Headed South On to Savanah, GA
11 April 2021
by Dianne Hughes
Next stop: Savannah
April 10, 2021
Quiet overnight. Early morning start to make our 51 miles to Savannah. My treatment with the permethrin and closing the cockpit seemed to have deterred our little flying biting critters. Now it is she who knows a few things. 😇
Weather predicts a chance of rain and possibility of a thunderstorm for the evening. We want to be set before Charles must deploy a metal anchor in the middle of a thunderstorm. Traveling to a tourist destination on a weekend leads to the likelihood of increase boat traffic. With, it appears everyone is on vacation. Maybe we are all stir crazy for being locked up for a year.
As I feared, boat traffic, especially small boats, picked up as we neared Hilton Head. Unfortunately, the traffic picked up in the more torturous part of the ICW. The boats were like a swarm of bees and all go to fast for the waterway. The wind and current picked up as the afternoon progressed slowing us down to a mere 1 knot and we were still buffeted about by the small boats. Obviously, no wake is a foreign concept to these boaters.
Made it to the Savannah River, losing some of the traffic. Wind still on our nose but the current has shifted, helping us make a little more forward progress. We were monitoring the radio when we heard an alert issued from the Coast Guard, “man overboard”. Not surprising given the weather conditions and the amount of boating traffic. We listed as they pulled two people out of the water, a woman and an infant. The Coast Guard kept asking if the male had resurfaced. Search efforts underway without success. The infant suffered a head injury and was taken to the hospital.
As an aside note, the Savannah River is a continually active seaport. We watched a cargo ship go up the river that looked like a large city! The accident occurred downtown Savannah near the oil docks. Supposedly, the boat hit a barge and the occupants of the boat were ejected. The male occupant is still missing.
We anchored for the night in Vernon River. We almost made it ahead of the weather, but it was a small line of rain with outflow from thunderstorms, so we settled down quickly.
Comments