Wednesday April 25, 2018 - Crescent River to Savannah

My plan yesterday was to leave at about 2pm.  There were lots of shoals (Little and Big Mud Rivers to name a few).  Low tide was around noon so I figured I'd leave after that and, at least be on a rising tide, if I were to run into trouble.  But late last night, I looked again at the charts and realized that most of the shallow areas were in the first 2 hours of my trip.  That meant that I could leave early and catch most of the high (albeit falling) tide to get through those areas.  Then, I'd be in deeper water for the low tide at noon. So that's what I did and it worked perfectly - with one minor exception.  I needed to get through "Hell Gate".  Hell Gate crosses a marshy area in the center of the Ossabaw Sound/inlet.  It is a trouble spot (as the name implies??).  Low tide there was at around noon.  No problem - I'd just stop for a couple hours - just before I got there and wait for low tide to pass.  So, I anchored in Tom's Creek and waited.  It worked fine - I went through Hell Gate at 3pm and continued on to Savannah.  I ended up anchoring on the East side of Dutch Island, on the East side of Savannah. I got in at 5:30pm which made for a long day.  For much of the day, I was motor sailing since the wind was from the west.  But with all the windiness of the ICW in Georgia, it meant a lot of sail trimming.  But it did usually ad 1 to 2 knots to my speed.  But 11 hours of constant sail trimming, motoring, watching for shoals, etc. makes for a long and tiring (50 mile) day. 

I showered, ate, made a few phone calls and was out like a light before 10pm.