Our goal for the remainder of the week was to make as much distance north as possible, with the hope of ending up in Charleston. The first day back on the ICW was such a contrast to open ocean sailing, and it was strange to be back on murky brown waters and dealing with so much boat traffic. We’re no stranger to shallow waters after so much time in the Bahamas, but I’m used to being able to see what’s under my keel, and I’m having to readjust to the concept of having no idea what’s down there. I also couldn’t get over how chilly it is – we’ve now traded bathing suits for jeans and jackets.
Our first destination was Fernandina Beach. We picked up a mooring at Fernandina Harbor Marina and had dinner in the cockpit at sunset followed by s’mores made on the grill. I’d been hoping to have a beach bonfire the whole time we were in the Bahamas, but since that never happened, I figured this was as good of an occasion as any.
In the morning, we said goodbye to Blaine. I can’t say enough how thankful I was to have his help on our offshore passage. Having another competent sailor to share in the watches and duties of boat life was a HUGE help, and it was fun to have a friend along. We filled our propane and jerry cans and got moving. An east wind built throughout the morning, and I was worried about transiting St. Andrew’s Sound and St. Simon’s Sound, as I’d heard the Georgia sounds can get dangerous in the wrong conditions. Fortunately, we didn’t see more than 2-3′ seas and each crossing was only around a mile or so.
I’m working on expanding my skills, so I’ve been doing more of the passage planning and choosing our destinations, and so far it’s going well. I picked an anchorage in Hawkins Creek off St. Simon’s Island as our next stop. It was a pretty little spot, but between a strong east wind and strong currents, it took a while to settle in on our anchor – in the meantime, Silent Sky spun circles and hung oddly when she wasn’t circling. Fortunately we set well and eventually the wind faded off, leaving Silent Sky to hang into the current.
In general, the passages were uneventful, and winding through the wide open marshland and wildlife preserves in Georgia was beautiful. We skipped Georgia entirely on the way down so it was all new to us, and I wish we’d had time to slow down and explore. The third night, we anchored in Kilkenny Creek. We were able to get far enough into the creek that we had no wake or waves, and we anchored right in front of Lee Side, a boat who was our neighbor way back in Cape May (small world!). It was a perfect, peaceful spot where we were surrounded by egrets, wood storks, great blue herons and all kinds of small wading birds. Of course, there were bugs, but not nearly as bad as I expected and really only around sunrise and sunset.
Friday found us entering South Carolina, and we anchored in Skull Creek on Hilton Head just up from Safe Harbor Skull Creek, where we’d stayed in the fall. We anchored between some of the little islands in the marsh, and while we’d read that wake was an issue, we were lucky to only have a couple boats blow by. We had dinner in the cockpit and listened to the crickets as lights came on in the houses around the marsh. It was another perfectly still night at anchor and we slept like logs. I’ve been learning to haul the anchor, and this time, I reeled in a prize – a giant steel cable, our first anchor snag. Fortunately Chris was able to clear it quickly and we were on our way. As we were leaving, we saw a baby shark hunting along the shore.
Our final long day took us through beautiful South Carolina low country. We planned our travels to take us through Watts Cut at high tide – last time we hit it at low and were inches from grounding in the thick mud. Our timing worked perfectly – just as we cleared the cut, we passed two tugs and a small cruise ship headed the other way, and I was glad not to have met them in the narrow cut.
Our final anchorage was in Church Creek on the southern side of Johns Island. There were three other boats already there, but there was plenty of room for us too. We were surrounded by birdsong, fish jumping and a dolphin hunting for its dinner. We woke to light, patchy fog rising over the marsh at sunrise. With only 10nm to go to St. John’s Yacht Harbor where we have a slip for the work week, we were able to take it slow and enjoy the beautiful morning. Charleston has some really intense currents, so you really need to be within an hour to either side of slack to make docking reasonable, and we were worried we might not make it in time when we ended up with foul current through most of the trip. Eventually we hit favorable current and made it just in time. And we arrived early enough in the day to be able to enjoy Charleston for the afternoon.
It’s really strange to be homeward bound after so long. Reacclimating to life in the States has been a system shock, but being able to crank out so many miles helped us ease back into it. Even though it’s completely different, this part of the journey has its own merits and is its own adventure.
