You can monitor my trip at the link: Second Winds Progress Live
 |
| Flock of snowy egrets |
We got underway just as
the sun was peeking over the horizon. We
had a relatively short day planned but we were to be traveling through an area
that is full of shoals and we didn’t want to be competing for water with our
big boat friends. We had dropped our
anchor about an hour on south of where the rest of the group had spent the
night so we got a good head start on them.
We began our day at low
tide and at times I saw only about 6 feet of water under my boat. My friend Sam is really nervous after
grounding yesterday. However, we made it
through the shallow Mud River without incident.
About 2/3 of the way to
our destination, we took a side trip down the Frederica
River. This little river created an island to the east
of the ICW. It was scheduled to be an
anchorage for us last night but there was no way we could make that distance
since we had lost time due to the fog yesterday. One of the big boats had in fact made it to
Frederica and had emailed us touting the beauty of this place. We had been traveling through salt marshes
and this little side trip offered a welcome
 |
| Neat boathouse with beautiful old cruiser |
Along the way we passed
more big homes with really intricate docks and dock houses. The majority of the homes were back off of
the river and hidden by large live oaks but the ones that we saw confirmed our
suspicion that they were nice.
One
of the main reasons I wanted to take the detour was to pass by the Fort
Federica National Monument that lies along the shore. The Fort, built on St.
Simons Island, preserves the
archaeological remnants of a fort and town built
by James Oglethorpe between 1736 and 1748 to protect the southern boundary of
the British colony of Georgia from Spanish raids. About 630 British troops were
stationed at the fort.
 |
| Fort Frederica National Monument |
A
town of up to 500 colonial residents had grown up outside the fort; it was laid
out following principles of the Oglethorpe Plan for towns in the Georgia
Colony. The
town was named Frederica, after Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of
King George II. We saw an example of the “Plan” for towns in Savannah.
 |
| One lonesome tree in an expansive salt marsh |
Back
out in the ICW, we entered a wide open St. Simon Island Sound. There we
encountered the brisk winds that had been predicted. We unfurled the jib and motor sailed all the
way to our final destination. We were
making about 5 to 6 knots in the lightly choppy waters.
We
arrived at the Jeckyll Harbor Marina at around 2:30. The winds had picked up and significantly as
I approached the dock. Between the tidal
current and the
wind, docking promised to be a challenge. However, I was assigned an open slip at the
very end of the dock so I turned the boat into the current and held the speed
such that the boat walked sideways right into my parking place. They are predicting very high, possibly gale force,
winds for tonight so I secured the boat with extra lines.
 |
| Looking west from Jeckyll Harbor Marina at sunset |
Dwight
decided to walk to town for dinner but I chose to stay, do laundry, take a
shower and eat spaghetti and meat sauce on the boat. After dinner, I took my cake making supplies
down to the boat Mauna Kea where I
made dessert for Ken, Lori, Dwight, Wally, and me. It turned out well. These are great folks and we had a fun
evening. I did, however, have to leave
in order to make my 9:00 bedtime.
No comments:
Post a Comment