Day 1-7

The adventure begins with a cold 7am departure on Monday February 6.  Our destination the first day was a creek just north of Kiawah called Steamboat.  We had anchored there many times and knew it would be a great place to hang out for the night, cook dinner, watch a beautiful sunset and a plan for the next day.

With a cup of coffee and bagel in hand, not to mention 2 pairs of sox, 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, hat, gloves and heavy coat we headed down the ICW (weather to go outside on the ocean was not great) toward Port Royal. 

We spent a lot of our time yakking about how we could not wait to get to warmer weather since we were so cold but nothing that a little Jägermeister couldn’t cure.  Port Royal, is in Beaufort, SC.  To work our way toward town there is a swing bridge just like Charleston that you have to go through.  Always impressive to watch it open and go through.

We decided to stay at a marina that night, giving us a chance to walk to a local Mexican restaurant and celebrate our first two days on the water with a margarite and chips.  

With a bright and early wake the next day, onward down the ICW.  We got to some of the narrowest channels we have come across in a long time.  With white knuckles we see 5, 4, 3, 2 feet of water under the keel, but the Captain had things well under control and we arrived safely in Thunderbolt, GA.  

Next day we continue heading south making our way into Georgia through Ossabaw Sound, Hells Gate and Saint Catherine Sound.  Soon to be looking for a safe place to anchor for the night where we found Wahoo River.  The Wahoo River sounds harmless enough, well, not so much.  All was going great per the depth finder when out of the blue we ran aground, Ouch!  But not to worry, after we tried rocking the boat out of the mud, putting a partial sail up to move us out of the mud, we put the outboard motor on our trusty dinghy and Walter took our spare anchor and set it about 200 feet in deeper water. As we sat and waited for the tide to come in (did I mention that the sun was setting and nautical twilight came and went) the boat started to move.  Like a well-oiled machine, I was at the helm ready to put the engine in gear while Walter brought in the spare anchor.  With the yell of we are free, I moved the boat forward to a safer place in Wahoo River and Walter dropped the regular anchor.  We were set for the night.  High fives for both of us.

The next morning we were more than ready to leave at first light, the Wahoo River had bad mojo.  We headed to the Sapelo Sound and across Doboy Sound with the rain clouds chasing us all morning.  Checking the weather apps regularly we decided to quickly select a place to anchor as a big storm was coming with rain and winds starting at 1pm.  With a goal to be anchored somewhere safe by 12:30pm we found Back River.  Navionics app had other boaters notes that they anchored there for a few days to hide from storms, so we figured it would work for us as well.  With literally minutes to spare we were anchored and the sky opened up and the rain came and came and came, as a matter of fact it came for two days.  Sunday the rain was supposed to stop but winds were picking up with gusts to 30 miles per hour.  If we decided to leave we would be faced with the Mud River a narrow part of the ICW where big gusts would make it hard to stay on course.  So we figured by this time our anchor was well set and the best option was to stay put one more day.  

Image of our Anchor drag alarm

Note: when we made the call to stay another day in the safe anchorage we also made a reservation at the Jekyll Island Marina as showers were going to be desperately needed.