Monday, October 29, 2012

Jekyll Island - at anchor

They are no fools! They decided to ride out the high winds on the lee side of the trees!
Yesterday the prediction was for 20 to 30 kt winds but they never materialized. The prediction was the same for today but they hit it on the button this time. We came out of Wahoo River with the wind on the nose and waves coming over the bow for a couple of hours  before we could turn the corner and re-enter the ICW. The dodge got wet, the bimini got wet, but we didn't get wet. I can't imagine going down the ICW without a full enclosure. However, we passed boats doing just that, they were dressed in full wet gear with heavy jackets for the cold wind while we were in golf knit shirts. The full sun does wonders in warming up a full enclosure, just like a greenhouse.

Even with high winds, a nice sunset
So we bounced around a bit but made steady progress along our 50 mile route for the day. We managed to hit Jekyll Island about 30 minutes before low tide. This part of the ICW is one of the worse for shallow water and you really don't want to pass through it at dead low - but we seem to always do just that! The ICW is very narrow through here and at best you have only 7 ft at low tide but today we also had a 20 to 30 kt west wind that was blowing water out of the  bay, lowering water even more. So we approached the section with trepidation and slowed down to creep forward. We did finally make it through, barely.

Now we're at one of our favorite anchorages by the ICW at Jekyll Island. There's no fetch in the anchorage so we're very comfortable and secure. We hear that such is not the case up north with Sandy making landfall. My son in Connecticut has already lost power! It sounds like the storm of the century. Our friends worry about us and hurricanes but we seem to be doing better this time. We'll be using our webcams at home to see how our house is doing (as long as the power lasts).

There's little doubt that we'll be here all day Tuesday too, the winds aren't scheduled to abate until at least Wednesdsay and there's a nasty inlet we have to cross on the way south, not something to do with lots of wind and waves. I hope everyone up north does okay!

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