Depart: Wolf Island Anchorage (GA) 8:00
Arrive: Port Royal Sound / Cowen Creek Anchorage (SC) 5:15
Distance: 79.4 nm
We anchored close to the Doboy Inlet to travel on the ocean again today. Although we hoped to get away from the bugs of the ICW, they decided to hitch a ride and come with us. It felt like pins pricking me and when I looked down, there was a teeny tiny bug chewing on my arm. Finally, I went and pulled out a Thermacell to smoke them out. It seemed to help some.
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| Early morning at the Wolf Island anchorage |
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| Doboy Inlet Lighthouse |
Even though we anchored near the inlet, it took us 50 minutes to get out into the ocean where we could make our turn to head north. About 45 minutes along I looked at the compass and it still said we were heading east. I wondered if Clark had decided to head for France or something. A short while later we reached the last channel marker and made our turn.
Here we found numerous trawling vessels at anchor.
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| One of the many trawling vessels at anchor |
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| I liked the color of this one the best! |
We have seen more anchored commercial vessels out in the ocean this trip than ever before. Most traffic appears to be at a standstill. However,we did see one interesting, non-commercial vessel today on our trip - the sailing vessel EOS. Of course we had to do some research as she looked so majestic sailing along. When Clark saw the boat's length over all to be 305 feet, he was intrigued. The EOS is named for the Greek Goddess of Dawn and is privately owned by a billionaire.
As we rode along today, we had following seas with approximately 22 knot winds. At times we saw speeds of over 10.5 knots as the waves picked us up and carried us forwards. I love that feeling like the boat was picked up and carried for a distance and then set back down. The autopilot, however, does not appreciate the randomness of the following seas and constantly corrects our direction based on the latest wave action. Consequently, we tend to go right then left then right again, repeat!
Nearing Savannah, we had to watch for debris in the water. Of course Clark gave me the helm to take a short break and then a tree showed up in my path. For hours nothing and then a flipping tree!
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| Tree trunk missing its bark, about 7 to 8" diameter, will make a great piece of driftwood someday! |
After I steered around that and we got back on course, we had nothing interesting to look at but water again until we approached the Tybee Inlet for Savannah. Here we found numerous commercial vessels at anchor. Of course one of the anchored vessels was directly on our course line. How dare they!! Here are some samples of what we saw.
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| Century Gold Bulk Carrier from Panama |
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| Chicago Harmony (on our course line) Also a bulk carrier from Panama |
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| Nordic AMI Oil tanker from Liberia |
With Port Royal as our target inlet, we still had another hour to travel on the ocean after passing by Savannah. Throughout the day the seas kicked up more and more until we had about 4' waves pushing us along. As they were "following seas", we had no issue with their height. We wondered how it would be once we turned inland at the inlet. Fortunately, Sunset Delight took the waves in her stride.
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| Buoy bouncing in the waves |
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| Choppy waters off South Carolina |
Clark had said we should get an early start today to avoid higher winds and choppier water later in the day. I thought that meant we would be getting into an anchorage around 3:00. Unfortunately, what Clark says is rarely interpreted by me correctly. Either he can't talk or I don't listen. I wonder which??
We finally got to the anchorage around 5:00, snooped around for a place to call home for the night, and were done anchoring by 5:15.
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| Cowen Creek Anchorage |
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| Nearby personal dock on Cowen Creek |
Rocking on the ocean all day long exhausts me. Every day I have planned on taking a nap, and every day we get in too late for me to take one. I didn't sleep, but I did lie down for a rest before making dinner tonight. I had one eye closed and the other watching the news that Clark put on TV.
After dinner, Clark went off to work on his email. Since he was busy, I snuck out with the camera and took a sunset picture for the blog.
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