Friday, April 26, 2019

18th - 25th April.2019 Georgia's IntraCoastal Waterway

tourist attraction at Brunswick Landing Marina

During our southbound trip down the eastern seaboard in 2013 we bypassed Georgia's ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) by passaging 'on the outside' (in the Atlantic) from Port Royal Sound in South Carolina to Cumberland Island in Georgia. That passage took us 19hr. 

As we wanted to experience it we chose to travel Georgia's ICW in our northbound passage. This took us 30hr. over a week's time period. Georgia's ICW winds along serpentine rivers and crosses several open sounds. It is predominantly shallow grasslands, where shoaling is frequent. 

Georgia's ICW is predominantly grassland



We came upon a few of these dredging operations, which are vital to maintaining the channel depths needed for transit.

dredging along Georgia's ICW

The tidal range here is 8 or 9 feet, so most boats will have no trouble at mid- to high- tide. "Mid tide and rising" is the mantra for travel; so we found ourselves "waiting for tide" :)  The changing tides create currents and we quickly learned to 'ride the tide' to help speed us along; choosing to anchor and wait for higher water, rather than be slowed by unfavourable currents. 


trawler passing to port

Islands on Georgia's ICW

oh look … trees!

Our first port of call after leaving Cumberland Island was at Brunswick Landing Marina. Cruisers Bruce & Terry, whom we met at Cumberland Island, had recommended this stop; and as we needed a new head (toilet) - I'm not going to go into details on this issue - and Chris Parker, the cruiser's weather god, was advising boaters to get into port because heavy weather was coming; we elected to go there also. We stayed a couple of nights, which was long enough to wait out the weather, get a new head, and partake of the free beer on tap with Bruce & Terry. Oh, and enjoy real showers, reprovision and do laundry. 

Weather was very settled for the week afterwards, and we anchored in several tributaries just off the ICW: Fredricka River, Wahoo River, Vernon River and the Herb River, as we made our way northward. 

party of brown pelicans

wild pig from a safe distance

wind surfing

When we got to Thunderbolt, a town very near Savannah, we were surprised to see several very tall masts (barely visible in the photo below) - mega sailing yachts - typically only seen in the Caribbean. This was surprising because the height clearance of bridges along the ICW is generally only 65'. Taking a closer look at our charts, we realized that Thunderbolt Marina was accessible to the Atlantic by Wassaw Sound; explaining their presence.

sunset behind Thunderbolt Marina and it's mega sailing yachts

A first for us happened while at anchor in the Herb River near Thunderbolt. These shallow waters are perfect for crabs, and there are many crab pots to be seen and avoided. We had thought we anchored well clear of all crab pots, but no.....     Sure enough one snagged us. It had an incredibly long buoy line on it, and it wrapped itself around our anchor rode :(.  We had gone to bed of course. The knocking against our hull woke us. We pulled the crab pot aboard along with it's line to prevent further wrapping around our rode. In the morning, we untangled and freed the line, just in time for the waterman who came to pick up his catch..... blue crabs.... yum! We've caught and eaten those in the Chesapeake and they are so sweet. He wouldn't sell us any though :(. I'm guessing they can get into trouble for that? Gil now wants to purchase a smaller version of one of these crab pots so we might catch our own.

A first - snagged a crab pot!

Then, another first....  an alligator!! We saw this guy crossing one of those many winding streams here in Geogia. No swimming for us.

Another first - an alligator!

Slow but steady, we're making progress north. We'll leave the quiet of Georgia's grasslands tomorrow when we cross the Savannah River to South Carolina. 

1 comment:

  1. Hey guys! So glad you got a chance to enjoy our marina :)

    Come back and see us soon?

    ReplyDelete