 3pm. Diana and Ken on Spirit were waiting for us and a warm chili dinner awaited the four of us after a long, cold day of traveling. Here we would part traveling with Chanticleer as they had plans to go to St. Marys on the GA/FL border to celebrate Thanksgiving with about 150 cruisers – an annual event. We stayed in Brunswick with plans to park the boat at the marina, rent a car, and drive to Miami to be with our kids for Thanksgiving.