We left Nassau 10 days ago and we figured by now we'd be back in the Chesapeake! Ah, the joys of sailing. Actually, we have hardly been off the boat since Easter. If you've been following our blog, you know we have been on the move since Eleuthera and we left there on Easter Monday! We have had just a few short walks here and there but not enough to get any real exercise. This is the part of sailing that is not so fun unless your a couch potato!
The weather conditions have not been suitable for going up the east coast but we decided to make a small jump on the outside this past Tuesday to an anchorage inside Do Boy Sound on the ICW (north of Brunswick, GA and south of Savannah, GA). However, coming into this cut from the ocean was a disaster. We noticed frothing water all around us and next thing we knew there were breaking waves and our depth meter went from 12, to 7 to 3 and on down to 0 before we hit bottom. Shane was driving and quickly spun us around. No damage done. Thank goodness the wind was fairly calm and the waves were small. As it turns out, we either were being pushed by the current and didn't realize it or a few of the buoys were not where they were supposed to be. And, it was low tide, but our charts were still showing enough water. However, we did have to turn around and try it again because it was getting late and there were storms coming. We had no other choice but to give it another shot. There was no place else to go. We turned around again, motoring very slowly going in at a slightly different location and keeping an eye on the depth sounder. Finally, we got in the channel into deeper water and into Do Boy Sound and motored the rest of the way to an anchorage just off the ICW for the night.
Watching for dolphins on the Big Tom
Wednesday and Thursday we worked our way north on the ICW during the stormy weather but actually dodged most of the bad stuff. But these are the coolest and cloudiest days we have had since we left Florida in early February! The first day we had a good motoring trip north along the ICW for about 5 hours at 6.5 knots and ending the day by going up this small river called the Big Tom Creek. We got anchored smack dab in the middle of the creek since the tidal range is a crazy 8.8 feet. At low tide it seemed like we were less than a boat length away from either shore but we sat in about 10 feet of water. The anchorage was like being in a wildlife refuge. The scenery was spectacular with miles and miles of marshland, and woods off in the distance. All sorts of sea birds, regular birds, ducks and other water birds were chirping constantly and flitting here and there. There were dolphins meandering in the river and we even spotted what we think was an alligator! The gnats however, were ferocious!
On Thursday, our second day of motoring up the ICW, we planned to go as far as we could without running into any highway bridges that cross the ICW. Dream Chaser's mast is 73' and not ICW compliant because all the fixed highway bridges are a standard 65'. But according to our brand new electronic Garmin charts, we were free of any bridges until near Wassau Sound, where we planned to head back out into the Atlantic when the weather improved. Several miles later after transiting Hell's Gate, a very shallow and tricky area to navigate on the ICW, off in the distance we spotted what looked like a brand new highway bridge. Sure enough...we did a quick Google search and found that this bridge was just completed in 2013. So, we did a quick turn about had to back track a few miles to find an anchorage we could hide out in for the next two days to wait out the weather.
Today the storms are gone and the winds have gone to the northwest which will make for a nice sail up the coast out on the ocean. We motored down the Vernon River this morning and into Ossabaw Sound and out on into the Atlantic. We will make Charleston, SC in about 10 hours but will continue on, hopefully to Beaufort, NC or Cape Lookout where we will anchor for the next cold front coming on Monday.