March 15 -18: Dafuskie to Jekyll Island, Batten Down the Hatches!

  To view in a web browser, click here. 

Monday March 15

View of Hilton Head Harbor Town and lighthouse from our anchorage.

Today we batten the hatches and stay put in Bull Creek behind Dafuskie Island and just across from Hilton Head. The wind gusts were in the mid 30s which is really blowing! The wind really likes to use our high profile with the isinglass as a sail so we opted to stay put one more day. It is too windy to go ashore so we watched movies and read our books. 

________________

Tuesday March 16

We weighed anchor at 7:30 AM with calm winds and water which means lots of gnats until we were under way. The sunrise reflections were amazing.

Went through Walks Cut and Fields Cut at mid tide with lots of water under us.  We waited for the Savannah Barge Ferry to come through first which is met at one of the curves into the cut. 

Crossing the Savannah River is always fun as we are on the lookout for anyone screaming down the river, like this big guy.

Sights along the way through Georgia. 

The winds picked up quite a bit all afternoon and were of course, against us slowing us down.  10 1/2 hrs later and 71.97 miles later we got to Crescent River at 6pm. 

Pollen is everywhere on the boat. EVERYWHERE.

Fabulous sunset tonight. The sunset just kept getting better and better by the minute. 

_______

Wednesday March 17

Anchor up at 8:30 as we have a shorter trip to Jekyll Island. It is a calm morning which means the gnats were bothersome until we got moving again. The autopilot remote failed and he couldn’t get it to work the whole trip and we are in Georgia where the ICW is very winding.

We again got lucky with the tide timing at Little Mud River and actually had plenty of water. Last time we were here, we plowed through mud. 

St Simon Sound was very calm and the huge Sea Ray car cargo is still there being chewed down by the giant chain saw. 

We got to Jekyll Island with a pretty high tide as well which is good but the tide is really weird there as it changes direction right where the Marina is. No one seems to know which tide station is right for the marina. This is the 1st time we had trouble docking there because (and we know better) we were approaching the dock with the tide, per our dock hands request. On the 3rd try, captain Bruce did it his way and we were safely tucked in in a short time. We booked 2 nights here for the upcoming storm but discovered that there is another bad storm following so we are now staying here until Monday morning. We like Jekyll Island anyway! We get to take nice walks, there are some great restaurants and there is a Dairy Queen within walking distance!

One of our favorite restaurants here is at the marina, Zachary's Riverhouse. We have always had a great meal and they let us bring in our bottle of wine ($10 corkage fee) which is great as their wine list could use improving. Unfortunately our meal was the 1st we had that was not to standard but we had a nice time anyway. 

Off to dinner with sunset views

Miles: 39.4

Total miles: 183.6

______

Thursday March 18

Azaleas in full bloom here.

We are tied up to the dock in anticipation of the severe weather. We watched the morning news and saw the tornado damage so far. In the morning we went for a long walk to the resort, did a bit of laundry and Bruce fixed the autopilot. He has no idea how but it is working now.  

Couples having a game of croquet (I assume) at the Jekyll Island Resort.

It was a very nice day until about 2:00 when the temperature started to drop and the wind started to howl.

We had some rain and a lot of wind and the boat is still a bit choppy even at the dock as we say goodnight. 

To follow along by email when posts are made, click here.

To view past posts or in browser, click here.