15 April 2026
Depart: Cumberland Island anchorage in Georgia 8:30 a.m.
Arrive: Walberg Creek anchorage in Georgia 5:40 p.m.
Distance: ~ 76 nm
Travel Time: ~ 9 hours
Clark said we just needed to be underway at 8:00 a.m. to catch the outgoing tide. We were awake shortly after 6:00, so we had a leisurely start to our day.
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| Early morning sun over Cumberland Island, GA |
Our plan to go out into the ocean for today's voyage had us backtracking towards Florida to go out the St. Mary's inlet. As we traveled towards the ocean we could see one of the paper mills at Fernandina Beach, Florida.
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| Fernandina Beach Paper Mill |
A short while later we passed by Fort Clinch.
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| Fort Clinch Amelia Island, FL |
We were happy to see, once we got out into the ocean, that we had relatively calm seas for today's ride. As we passed by a marker in the ocean, the birds using it as a roost for fishing became disturbed by our wake. Loud squawking emanated from the marker as we passed.
Clearly, I was desperate for entertainment to find this amusing. Notice how calm the water was as shown in the picture below where the buoy showed no sign of movement.
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| as we approach |
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| there they go |
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| coming back |
It felt lonely on the ocean as traffic was basically non-existent. One sailboat passed us.
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| How exciting! Boat traffic! |
All too soon we left the sailboat behind us, and the ocean was devoid of other boats. Even though we were seven miles offshore, the ocean was, unfortunately, not devoid of biting bugs (gnats)! Clark must be tasty because several times he got bites on his arms.
Over the VHF radio, we heard a somewhat frantic hale to the Coast Guard. A woman on a sailboat on inland water said, "We're aground and tipped over on our keel"! The Coast Guard contacted Tow Boat US for them, and we later found that they had gotten underway.
After all day on the water listening to news stories on NPR, we arrived at the St. Catherine's inlet. Clark said that this inlet used to have markers showing the path inland, but at some point they were removed. Since Clark has taken us in here before, he was confident that we could come inland here tonight. We looked up a track of our travels from May of last year, so that we could follow that same path in tonight.
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| Following last year's path in towards an anchorage for the night |
Scenery at the inlet was trees and marshes.
Two other boats were already anchored here with another at a nearby dock.
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| Tonight's neighbors |
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| Marshland surroundings |
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| One of our neighbors |
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| Sunset |
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| Reflection of sunset in cockpit door |
16 April 2026
Depart: Walberg Creek anchorage 8:30 a.m.
Arrive: South Creek anchorage, south of Charleston, SC 6:45 p.m.
Distance: ~ 85 nm
Travel Time: just over 10 hours
Clark decided we would travel on the ocean again today. Before we got underway, Clark had a few chores he wanted to take care of before departure. First, he wanted to make some parameter adjustments for the charging of our batteries. Apparently, they are going into "float" mode too soon. He changed bulk absorption and float to be raised by 0.1. He also performed his "engine checks" before departure and found a clamp that he decided needed to be tightened.
One of our objectives for today, which would be taken care of when we were far enough offshore, was to empty to holding tank of waste water.
We had rolling waves as we made our way out into the ocean for today's travel. The stabilizers were working hard today as was the autopilot as we were pushed one way and then another.
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| Offshore today |
Once again we saw limited boat traffic for our trip. Further offshore than us I noticed a fast boat passing us by.
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| boat silhouette on horizon |
As we passed by the Savannah, Georgia area, I heard a weather report for the area near Fort Pulaski. It's funny what can trigger a memory. When I was a small child, my family used to play the home game of Jeopardy. Whenever my dad did not know the answer to a question, he would "click in" and say, "Who is General Pulaski?" I think only once that actually turned out to be the right question to ask!
Later, we heard over the VHF radio a boat say they were the "OOCL Daffodil" coming out of Tybee Roads near Savannah. Clark looked them up on AIS and saw that the ship is a 0.2 nm long vessel carrying dangerous cargo.
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| OOCL Daffodil |
The stabilizers and the autopilot did the lion's share of the work today making it a rather tedious ride on the ocean. However, as boring as it was, it is a lot better than winding our way through the winding waters of the Georgia ICW through marshes and insects.
After lunch I laid down on the bench seat on the upper helm and drifted in and out of sleep while listening to NPR stories.
Our travels today brought us to South Carolina, and once again pretending to be "Ms. Google", the captain said, "Welcome to South Carolina!"
Finally, after a very long day on the water, we arrived at the N. Edisto River Inlet and access to where Clark planned to drop anchor tonight.
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| Inlet up ahead |
The water coming in this inlet was shallow further out than it was closer inland. Clark had me calling out depths for a while we saw only 13' under the keel, but as we got closer in to shore, we had 70+ feet! As we came in the inlet, we had the current pushing us in and got a push up to as much as 10.6 knots.
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| 81 nautical miles coming in from our ocean ride |
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| View as we come in towards the anchorage |
This area looked pretty desolate as we came in.
and several birds fishing in the marshes.
As we headed to the point where Clark planned to drop anchor, we passed one house with a nice dock arrangement and two boats.
Knowing it would be a long day today, I had planned to do some cooking before we dropped anchor tonight. However, the wave action almost all the way up to where we dropped anchor made me change my mind on that plan as I did not feel like dealing with boiling water in waves. I managed to throw something together for dinner, and after dinner stepped out to grab a couple of sunset pictures.
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| A bit of blue in this one |
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| portrait to get the reflection in the water |
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| Just before the sun disappeared! |
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