Isle of Hope Marina to Walburg Creek Anchorage
We woke this morning to
cloudy skies and a beautiful sunrise, along with threats of severe thunderstorms.
NOAA weather pictures on the internet showed a range of heavy weather between
northern Florida and Washington DC that was moving towards the Georgia coast.
Needless to say, we decided not to travel and enjoyed a leisure breakfast
onboard and lounged around updating the WE B site and cruising plans on our laptops. At about 10:30 the dock master knocked on the door and asked when we were leaving. We had told them
the day before we were leaving and did not advise them of our change in plans. Well, on the spur of
the moment we checked the internet Weather channel site and found significant
changes in the weather forecast. The weather system noted earlier was now
being presented as milder weather passing more to the north. We hurried and made our departure while the tide was still favorable
for travel. I forgot to take pictures leaving the marina.
Our first encounter about three miles down from the marina was a 21 foot bascule bridge over the Skidaway River. Joe talked with the bridge tender and learned they had 26 ˝ feet clearance at the moment. At the peak of our radar dome we measured 23 foot. Joe decided to go for it without asking for a bridge opening. I watched as he edged under very slowly. We cleared with about 2 feet to spare.
We had read from our waterway guides that a canal (or cut) coming up named Hells Gate at low water has only 4 ft of water in it. So we wanted to make sure to travel through at high to mid tide. All went well as we carefully traveled through. The day was a grey windy day. The wind was cool but not too uncomfortable. There was nothing dramatic in the way of scenery along the way today. We were surrounded by marshlands and occasional wooded areas in the distance. We were passed by an occasional local boat.
We entered our anchorage and dropped the hook close to 3:10 and were ready for a relaxing afternoon.
We took our novels topside with a little wine & cheese to tide us over until dinner. It was nice out.
The wind was gentle from the south west and we could hear the water splashing along the shore of the creek.
Far to the south and west we saw what appeared to be some stormy weather but it passed by us on both sides.
We watched as several birds were feeding among the oyster and various shell creatures growing along the muddy
banks of the creek. We were treated again to a lovely sunset before enjoying our dinner of wild rice, pot
roast , grilled asparagus, bread and butter and of course, a glass of merlot. Yum….
We stayed up for a while as Joe updated plans for the next day’s trip and anchorage. I read through the guide books so I would have an idea of where we were headed. We checked the anchor after the current had changed for the incoming tide. All was well so we retired for the night.