It was really hard to leave this beautiful anchorage. I kept watching for more otters... but didn't see any. The two shrimp boats left early, evidently shrimping during the daylight hours. The two trawlers also left before we did, heading northward up the ICW.
The tide was high in the morning, as it had been the night before. As we cruised to the north end of the creek, I could see the sand beach wrapping around the northwestern tip of the island. It looked like it would be a great place to play on the beach at a lower tide. We probably should have waited. I think this spot is far enough away from the heavier populated areas that week-end warriors might not venture out. But we headed towards Savannah anyhow. I think all day long I wished we'd stayed at that pretty little anchorage!
Anyhow, we crossed St. Catherine's Sound, and headed up the Bear River, to the west of Ossabaw Island, and into the Florida Passage to Ossabaw Sound. The ICW cuts through creeks and shoals and connects all these major waterways. One of these cuts is called Hell Gate, and we passed through there into Green Island Sound and the Little Ogeechee River and the Vernon River. There was a pontoon boat pulled up on the beach high and dry, and I hoped the three pasty white occupants had ample sunscreen and bugspray to last until at least 6pm, the time I estimated they would float again.
The Burnside River puts you idling past a gorgeous waterfront community, and the opening to the tiniest, famous Moon River, as in the song. It isn't wider than a mile, though I've crossed it in style twice now in my life! The Burnside also takes you past Pigeon Island, and then Long Island, with its boat ramp right before the bridge, with lots of locals playing around the water's edge, and scores of small boats being launched. We continued idling past the Isle of Hope, with its abundance of docks, marinas, and larger boats.
We no longer had to idle through the Skidaway River, until we turned into the Wilmington River, where much of the area is a no wake. A marine patrol boat was tucked in behind the Sam Varnedog Bridge, slowing down errant boaters. It was a new moon low tide, and lots of the mud under the docks was showing.
We cut through the Elba Island Cut and crossed the Savannah River, entering South Carolina at Fields Cut. There was a South Carolina marine patrol boat doing a safety check on a boat at the SW end of Daufuskie Island, and I marveled at the number of small boats that passed them, waking the duo, and slamming their boats together. We slipped past the two at idle, and when the officers were done with the one boat, I was glad they skipped us to board another.
Daufuskie Island is where the award winning writer, Patrick Conroy, author of Prince of Tides and the Great Santini, spent a year teaching on the island in 1969. He recounts that experience in The Water is Wide.
We anchored for the night in the New River, towards the SW side of Daufuskie Island, N32 06.879' W080 54.485. We are in a wide, marsh grass lined river, far enough off the banks to keep some of least adventurous biting flies at bay.
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