So Close...4/30

HERE'S THE MOST CURRENT LOCATION LINK: AFTER I BROADCAST THIS I PADDLED TO AND LANDED INBETWEEN THE 2 GOLF COURSES ON DAUFUSKIE ISLAND (I'M NOT STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WATER)

So I'm here on Daufuskie Island, just across from Hilton Head. I left Skiddaway right at 10 and despite what I said just the other day I started paddling out towards the ocean. I had talked the night before to Captian Joe who runs charters out of Delegal Creek and together we had decided that if the conditions were right it might be worthwhile to jump back out into the ocean to cut off some more miles. When I got out into the ocean it was a little choppier then I had expected but nothing like Monday it the waves were more of an annoyance then a concern. Although there was a north east wind it wasn't to strong and the breeze felt good. I had a real tough time getting around the side of Tybee Island, there must have been a pretty strong current wipping around the beach coming out of the Savanah River but once I turned the corner I was able to cross the shipping channel and some open water to get over to Daufuskie. I didn't land here till after 6 and the tide was starting to come out of Callibouge quick so I knew there was no way I could make it to where I wanted to at Shelter Cove Marina at the end of Broad Creek. I'm worn out. I pulled my boat up to Roger Pickney's house and am staying with a friend, Jack Anderson, who was nice enough to put me up at his art gallery . Tomorrow I cross to HHI!

Today's ocean venture was a just about 20 miles compared to over 30 if I had gone the "back way." What I realized today that I really should I have thought about a long time ago is that a mile on the waterway and a mile in the ocean are not the same. Its not apples and apples. Either way, it paid off again. I'm like 3 for 3 on my last couple shortcuts.

Its nine o'clock and I'm about to crash. I'll leave at low tide tomorrow at 11 and hopefully ride the incoming all the way to my marina. I would love a nice "lazy river" day.

Seth

NOTE: theres a new picture I put up of my first view of HHI when I rounded Tybee. You can't tell its HHI at all but I could and it was a fantastic sight. I'm too tired to link it or put in in the body of this post, but don't you be lazy too.....click the link at the top of the page and check it out.

Georgia Is Just Wild; Monday 4/28

Whew, what I day! This was BY FAR the hardest/most adventurous/dangerous/trying day yet.

It started out bad before it even began (does that make sense). I mentioned camping on the beach sucks bc of the exposure, well if I have any choice, I won't do it again. It was very windy all night and it made it very hard to sleep with my little tent trying to blow away. People have been asking me what I've lessons I've learned so far and I tell them that I haven't really taken the time yet to analyze all my reflections BUT there is one thing that I have concluded, and I'm totally firm on it: April is windy! I think I've had one calm day all month. The stiff wind continued all day, fortunatly at least from the South. It just makes everything a little more difficult and frustrating. Like trying to take down a tent, or read a chart book, or put in contacts, or make a phone call, or pretty much anything.

I left the beach at Blackbeard early and let the wind move me very quickly across Sapelo Sound. It was very choppy and so I had my skirt on bc it was a cool overcast day and the last thing I wanted was to be wet all day. Well...the wind was carrying me so fast and my boat wanted to track left the whole time bc of it I ended up missing the ICW at the entrance of Johnson Creek. It was my fault but I have to say that the waterway in GA is really not marked very well. There could be more channel markers. Its especially tough for me bc my view is from 2.5 feet above the water surface and I'm not carrying binoculars so it can be very ticky to discern land contours off in the distance. Shell banks can blend together and a cut though the marsh can be complelty invisible until I'm right up on it. So I get to this marker which is missing the yellow triangle and I realize that I went to far so I have to pop my skirt to look at my chart and of course get immediatly soaked. I then have to paddle about a mile back INTO the wind and waves to get where I need to be. What a start to the day. It wasn't even 11 am by the time I got into Johnson Creek and into calm water and I already wanted to quit for the day. I had only gotten a couple hours of sleep and I was sore and now wet. So I paddled slowly up to Walburg Creek and headed down that, leaving the ICW again, bc it looked like it would take me past some dry ground on the west edge of St. Catherines. I'm glad I did and got up close to it bc what a crazy island. As far as I can tell its pretty much undeveloped. I did pass one dock that appears to be part of a still-being-built high end resort, I could see a few nice stone houses through the trees but thats it. North of that was like jungle. I thought I had seen all of GA's wildlife in one day yesterday but boy was I wrong. I paddled past groups of whitetail deer, a couple wild boars (pigs??, I don't know what you call them), and more alligators.

Today's alligator sightings where much scarier then yesterdays. Two were up on the bank together and came upon them as I was paddling right next to shore - close enough that I could have reached out and touched it with my paddle. Well I think this is a case of them being just as afraid of me as I of them, and they must feel safer in the water bc as soon as they saw me they made a beeline for the water. The problem was that is where I was! They came racing directly at me full speed with their little legs, hit the ledge dissapear into the water. And of course I'm paddling the other way as fast as I can. At first I was a little shocked by seeing all these gators in the marsh but when I thought about it if they're out there (which obviously they are) who else has a better chance of seeing them then someone spending 10 hours a day in their environment moving in silence (when i'm not singing to my ipod) at 4 mph?

So.... (THIS IS WHERE THE DAY GETS INTERESTING) I stopped at the north end of the island - the above picture - to make some calls and a plan, stretch my legs and use the little boy's room. I heard back from some friends of friends who were very gracious to invite me to stay with them at their house on Skiddaway Island which I was siked about. The problem was that it was still 25 miles away by ICW, the tide would be against me, and it was already 3 oclock. I knew I couldn't make it before dark, if at all, unless I came up with another plan. I called the harbormaster at the marina where I could tie up and got his advice on the idea of jumping out into the ocean to cruise right up the east side of Ossabaw Isl to avoid the twists and turns of the waterway behind the island and cut off some considerable distance. I did still have that S wind anyhow. He wasn't complelty discouraging of the idea and when he checked the radar for me it looked like the big storm in the area was going to miss me to the west so I decided to give it a try. I made sure everything was secure on the deck, I attached my skirt and set off across St. Catherines Sound. Initially it wasn't so bad...there were good size waves but nothing to serious and as I made my way around the southern tip of Ossabaw I headed out past the breakers, a couple hundred yards off shore. Well, the waves continued to grow, and grow, as did the wind. My radio had said the wind was to forcast to decrease from 15-20 to 5-10 in the afternoon but that wasn't the case - the wind picked up plus I was in the ocean after all so theres zero exposure. I was out far enough that I didn't have to worry about the waves heading into shore, just the open-water waves created by the wind which were coming hard from the SE. At first it was quite fun, the waves were coming from just over my right shoulder bc I was on a N/NE course, and I was enjoying the thrill of the open water, the excitment of the waves and jamming out to my ipod. The waves just kept getting bigger though and I kept moving faster. At this point though there was no option besides stick to the plan to continue all the way up to Ossabaw Sound because the surf waves were way to big to try to land on the beach, especially without a helmet. I was taken tons of spray and waves over my bow and body and got complety soaked, plus it started to rain: the storm didn't miss me after all. And the waves got to the point where I started to get pretty nervous. I've never been involved, in any manner, with waves that big before. When I was in the trough I couldn't see anything else and the distance from the trough to the crests must have been 8-10 feet. I was starting to regret this decision but there was no other option then to keep going. After about an hour and a half I could see the end of Ossabaw and felt a little relief. The final 30 minutes though as I tried to enter the sound though was the trickiest. The waves lost all sense of pattern and started to come from my left, my right and from directly behind. (note: my charts only show the ICW and the small sourronding area on both sides so I couldnt see what the East side of Ossabaw was like. Today looking at the NOAA chart online WHICH YOU CAN SEE HERE, I noticed that there is a big sand bar coming off the NE tip of the island which was causing this) I had to conintually slow myself so I didn't take off surfing one of these monster waves. There were a couple close calls where I thought I was going over but I managed to stay upright. I fully recognize the potential catasrophy which could have escalated if I had capsized and not been able to succesfully roll being out so far off shore alone. FORTUNATLY it didn't happen. I finally made my way into the sound where the waves diminished a little bit and I was able to take a big sigh of relief and relax. I had traveled about 14 miles in just 2 hours and I thought at that point I was golden - naively I thought that I would just float right up to my intended target: Delegal Creek Marina. Well I got my bearings and realized I was South of Racoon Key which was about to become a barrier to my path in minutes bc of the outcoming tide which was stronger then I have ever felt it. At this point I was exhausted, soaked and mentally worn out. I was paddling with all the strength I had left and moving at a pace, according to my GPS, at .7 mph! So frustrating. To make matters worse Delegal Creek was right on the edge of two pages of my charts and I couldn't really get a good sense of where I needed to go. Instead of making a straight shot at the creek I ended up paddling in a million different directions at one point ending up all the way down at the cut between Wassaw and Pine Island. It was pretty brutal and the sun was dropping. Right at about 8 o'clock, 3 hours after leaving the ocean!, I made it to the entrance of Delegal Creek. As I was paddling into it the sunset was directly infront of me and the sky turned totally red and a pod of dolphin appeared all around me. It seemed like such a fitting end to such a tough day. Oh and then just a final twist of tragic-comdey the two markers in the creek were different then what they were identified as on my chart and so I thought that after everything I was in the wrong spot still! My chart must just be outdated. I have never been more exhausted and the only thing that kept me going was the thought of a hot shower and meal which the Smith's, Allison and Bob, provided after scooping me up at the marina. So I finished the day at mile 600, another 35 ICW miles that I was able to do in about 29. I would never have attempted to go so far without a place to stay so THANK YOU SMITHS!

So today was obviously I much needed day off and thats why this blog post is so long. Theres probably a lot more that I'm forgetting to mention but Ill add it later if I remember.

In retrospect the ocean venture might have not been the safest idea, it certainly was a gamble, but it paid off and I'm glad I did it. I won't again, that's for sure, but I'm glad I did. PLUS, now I'm only a day (two, tops) away from HHI!!!!

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Seth

Georgia is Wild(life)!; Sunday 4/27

Sunday couldn't have gone much smoother or been more enjoyable. I left the Lanier Isl. bridge (SEE THAT LOCATION BY CLICKING HERE) around 9 am at the start of an incoming tide. It was a beautiful few hours up the Mackay River where there was nothing but pristine, undeveloped marsh all around me. A maybe saw only a dozen other boats total before noon. I had scouted out a potential campsite on Blackbeard Isl which is a National Wildlife Refuge (so you're really not supposed to camp there) but the problem that I've noticed in GA is that dry land alond the ICW is hard to come by. Its pretty much marsh the whole way. So when I saw a nice spoil area at the NW corner of Little St. Simons I was tempted to stop, afraid that I wouldn't be able to reach my spot at Blackbeard, which was 40 miles away, and that I wouldn't find anything else. But I kept going into the Buttermilk Sound and thats when all the animals began showing up.

In a span of about an hour I was entertained by a large pod of friendly dolphin, several stingrays swimming close to survice and a sea turtle - I guess a Loggerhead?, I'm not good at identifying turtles. I also became a believer in what the crabbers had told me the day before bc I saw two alligators. The first was in the water, eyes and nose exposed as they often are, and I initially mistook him for a buoy and paddled too close. Just when I realized it was a big gator is when he decided to dive down so I changed my course and took off. Not even 5 minutes after seeing the first gator (I'm still looking over my shoulder to make sure hes not following me) I see some big shapes moving around on a marsh island in the distance. I was so curious so I paddled over to it and discovered cattle, at least 50 of them just hanging out. Where they were was on a small island, which my chart only classifies as MARSH -not even a name -on the north side of the waterway, just west of Dolbow Isl. I thought it was rather strange that they would be out there all by themselves and so I paddled along the edge of their island trying to snap some pictures of them to show you all. Well thats when I got an upclose look at my second gator. He was up on the bank sunning himself bc it was overcast and not too hot and when I came around the corner he let out a deep croak -kind of like a bullfrog - and then bellyfloped right in the water. I'll be honest I do not like seeing the alligators. I don't know if any of you have seen the horrible movie Lake Placid but I have and I could only immagine that gator swimming up from behind and jumping into my cockpit and tearing me apart. Anyhow, it was just a lot of animal interactions in a short time. Oh and I almost ran over a manatee right before: he surfaced right in front of me and I was just barely able to pull up my skeg in time so it didn't hurt him. Also I had these 2 annoying flies buzzing around my head like electrons all day which was so frustrating. I didn't get angry though bc I knew I would have the last laugh when they realized how far they had to fly to get home.

When I got to Deboy Sound (between Commodore and Sapelo Islands) the tide was moving out and the SE winds against the current created some large following waves. I didn't have my skirt on and I have to take my PFD off to get it over my head, which I obviously didn't want to do bc I was rough conditions) so I ended up getting pretty wet there. I took a shortcut up New Teakettle Creek and into the Mud River to avoid the longer Old Teekettle Creek/Front River route which worked out perfectly and saved me a few miles. It was getting late at this point and I was getting tired but I finished the day by paddling along the south side of Sapelo Sound finally reaching the beach at Blackbeard where I had planned on camping. It was a relief to see that it was indeed hard firm ground (sometimes Gmaps is hard to read) and that there was nice flat soft sand above the high tide mark. Stepping onto Blackbeard around 730 pm was the first I had gotten out of my boat all day so I was a little wobbly but was able to set up my tent and cook some pasta before passing out. It ended up being 42 ICW miles but only 37 for me bc of my sweet shortcut. One word about camping on the beach: it sucks. First off sand gets everywhere and you are totally exposed. It was my only option and it wasn't ideal but it worked so I cant complain. HERES THE LINK FOR WHERE I CAMPED

Also: Special Happy Birthday wishes to Sun all the way to Korea!!!

Last minute change of plans

As I was packing up my boat today at the ramp a couple of crabbers pulled up and began to unload their haul. After striking up a conversation they mentioned how earlier that day they had an altercation with an alligator. Their exact words were that they were "confronted with an gator that challenged them." They also claimed that they saw a total of 4 alligators just today alone all in the marsh, and that around here they are completely accustomed to the saltwater and are extremely brazen. Now, I'm sure you're as skeptical about all this as I was but they assured me and didn't seem like the kind of people to lie and mess with a stranger. In fact, one of the crabbers was a middle age woman who sincerely told me that she would be praying for my safety so I highly doubt she would worry me with fabricated gator stories and then be concerned for my well being. Anyhow, the point is that I decided to change my plan because of this new knowledge and abandon my intentions to camp on the VERY small speck of spoil land that I had scouted out on my charts and google maps. Instead I paddled a shortish session across to St. Simon Island which seems to be the most developed of GA's barrier islands that I've seen so far. My camping spot tomorrow night has to be gator free - its a little nook of beach on the north end of Blackbeard Isl but it means that its about 10 miles farther then I had expected. So tomorrow will be a BIG day if I'm able to make it. If I see something good before this spot that I have in mind and its getting late then I'll just stop there.

Now, you are going to think I'm totally cray and completly stupid if I tell you this but I will anyhow: one of my shortcuts got me into a very sticky situation today. Just one day after having such good self control and passing on a sure-thing shortcut I made a horrible decision to paddle up something called Mud River (should have been my first sign that it was a bad idea) under the impression that it was going to bring me out to Jekyll Sound west of the ICW which would make it nicer to cross with a quickly picking up outgoing tide. I think the sun and heat causes me to make bad decisions and I really need to be careful about that bc this was the most serious mistake yet, I think. My route kept getting narrower until and when I finally gave up and decided to turn around, well, I found I couldn't. There wasn't enough room to swing my 17.5 foot boat around so I HAD TO BACK OUT. It was miserable. Plus all I could think about were the alligators that I imagined lurking there, waiting to devour me amongst the marsh grass where I would never be found again. Those crabbers had really freaked me out.....


I guess thats all for now. Early day tomorrow so I need to sleep.

Peace,
Bishop

MADE IT!

Ok, I know its been a while since there has been an update. Here's the deal:

I ended up being holed up in Fernandina beach a little longer then I expected. Wednesday was the windiest day of the month so I didn't even go close to the water instead I rested and explored Fernandina, which by the way is a great little town.

Thursday I had every intention to paddle, and had set a pretty narrow window of when I needed to leave so that I would not be totally hindered by the tidal currents. Unfortunately I felt pretty horrible Thursday, ended up sleeping WAY in and missed that window. Fortunately my mother was still around and we were able to have a nice day together touring Fort Clinch, built to protect Cumberland Sound, and exploring more of Amelia Isl.

Yesterday was a big day. A milestone day actually, as I finally reached Georgia! I left Fernandina around 10 am, trying to cross Cumberland Sound just before the mid-incoming tide so that I could ride it up the backside of the island and into the Crooked River. A little way into the Crooked River my chart showed what looked to be a pretty convenient little shortcut, the Brickhill River, and there were a couple small boats that branched off and took it. Against much temptation I withheld. I'm sure it would have been fine but sticking to the Waterway ended up being the better decision anyhow I think b/c as the tide began to go back out I was rewarded by being in deeper water (so a faster current). I stopped for my only break on an exposed shell bank just across the water from the tip of Little Cumberland Island. The water had begun to get quite choppy so I wanted to rearrange the gear I was carrying to add some more weight to the bow, and put on my skirt before attempting to cross St. Andrew's Sound which everyone kept telling me was the hardest of GA's sounds to navigate. It took me about an hour to cross the 3 mile wide sound and the tide was still moving out pretty quickly so despite my best effort I ended up getting sucked out pretty well. I hit Jekyll Isl. on the very SE tip and hopped out just for a moment on the absolutely amazing beach.

I finished the day with just a few more miles around, into Jekyll Creek, and up to the Jekyll Island Club for a total of 32 miles where I was able to get some dinner and rest up. I am planning on camping the next too nights and have some good sites scouted out. It feels like it has been so long since I camped last.

Oh also, I noticed that people seem most interested in hearing about my "romantic escapades." I guess I should have mentioned that they will have to be exaggerated too.......sorry.

I'm going to try to get back to a regular blog update schedule so keep checking back please.



IT FEELS GREAT TO BE IN GEORGIA! Flordia was fantastic but I am not sad to be moving on. Plus, I should be within 100 miles of Hilton Head if I can reach my campsite tonight. Thats where I have my sites set now.

-Seth

GRRR, not there yet

I can now see GA but am not there yet.

After 2 hours of charting and strategizing yesterday I decided to start paddling at 4 pm, a little before low tide. My thinking was that I could get up to the north end of Amelia Is. by the time the current from the incoming tide really picked up and then I could cross Cumberland Sound and ride the current as it filled in the waterway behind Cumberland Is. Well, that didn't work out so well.

The current got strong sooner then I anticipated, there was a strong afternoon head wind, and the moon didn't rise till very late last night. Today was probably the windiest day yet, of course straight out of the north, so I took the day off......

TOMORROW, I paddle into Georgia!
(no fooling around this time - I have a better strategy)

a REALLY familiar face.

After a good night sleep Whitney and I hurried to go get the boat from where we had stashed it the night before - a friend of hers house close to the boat ramp - and get me underway so she could make her 9 am law school class. I was resuming at the exact same place that I had stopped that night before, under the rt 210 bridge in Ponte Vedra Beach. The first 7/8 miles of the day were through the cabbage canal which is just a narrow land cut void of any marinas, anchorages, fuel, or commercial activity of any kind. In fact, the entire western bank of this stretch was completely undeveloped and apparently belongs to the Davis family of the Winn Dixie enterprise.

Again, I had the wind in my face. I know I mention the wind a lot but only because it is such a critical factor with paddling. Plus, everyone keeps telling me how unusual it is for the winds to be out of the north for so long straight. It was a pretty stiff (15 mph?) but not debilitating so I was able to eventually, after 5 hours, reach the Saint Johns River crossing. Until this point there hadn't been ANYWHERE to get out, stretch my legs and take a break, and for whatever reason I just could not get comfortable today in my boat. I was the most UNcomfortable that I've been yet, actually. My legs were getting tight, my butt hurt, my left elbow was sore, I was developing a new blister on my right palm, the muscles across my shoulder blades were burning, and I kept (for whatever reason I don't know) scraping my hand on the cockpit coping - i guess something was off in my stroke today. Anyhow, I finally found a place that I was able to pull over just before crossing St Johns but it was certainly not ideal, just a steep oyster shell bank. Crossing the river was a little tricky but just on the other side was a huge boat yard with some crazy vessels in it. There were all kinds of different types of boats but that one that caught my eye was Le Grand Bleu so I paddled up to it to check it out. There were 2 HUGE bumpers hanging off the port side of it and I wasn't sure at first why but after inspecting it closely I realized that it is where 1 or it's 2(!) auxiliary, deployable yachts positions to be re-stowed. I found it online, check it out: Le Grand Bleu.

So up until this point in the day I had decided that the Jacksonville stretch was my least favorite section so far. Coincidently Whitney had given me two very interesting but unreferenced facts about the city doing my crash-course tour she gave me. First, that Jacksonville has become the largest city in America, as defined by square miles. And second, that it has the highest AIDS prevalence rate of anywhere in the country too. Who knows if either are true (I'm to tired to look them up). BUT after St. Johns I had a complete change of heart. The waterway became an absolutely GORGEOUS stretch of undeveloped marsh. As far as you could see on both sides. It was a little taste of what Georgia should be like.

....Speaking of Georgia: I pulled my boat out of the water again tonight with the help of family tonight at the south end of Amelia Island - so I'm very close. My parents were at there place on Daufuskie Island this weekend for the Heritage Golf Tournament in HHI and so my mother made the 2 hour drive south today to see her baby boy and pamper me with a nice dinner. I'm getting spoiled, this is the 3rd night in a row I can sleep in a bed use a real computer: thats why this post is a little long-winded.

The FL/Georgia is only about 14 miles away. I can practically see it and I can smell the peaches on the other side. Tomorrow I say goodbye to FL!