Saturday, November 5, 2016

Sounds, Sounds, and more Sounds

I'm not talking about acoustical sounds but the Marine Sounds. We passed through 5 of them today. That is a BUNCH!

We left Killkenney Creek at 7:30am and had a good run with a favorable tide to transit all the troubles spots at near high tide namely, Little mud River, Altamaha Sound approach, and Buttermilk Sound. This involved transiting St Catherine Sound, Sapello, Dolboy, Altamaha, and Buttermilk Sounds. Destination was Frederica River Anchorage just above St Simones Island Sound.

We did it!! It was tough but no problem with low water because we timed the tide just right. The problem was the much more than expected wind speeds while crossing the Sounds. The worst was the Sapello. When we entered I saw the wind speed jump to 24 then 30 then 33 and then 35. Forecast was for 10 - 20. Eeeeck my crew is not going to like this.. Fortunately the wind direction was mostly on our stern and the current was with it. It was no cake ride but only a few items took a dive down in the cabin from the moderately rough rocking. We just plugged along and made 60 miles in 8.5 hours.. That is GOOD>>> We still don't have a buddy boat but we did have one sailboat follow us for a while -- FLOW. I talked to them a bit but they wouldn't strike up a conversation. They kept trying to motor sail with the Jenny but with this strong wind they kept getting overpowered and made erratic moves. I eventually stopped and let them pass me so I wouldn't have to worry about them. Several trawler types passed us today but that was all.

The wind should lay down tonight and we should be able to cross the notorious St Andrew sound tomorrow with some difficulty but if we don't then it will be Wednesday before we can try again.

I'm knocking on Florida's door and want to put this Georgia behind us. Georgia has a beautiful waterway but they don't keep it up and it is a ROYAL PAIN to cross since you must use the tide to do it.

I'm bushed -- going to sleep well tonight.

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