After a dawn departure from our Cumberland Island anchorage, we had a long and varied day working our way north (on average) through the low country. I say "on average" because the ICW follows a wonderfully circuitous path in Georgia, constantly winding as it follows natural channels, rivers and occasional land cuts to connect a series of sounds into a continuous route.

The tides also play a vital role here as they are five or more feet: A great deal of water moves in and out of these narrow winding channels twice a day, producing strong currents. As a result, driving the boat is a constantly changing experience as the currents ebb and flow, sometimes with you, sometimes against, and the sail (to augment the engine) is constantly being adjusted to new wind angles, furled as we turn into the wind, and pulled out again as we turn to a new angle. In some places we were making eight knots over the ground while in others we struggled to make better than four.

The tides also make for some thin water in places as the currents cause shoals to form in some of the channels: While there might be ten feet of water in a particular channel at high tide, low tide will find with scarcely five feet, which makes for some anxious moments on the helm: We didn't run aground anyplace but we most certainly removed any mussels that might have been growing on the bottom of our keel!

We haven't seen the low country in early spring like this before. At first glance, it looks as it did in the fall: A sea of the brown and amber stems of the marsh grass extending to the horizon and dotted with occasional clumps of trees where the ground is slightly higher. But on closer examination, you can see the new growth rising through the old. This year's grasses are bright green and half the height of the dried grasses from last year. because the grasses are remarkably uniform in height, the effect is of layers, with the green layer rising the through the brown. The top view of the marshes is still the same old brown, but the new growth is coming and one day soon, the entire marsh will appear to turn green almost overnight...a fitting metaphor for many of the changes in our world that seem to happen suddenly.