It occurred to me after reading the Thanksgiving post, that I really didn't say anything about yesterday's trip down, so here ya go

I left Kilkenny Creek just after sunup as the fog was burning off and headed back onto the ICW. The first couple of hours I was still on a rising tide which was fine. Then the tide switched and started to go down. A good way to gauge what the tide is doing, besides watching the current, is to look at the posts holding the day markers. As the tide falls, you can see where the post has marine life attached to it and where its been wet.

The tide here in Georgia is no joke. It rises and falls between 7 and 9+ feet, depending on the phase of the moon. Today, when the tidal flow reached "max-ebb" around mid-day, it was like piloting the boat in a draining bathtub!

It was a mixed bag however because, even though the water was rapidly leaving town, it was frequently carrying me along with it. In other words, water flowing quickly in same direction I'm going=GOOD. Water disappearing from beneath my keel=BAD.

I would not recommend doing what I did today as it took me through several notorious trouble spots at or near low tide. I kept watching the bank getting bigger and bigger and sticking out farther into the channel. Then I began to pass crab pots sitting in about two inches of water and birds WALKING very close to the boat.

One place that I passed through, Hell Gate (does anyone else think they need to hire a PR firm to rename some of these places? Sheesh!), was so exposed that my depth sounder showed only 5.1 feet under the boat which was a little scary since I draw 5 feet.

There were a lot of tense moments but somehow I made it all the way to St Simon's Island just about sundown and without touching bottom once! *whew*

Here's a picture of the sunrise as I left.