Life in the Slow Lane

A very quiet beach.

Our day at Cumberland Island was a special one as each of our previous visits have been. This barrier Island is nearly 20 miles long, and the ocean side is all beach. We walked some of the beach with Maddie. At times we could not see another soul. We had it to ourselves. That isn't to say that we were alone. The local resident wild horses always manage to show up a few times, and this time wild turkeys were keeping an eye on us as well. The live oak trees on Cumberland and other places are strange to us northerners. We're used to trees growing up, generally pretty straight with branches coming out from the trunk in a regular pattern. These trees follow a whole different plan as the photos indicate.

Sandra got these from our boat.

These gobblers don't need to worry about November.

The weather continues to provide us with some sun but also lots of dark clouds with occasional storms. Since we were in Georgia with several stretches of shallow water in the ICW in addition to the storms, we decided to make our first day a short trip to Jekyll Island and stop at the marina there for a day of catching up. We took advantage of the courtesy car to get a few grocery items and to refill one of our propane tanks. The sun came out for a bit in the afternoon, so we tried out the pool while we did some laundry and then battened down the hatches for another thunderstorm. ( We actually have hatches to batten down!)

The next few days of travel offer some pretty but desolate stretches of the ICW. Again, we'll travel based on the weather and tide times. On this our first day beyond Jekyll Island, we could only make progress in the morning before we reached our first challenge, the Little Mud River. This stretch reportedly has only 3-4 feet of water in places at low tide. We anchored just short of the river and will attack it in the morning near high tide. We've got two other shallow spots that will impact our schedule. One called Hell Gate. Unlike the one in NYC, this one is just another shallow stretch with a rather ominous name. Later we cross the Savannah River just east of the city by that name to arrive in South Carolina. A short cut there called Snow's Cut is another stretch to be avoided at low tide. We'll be heading for Beaufort, but that will be four days from now. Because of the low tides coming near the middle of the day, it's taking us an extra day to cross Georgia this spring. For non-boaters, keep in mind that if all goes well, we can travel on the ICW in a day about what one could cover in an hour by car. Georgia is slower because of the tides and because the route winds back and forth constantly making our mileage covered quite a bit greater than by car on I95. This coastline offered one of two surprises for us on our first trip south. One earlier mentioned is the extensive wealth indicated by the huge number of multi-million dollar homes visible along the ICW. The second is that parts of the east coast are totally free of any signs of modern civilization. There are times when we can't even make a cell phone call. ( An important, new indicator of civilization). It's OK though, since we don't have any pressing engagements. And we get to see parts of the state that most people will never see and not even realize exist.

Another advantage for me is that traveling on the ICW, the water is generally calm, and Sandra can be doing things when she's not steering. She's often working on a pine needle basket (look below for examples) or other creative endeavor. Today she baked some banana nut bread and then I got to enjoy a tasty roast chicken for our main meal. Now she's making chicken soup with leftovers.

So in spite of low tides and adverse tidal currents, life is still good.

Carpe Diem

Captain Bob