We drove back to Brunswick from Savannah and decided to head north on Happy Ours. I thought it was interesting to include a picture of this bridge from the drivers viewpoint as opposed to the pictures that I have cruising underneath.
Our intention was to get to Isle of Hope which is still below Savannah. Hmmmm, a hour and fifteen minute drive and a 6-7 hour cruise on Happy Ours. Yep, we only go about 8 miles per hour. We were surprised that almost all day, we were working our way through marshes with twists and turns and nothing but nature to behold. I mean that almost the whole day, we did not see houses or businesses! It’s really good to experience raw nature but it makes me think about what would I do if……way too much! I’m sure those thoughts never cross John’s mind. We did not make it to Isle of Hope because this trip was long but decided to anchor out at Red Bird Creek. Our Navionics app indicated that it was a good anchoring site with good mud to hold the boat. It’s funny how these anchoring sights in the wild have reviews on Navionics that are written so that you can see what others experienced. The creek was a very fast moving water but our anchor held us well! I cooked dinner and we ate outside and watched a beautiful sunset. The stars were plentiful and the Milky Way was cream filled. Perhaps the most marvelous thing is that there were no mosquitos or biting insects. We were surrounded by marsh but perhaps the water was moving too fast….. the blue dot indicates our position at Red Bird Creek.
This last picture is a panoramic intending to show no civilization around but I moved too fast so its a little skewed!
The next morning, we headed to Hilton Head SC! Also a surprise to me that the Georgia coast is so short! We had to get though Hell’s Gate at high tide. It’s a narrow passage between rivers on the Intracoastal. The depth indicator showed 8 feet as we went through Hell’s Gate at high tide. This shale bottom is dangerous to boats who don’t wait for high tide and I haven’t mentioned that the visibility of these rivers is almost zero so one cannot tell how deep the water is by the color like we do at home.
The Hilton Head marina told us that we could park on the fuel dock. John was in deep water and I was getting the lines ready when I heard him rev the engines and black mud come up from behind the boat. We had gotten stuck in the mud. Now this area has nine foot tides twice a day so despite his efforts to get off, we knew the rising tide would eventually carry us off. Lucky for us, a Sea Tow guy offered to pull us off in a jiffy with no damage to the boat.
We left the next day for Beaufort SC and that’s going to be a story all of its own!