Up early, a quick breakfast of Cheese Crackers and tea, I’d like to make Hilton Head today, but everything would have to work out perfectly for that to happen. We’ll give it our best. I head in the right direction this morning, thank God, and we are making OK progress, but when I traverse the larger rivers and sounds that open up to the Atlantic like Sapalo Sound, Todd River, Ogeechee River, or Hell Gate, going down one direction I’m ok, but going up in the other I’m fighting winds and current. 5 to 5 ½ knots one way, 3 to 3 ½ the other, the average sucks. Hilton Head keeps getting further and further away. By 6:00 it’s clear we’re not making HH in daylight, I have to decide if I want to keep going in the dark. Usually, I’m not inclined to take the risk, but I am in a hurry to get back… When I look at the path ahead, all the twisting and turning, and the fact that Georgia has the shallowest places in the ICW, I going to drop anchor somewhere and get to HH tomorrow. It’s 7:30 and I’ve been looking for the past hour for a place to drop anchor for the night, but there is nothing, and I keep getting closer to Savanah. With only minutes of daylight left, I say screw it, I slow down and drop anchor right where I’m at, about 5 miles from Savanah in the Wilmington River.
Civilization, such as it is. [Jun 25, 2022]
Up at 6:30, breakfast of Freeze Dried Bisquets and Gravy with a cup of tea. By 7:15 I’m underway, calling to see if Windmill Harbour Marina, where I’ve stayed twice before, has a slip. They do and I told them I’ll be there around noon. Once I pass Savanah it’s clear, sunny skies, warm temperatures, and smooth going. I‘m making the turn into the marina lock channel and contact the marina by radio, I can tell from the docks it’s dead low tide and ask how deep the channel is. ‘How much do you need’, is the relay. I say 4 ½ feet, ‘oh I think there will be enough’. I’m in the channel and the depth sounder goes 5, 4, 3, 2, my rectum is tightening, 1, 0… Now, I’m waiting for the bump and stop, but it never comes. I know from sailing in the Bahamas that I have about 3 inches below the keel when it reads 0. So, I floated in 3 or fewer inches of water under the keel. I stop at the fuel dock and top off everything, I’ll need it for my next leg of the trip.
I slid Aine into her slip, and off I went to the showers. Clean, shaven, and dry I return to the boat. Stow everything, call Uber and head out for shopping. I need to reprovision food, pick up my Amazon package (new Bilge Pump), and maybe find a slice of Pizza too. I return to the boat and now need to do laundry, which takes about an hour and a half, and replace the bilge pump which takes another hour. The boat has to be readied for sea, there is a 2 ½ day weather window and I’ll be heading out in the morning heading for Charleston and possibly Wilmington. Boat ready, tummy full of pizza, I hit my bunk.