Friday, April 12, 2013

The shores are shallow, requiring a loooong walkway to dry land - Hoolie relief

Around 2:30 am last night we noticed the boat was in an odd direction relative to the wind and waves. Going up on deck I discovered that the mooring line was hung up on the keel resulting in the boat being sideways to the current. With storms predicted for later in the night, this was not good. So I got Ann up and she went to the helm with the intention of me letting go of the mooring and then picking it up again - in the dark, not something to look forward to. As it turned out, when I released tension on the mooring line, the mooring ball popped out and the boat was free of the entanglement, whew! I then shortened up on the length of the mooring line and secured it with lines leading to both forward cleats (I had only put on line on the mooring ball initially). We were okay for the rest of the night, such excitement we really didn't need.

There were thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon and high winds so we left at 7:30 for Jekyll Island anchorage. On the way north, there's one spot where you have to go out an inlet and make a right angle turn back in to avoid shallows. It has always been exposed to wind and waves which can make the passage very difficult. There's always a current unless you happen to hit it at slack tide and with the rollers coming in from the ocean, it makes for steep, blocky waves, very bouncy.

Inbetween storms, the sun popped out for a  brief sunset
However, this morning we timed it just right and made the turn before the wind and waves kicked up. Soon after we got in and anchored, the wind increased to 20 to 25 kts but we were secure and comfortable behind an arm of land between us and the wind. We had known the wind direction for the afternoon and picked our anchorage for the best protection from that direction, it pays to plan ahead.

On Saturday we're headed for the Wahoo River anchorage before heading to Savannah the next day. 

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