Jekyll Island - At anchor and the bugs return

Strange how they make these ramps more narrow towards land??

We're been spoiled in Florida with the absence of bugs but today, here in Georgia, they are back! The bugs are so bad that we can't sit outside at night but we do have the pollen screens which have an even finer pitch than no-seeum screening so they cannot get at us inside - thank goodness. We are in the marshes now and more so for the next couple of weeks - the reason for the bugs along with the unusually warm spring.

The navy demagnetizes subs here

Otherwise it was an uneventful day but on Tuesday we start to hit the really shallow areas, the exit from Jekyll Island and Mud River. With our draft we could, if required, negotiate both areas at low tide but with a narrow safety margin right or left of the channel. At high tide, you have a much bigger margin for error.

The anchorage here at Jekyll Island looks as if it would be too shallow if you believed the charts  but we've sounded the anchorage with our dinghy and found enough room for a comfortable night on the hook and entered the info into Active Captain for use by other cruisers. Still, the anchorage is not much used. There are three other boats here tonight with room for another 3 or 4. I think the charts showing the shallow depths scare many away (the charts show 4 ft where there's actually 9 ft at low tide). I think many are conditioned by the charts showing more water than really there in the ICW where they might have run aground - so they are super cautious here. It comes with experience.

On Tuesday we're headed for Wahoo anchorage, about 50 miles north with many shallows along the way. We'll leave at first light to take advantage of the tides which are early in the morning now. If we get stuck somewhere, we'll have to wait for the next high tide, 12 hours later!