Short Time in Georgia - Fernandina Beach, FL to Hilton Head, SC

The "crews" of Guided Discovery and Present Moment took a well deserved day off on Monday (April 7). Justification, as if we need one, was the fact that we had been traveling for five days and the weather.  The storm that had been to our north on Sunday was replaced by a cold front to our west stretching north to south and moving to the east.  Thunderstorms were predicted for Monday afternoon and most of Tuesday.

Sue timed our Tuesday departure for 10:30 AM so that we would be able to traverse the shallow ICW channel west of Jeckel Island at high tide.  This strategy makes great sense since both of our vessels draw five (5) feet of water.

Except for the challenge of getting Present Moment away from the Fernandina dock, the 36 nautical mile trip was a piece of cake.  After getting of the docks at 10:56 AM we headed north on the ICW.  At 2:25 PM we were at the southwest corner of Jeckel Island's shallow waters and 33 minutes later (2:58 PM) entered St Simon Sound's deeper waters.  We arrived at Morningstar Marina at 3:35 PM.  Fuel burn was 26.1 gallons for an efficiency of 1.38 NMPG.

The tricky part of the trip was Present Moment's departure from Fernandina Beach.

Background: Present Moment is a 50 ft single screw Ocean Alexander Classico trawler equipped with an electric bow thruster.  Maneuverability is not one of her strong suits.  Two points are critical.  A single engine boat is considerably less maneuverable than a twin screw.  Where as a twin screw can turn in her own length by putting one engine in forward and one in reverse, a single screw cannot do this.  Further, electric bow thrusters do not have the torque or the horsepower of hydraulic thrusters.

Present Moment was docked port side to and facing north on the inside of Fernandina's long face dock.  In order to depart, she had to turn 180 degrees.  At 10:30 AM the wind was blowing from the southwest at 20 knots.  Fortunately Sue had timed their departure at slack tide so as not to add current to the departure challenge.  However, slack tide at this time was low tide (read as skinny water) which meant she had to stay within the fairway.

Darrel chatting with the marina dock hand about their departure strategy

In a nut shell, Present Moment wanted to allow the wind to swing the stern into the fairway while the dock hand held onto the bow line.  Essentially the wind blows the stern into the fairway while the bow remains stationary.  With a little help from the bow thruster the bow is kicked around to the south while the stern continues to turn north.  This maneuver allowed the boat to turn in her own length.

The stern is coming around while the dock hand re positions the bow line to facilitate the bow to face north

Present Moments now facing south and ready to go

Once she was turned around the boat's big rudder permits excellent control as the boat heads forward.  By 10:56 they were off and away.  Guided Discovery with its powerful hydraulic bow and stern thrusters just thrusted away from the dock and headed north.

Upon arrival at the Morningstar Marina we discovered two Outer Reefs, a 65 owned by Ray Cope and an 80 owned by Bo Leonard.  This is unusual.  There are no more than 40 Outer Reefs operating in the US so three at one marina is a bit of an event.

Diana and Ray Cope

Outer Reef 80

Ray joined us for cocktails on Present Moment and was shortly joined by his wife Sue.  Ray provided some important local knowledge that helped me plan our strategy for the move north.

Background: The run from St Simons to Savannah is a challenge due to its 80 NM length and two shallow water passages (Mud River and Hell's Gate) that are best run at close to high tide.  Our original plan was to accompany Present Moment 25 NM to an anchorage on Tea Kettle Creek and then go 54 NM the next day to Thunderbolt and the Isle of Hope Marina just south and east of Savannah.  Diana's was not thrilled by an overnight anchorage and Kodi has not been trained to relieve herself on the boat.  We considered running outside from St Simons to Savannah but that trip was 92 NM and required a 10 NM run up the Savanna River that we would have to retrace the following day.  Our next destination, Hilton Head, was another 24 NMs.

Looking at the chart over cocktails it occurred to me that rather than run up the Savannah River to downtown Savannah and spend $200 a night for premium dock space and then have to retrace our steps the next day that it would be more efficient to run outside directly to Hilton Head.  Enter Ray Cope.

As a result of Ray's insight we are going to wait one day for the ocean to lay down and then make an 83 NM coastal run from St Simons to Hilton Head.  This trip eliminates and anchorage and shaves about 30 NM off the trip (read as a $100 + savings on fuel).

After dinner, I adjourned to Guided Discovery, fired up the Garmin multifunction screens and charted a route to Hilton Head.  The Garmin 7215 is a pleasure to use.  It is both intuitive and user friendly.  I was able to chart and save the route with only one reference to the owner's manual.  Kudos to Garmin.

All in all a very good day!!!

Written by Les.