Another small boats, short distances

[Norman]

Captain Kidd, on Trailer Sailor, had planned a cruise through the salt marshes of Georgia, following the ICW.  He expressed some concern for doing it without his brother, but indicated he might do it solo.  He sails a Hunter 18.5 with wing keel.

When it appeared he might put it off a year, I contacted him, offering to go with him, as such a trip was of a nature that I personally enjoyed, but could not tackle solo and enjoy it.  After a few emails and phone calls, he elected to take me along.  For those that do not know, I am 85, and the Captain is 63.  From my perspective, a young fellow, but at an age where putting off for a year is not a wise decision.

May 25th he picked me up at the AMTRAK station, and he tells the story from there.

I wish to emphasize that this was HIS dream cruise, he did all the planning and preparation, including printouts of the correct chart segments and tide information, kept in plastic sleeves.  He kept us on the ICW all the way.  I trimmed sails, steered some of the time, and absolutely enjoyed every mile of it.  The salt marsh is spectacular, especially in the spring, with fresh green growth everywhere.

It was his well planned dream, but every bit a dream cruise for me, and unforgettable.

The link    https://forum.trailersailor.com//post.php?id=1483269

Enjoy!

Norman

[Captain Smollett]

Very cool.  That area is beautiful.  I've manage to do a very little bit of exploring in that AO also on an 18 footer.

Congrats to the Captn!

[Norman]

I had seen the salt marshes from highways as I crossed bridges, and from the edge of the ones in Maryland.  That was no preparation for the vast expanses of new green grasses, which in many places went to the horizon, and were in fact, THE horizon.  Since this is spring, the predominate color was fresh shades of new growth, the old dead grass of fall and winter was covered by the height of stiff , active growing shafts of grasses.  The occasional small island with pine trees and other vegetation did break the view, but they were almost certainly Corps of Engineer spoil piles from the original dredging.  There are no recent spoil islands, so that is not done in recent years.

One puzzle, and someone here may be able to give the answer, the alligators were present in only a relatively small portion of the ICW.  They were numerous where they existed, but seemed completely non existent in other long stretches.

Porpoises were seen several times every day, and sting rays jumped nearby in two of the sounds.

If you don't count the sounds, there was very little traffic in the ICW, we saws 3 to 5 craft per day, and oddly, a total of 5 sailboats SOUTHBOUND!  We were the only ones sailing, but if you are 40 feet long, tacking in the ICW is pretty useless.

The visibility was excellent every day, the next marks were usually in sight as we turned the previous one.  The complete lack of rain was a major factor in both the pleasure, and the miles put behind us, each day.

Captain Smollett, what time of year did you sail there?

Norman

[Captain Smollett]

Captain Smollett, what time of year did you sail there?

A little bit later than now; it was mid-June.

Been in the SC and NC marshes at various times per year,  too.

Somewhere on here I commented about something I read on a sailing blog years ago wherein the dude mentioned sailing through the SC/GA marshes along the ICW was "boring."  I quite disagreed.  I rather enjoy it.  We've explored the marshes here on dinghy; shut off and raise the engine and row, and we encounter all manners of wildlife.

Marshes are beautiful, wild country.  Only way I could imagine someone calling it "boring" is if their idea of boating is bars and "nightlife."  Oh well.

[Norman]

Never boring.  We came quite close to 'gators under sail, shore birds too.  Do you assume, as I did, that the 'islands' were artifacts of the original, hurried creation of the water way, and not a natural feature of the marshes?

We had the motor running, in gear at idle, when sailing in some areas, which reduced the need to tack as the channel doubled back on itself, but it is very quiet, and our pressure wave preceding us was modest compared to the larger craft that we shared the waterway with.  In some of the narrower places, I could feel the lift as they neared us, well before the bow wave curled over to us.  That lift is most apparent as barges approach, but we met none of them in our trip.

With a different time constraint, it would have been interesting to attempt to explore one of the larger islands, but I suspect that the surrounding 'land' would prove to be soft muck, impossible to walk on, and extending too far out to try to drive the bow into and climb ashore.  The COE has added stone to the shores of some that are close to the channel to reduce erosion of them, and there is still many feet of muck from the last visible stone and the channel.

Have you ever tried to reach those spoil islands in muck country?

Norman

[Captain Smollett]

Never boring.  We came quite close to 'gators under sail, shore birds too.  Do you assume, as I did, that the 'islands' were artifacts of the original, hurried creation of the water way, and not a natural feature of the marshes?

Yes, I think they are.  Or, at least some of them are.  Some may be natural remnants of earlier "barrier island migration" cycles.  Or a combination.

With a different time constraint, it would have been interesting to attempt to explore one of the larger islands, but I suspect that the surrounding 'land' would prove to be soft muck, impossible to walk on, and extending too far out to try to drive the bow into and climb ashore.  The COE has added stone to the shores of some that are close to the channel to reduce erosion of them, and there is still many feet of muck from the last visible stone and the channel.

Have you ever tried to reach those spoil islands in muck country?

Not the spoil islands specifically, but I have dottered around on similar features.  The muck can be feet deep, hard to walk in and very hard to clean up.

For example, we beached our little boat on Cumberland Island.  Wading ashore and then hours later back to the boat was ... interesting.  Muck is a pretty good word for it.

Similarly, canoeing around the marshes down by Swansboro and camping on Bear Island, lots of muck to be found in marshes and the little islands.  On a hike back to our camp site, I tried to make my way along the shoreline on the Sound Side and there was no way to walk in it.  Indeed, I was rather intimidated to try.  It was soft.

To contrast, I've also beached at Shackleford Banks up here.  That was on the Sound Side, but it was still sandy beach.  Both Shackleford and Bear Island are ocean barriers and each forms one side of their respective inlets;  They lie about 35 miles apart.  But, whereas Bear has a marshy Sound Side, the marshes don't border Shackleford directly.