Hilton Head RV Park and Marina - at a dock

Ann collects pictures of clouds for her pastel paintings

Today we had to cover 54 miles in order to take advantage of the high tides. This section of the ICW is another example of poor maintenance of depths. The ICW is supposed to  be maintained at 12 feet mean low water (MLW) but here it's closer to 4 to 5 ft MLW. The Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) just says they haven't got the funding they need (i.e., don't talk to us, go see your congressman). Being from New York, our own congressman is not too interested in funneling money to South Carolina and Georgia. We all depend upon the local marinas and town to complain loud enough to be heard and cause action. At any rate, given the 7 to 9 ft tides down here, at least it's possible to make a passage at high tide over land that otherwise would be bare ground.

Ann's photo off the back of the boat - storm clouds in the distance but they never reached us

The extraordinary weather continued and we made Hilton Head by 3:00 pm, leaving Steamboat Creek at 7:30 am. We navigated a who's who list of shallow cuts but with a 7 ft tide, they had no teeth! Through two of the cuts we would have been aground at low tide even with our 4ft 9 in keel. Everybody was out today to take advantage of the high tides. We were in a string of four sailboats which we eventually all passed (they cruise shower than we do under power).

We're at Hilton Head RV Park and Marina which we stayed at last time. It's conveniently located about 20 miles north of Savannah so it's a short hop to our next stay which will be at Thunderbolt Marina in Savannah. We tried getting into Hinckley but they're closed on the weekend. We continue making good time and expect to make Fernandina by Wednesday for a two day stay. Florida, here we come!