Sunday, October 29, 2017

Windmill Harbortown Marina - at a dock

Alert - water levels at Savannah are running 1.5 ft below normal tonight due to the strong northwest winds. Expect that same delta at Hell Gate relative to the predicted tides. See links at left for current info.

Nice pool but nobody was in the pool today
The winds came today, 20 to 25 kts with gusts to 30 and above. With that forecast, we just stayed in the marina where it was nice and calm. We are not in so big a rush that we have to brave less than optimal weather. We used the time to do our laundry, refill the tanks, and generally get ready for the rest of the trip to Titusville.

Lots of whitecaps, not a day for making progrress south
I've received reports that Hell Gate is even worse than in the spring for shallow water. We are planning to go through with a 3 ft tide which ought to be enough but with the reports we've been getting, it may be touch and go even with our 5 ft draft.

The boats are packed in here but very well protected
On that subject, I've completely redone the GPX Route link at the left of this blog. I've abandoned Google Drive for storing GPX routes and replace it with my own website as the source. So far, it has made a huge difference in downloading the GPX routes into the Garmin app on the iPad. All the routes now download without a hitch directly into the Garmin iPad app. One route everyone should have is BFernRed, It's a 9 ft MLW route through the famous shallows south of Fernandina. It's valuable because there are no buoys to direct you to the deep water path and there are shoals on all sides of the route. Deviate and you're in trouble but the GPX route makes it an easy passage.

We plan on getting started around 8:30 am or earlier and will overnight at Kilkenny Marina which is on the other side of Hell Gate which we'll take with a 3 ft tide. Hopefully, that will be enough!


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