Captain's Choice blog: Timing is everything

When your dealing with tides, currents and winds timing is everything when traveling along the intracoastal. There is a section known as "hell gate" which connects the Vernon River with the Ogeechee River that gives boaters angst. It's just a small section, not even a mile long but depending on how much your boat drafts you can run aground, so you have to make sure you have tide help when you reach that section. When we left Thunderbolt Saturday morning we knew we would hit "Hell Gate" at high tide which gave us ample water depth. We checked our depths and at low tide we would definitely be aground in our boat! It ended up being a sunny day, windy as we traveled 60 miles and anchored in Crescent River, at low tide 9' of water, good holding and more of a sand bottom as the anchor came up clean. There were 2 other boats at anchor here and from listening to the radio there were several other boats in the next creek over.

I spoke to soon when I said I put the gloves and hats away...we were welcomed to low 40's as we got ready to leave Sunday morning. This is Georgia and it isn't winter yet and I know it's snowing in Buffalo but 40's??? The sun never came out and the winds were brisk at 15-20 mph as we went from Crescent River to Brunswick Landing Marina, 43 miles.
We lingered just a bit Sunday morning so we could go through Little Mud River close to high tide and when we left Brunswick on Tuesday morning we had to time the tides with Jekyll Creek. Brunswick landing is a popular marina and their claim to fame is free beer. Yup free beer 24/7, you don't find that just anywhere and a couple days a week they have happy hour which includes free wine. We had planned to stay 2 nights and luckily Monday night was happy hour and they had quite a crowd in the club room. We met Cal & Cheryl from No Snow who are in the looper planning stages and found out we had dinner with Cheryl's sister on Seaquest while they were doing the loop back in May '17... such a small world. Besides the free beer they also have free laundry and an extensive book exchange to leave a book and grab a new one.

We were all set to leave Tuesday morning but we woke to heavy fog. There was a brand new 50' Beneatau swift trawler next to us that was being delivered to new owners in Charleston and the crew told us they were leaving early...we wondered why they hadn't left when we got up and saw (or couldn't see), visibility was less than 1/4 mile. By 8:30 the fog had lifted and a half dozen boats left the marina. The interesting fact about the captain for the swift trawler was that it was Captain Chris, a yacht delivery captain that Mark recognized from numerous articles he has written for boating magazines.
The extra time in the morning gave us the extra help with the rising tide and again we had ample water depth to get past Jekyll Creek. We traveled 42 miles and grabbed a mooring ball at Fernandina Beach. Welcome to Florida! We dinghyed into town after we stopped and introduced ourselves to 2 other Gold Looper Boats in the mooring field, One Eyed Dog and Gypsies Palace. Fernandina is a cute town with lots of shops and restaurants. We didn't stop here when we did the loop because they hadn't rebuilt the marina from Hurricane Matthew (2016), they still haven't rebuilt but will be closing November 23 to finally start the renovations.
We were treated to temps in the 80's and high humidity...you can tell we are further south although there is a little cold spell (high 60's) forecasted for the weekend. I am still trying to find the best product for the no-see-ums! They have been bothering us since we hit Georgia and Tuesday night they could have carried us away as we dinghyed back to the boat. We've been using skin so soft, off, thermacell and we have still managed to get a few bites.

Wind, grey skies and misty rain was the order of business as we left Fernandina Wednesday and traveled to Ortega Landing Marina in Jacksonville, 47 miles. This will be our home for the next 5 days as we visit family and meet my new great niece!