This morning we departed northward on Brickhill River, and crossed St. Andrew Sound, headed towards Jeckyll Island. In spite of the calm winds and slick surface, there were a few swells in the Sound. This sound can get nasty to cross when the winds are howling, and the ICW has an alternate route to by-pass that entrance. I've never talked to anyone who had been through, and most of the Active Captain comments were old
I'm trying to offer a bunch of rational reasons to explain my meanderings. The truth is probably, I just like to explore!
We entered Umbrella Creek on the eastern end, and there are no depth issues for a vessel less than 6 feet. We were exploring again a falling tide, to the current was meeting us head us. When we got up to Umbrella Cut, with its marked ICW alt markings, the current would have been pushing us out to the north, so we continued exploring up Umbrella Creek, now in the marked channel. A large shoal extends from the northern bank above the confluence of Dover Cut.
While Umbrella Creek is for anyone, Dover Cut requires a few water reading skills, and a huge pucker factor. I would not have wanted to meet another vessel my size in there, an hour before low tide, with a +1.0' tide! Once you are in the cut, it was pretty much commitment, since the deep water was narrow enough to aggravate turning around. Oh, and the water isn't that deep. With my 4'4" draft, I feel that I can barely make it through on MLW, but on my next time through, I'll wait for a half tide.
It was however, the perfect day to explore, tides unaffected by wind, a gentle flow on the nose, enabling us to back out, and low enough to see the shoals. In the cut, all of the markers are well out of the channel, as is typical in tidal creeks. Remember to hug the west bank after crossing the first red, and then always use the outside of the curves.
Dover Creek is wide and deep. Deep is relative, we'd just come thru the cut! We followed the channel makers out to the Satillo River, and headed south. We cruised over to look at the spot marked "The Bulkhead" on the charts, which looks like that from a distance as the tide line runs along that ridge. It was a clear shot all the way to Floyd Creek. It is enough to convince me to go this way when conditions make the inlet rough.
We stayed on the north side of the Satillo River, returning to Jeckyll Sound, and to the northwest, to enter the alternate ICW channel, pass through the Umbrella Cut, with 8' at MLW, and anchored to the west of where the ICW-alt turns south.
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| Jeckyll Island |
We thought we were anchored for the day, but, with the lack of any breeze, and us being a little screen impaired, we decided to continue on up to Fort Frederica.
St. Simons Light
Fort Frederica is an interesting place. They have a dock you can take your dinghy to only around high tide, as the area under the ladder is in mud at low tide. Much of the grounds are still being excavated. In an Indiana Jones type story, an old map was found in recent history, showing the town. The only part of the ruins that folks knew about were pieces of the blocks from the fort. Wtih the map, archaeologists began searching, and when they hit pay dirt (bad analogy) finding the first buildings, they were able to unbury others, following the map. Archaeologists are still working on the project, as this site is being developed.
If you've been following the blog, you may remember that I said I don't write a whole lot about boring maintenance stuff? Well, when you have a maintenance problem, it certainly isn't boring! When we anchored at Fort Frederica, I opened the engine hatch to discover fuel in the bilge. I sat in the engine room with ear muffs and a flashlight for several minutes before finding the source of the leak, and that only with the engine speed increased. One of the new fuel hoses I'd installed had a pin hole leak in it, a rupture that happened earlier in the day. I cleaned the hose off, and rapped it with super tape, which I believe will hold us until Brunswick, where we were headed this afternoon anyhow.
Before nightfall, I sat on the deck and listened to the calls of half a dozen different birds. Evening thunderstorms rolled in, cooling things off, as we sat tucked away in our peaceful little anchorage.
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