Long Day to Brunswick!
05 November 2018 | Brunswick Landing Marina
Cloudy 75, off and on rain
After we stayed 2 days in Beaufort and enjoyed the fabulous $12.00 20oz Steak at the Fillin' Station on Friday we headed out Saturday on a clear crisp ( 50's) day for Savannah and Isle of Hope Marina. All the sounds were flat and for what ever reason, we had a good current push most if the day. In fact we git to Isle of Hope around 2 in the afternoon. Usually we would get there around 4:00pm. We arrived just in tiime to see a wedding going on at the Marina and as much as I tried, I could not get us invited to take advantage of the open bar! We met up with another Boat with an Orwell Vt homeport and we all decided to take the courtesy car to Tequilla Town Chinese Restaurant....ok just kiddung, it was Mexican...just making sure youre paying attention! We met another boat frim Marathon, Miss Mary and they ate with us too. After a great meal we all returned to the Marina and I still couldnt get invited to at least have some cake! We had to leave the next morning bright and early to catch the tide at Hell Gate, 10 miles away. It us a notorious little cut that is 4 ft at low tide or less and 12 ft at high tide....we prefer high tide! Lol. We are Travelling with Free to B for awhile ad they are going to Stuart for the Winter and its always good to have a boat buddy. Anyway, we hit Hell Gate an hour after high tide and had plenty of water. The next obstacle was the Little Mud River 40 miles away that also has 4ft ir less low tides....we draft 4 ft and prefer at least 5 ft! We had a convoy of about 6 boats and I was elected to lead the way with Free to B right behind me. We got to the Little Mud at 1:30 whuch was a little early but even though we were trying to sliw down, we were getting a 2 kt tidal push most of the morning...crazy how we have been getting these pushes this year. So by getting there early we inly had an extra 2 ft of water but the tide was rising so we werent worried....if we got stuck we would quickly float off. My sonar which reads depths has been a little..,no a lot balky lately...freezing uo or giving wrong depths, and they wanted me to go first? I told no one of my problem because I had my ace in the hole Donna, reading me the depths from our lower station plotter via walkie talkie! She did a great job and we never saw less than 6.2 ft...this stretch us 3 miles long....a lot of white knuckling. Our Navionics plotter with crowd sourced sonar, got us through no problem. I wont go into great deal about what it us but needless to say, the Navionics software on our tablet gets downloaded dailey sonar info from boats that have gine before us making the charted depths extremely accurate. So after we all got throygh, everyine thanked us for getting the convoy through! Lol. Our original plan was to go another 20 miles to 2 way Fish Camp with Free 2 B for the night. A funky marina 5 miles off the ICW. The attraction is diesel at $2.69, about 70 cents lower per gallon than anywhere within 1000 miles! Unfortunately, they had no room for overnight dockage and it was getting late so we decided to do what we werent going to do, but go all the way to Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick Ga. It meant 30 more miles before it got dark at 5:30pm!. Well with a good current push and pouring on the coal...we made it by 4:45. 90 miles made for a long day! So here we are in Brunswick for 2 days to regroup, put on some fuel, get a pump out and go shopping....not to mention the free beer and wine tonight. They have a free keg of beer that can be accessed anytime! What a concept! Of course Donna likes the free laundry! This morning we went to breakfast at Maggue Maes with Free to B and had a great meal....cheap too! Tonight there is a pot luck happy hour at the marina cruisers lounge. They really do run this marina very well and it has an active full time cruiser following. Many folks stay here for the winter but it would be a little cold for us especially in January and February. Anyway tomorrow we head off for Sisters Creek near Jacksonville ( free dock) and then Wed, we hit St Augustine for a week. Unfortunately our old cruising buddies Kath and Dan from Majiks fame, who have since bought an RV are off on a land cruise to Texas and New Mexico. We will see them sometime this winter in their RV Im sure. We think we will do Thanksgiving in Vero this year where there is a big cruisers thanksgiving gathering at the Marina every year. Thats all for now except I have a cold....boo. Coughing my brains out! Geez, I haven't mentioned Dylan at all! He is travelling well and definately likes going to Marinas rather than anchoring out which we seem to be doing more of as we get older! Dylan is such a good boat dog as he sleeps most of the day unless he hears a dolphin near by and then he goes to rail and barks at them! They look up at him as if to say whats your problem buddy? Well thats all for now. Florida tomorrow!
Fair winds and Calm Seas