Cumberland Island to St. Simons

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's) 

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 15 - April 15, 2017

No photos today, sorry!

We are glad to leave Cumberland Island behind! Not only did we not get the Lands and Legacy tour, when I tried to take Baxter to shore this morning to the dinghy dock, I saw a sign at the top of the ramp that said "Closed, do not enter," so I landed him on the muddy shoreline. Turns out that the sign was not at the top of the ramp I was going UP, it was at the top of the ramp that went DOWN to the other floating dock, I could have easily taken Baxter to shore but instead we both end up covered with mud from the damn shore! Oh, well...

Patty and I have totally got the loading and unloading of the Sea Eagle kayak figured out. We have also got getting us and Baxter into and out of the kayak from the boat figured out. What Patty has not got figured out (I have it sort of figured but not without some struggle) is how to get OUT of the kayak at the floating docks we have encountered, they are just too high for Patty to manage. Some more work is needed here!

Today was some rough cruising. We crossed St. Andrew Sound that opens to the Atlantic ocean, and then we crossed St. Simons Sound. Both were rough enough to knock our fillings out, even though the weather was not bad. Anyway, we got to St. Simons Island and are anchored just off the ICW north of the St. Simons Causeway bridge in a very cool spot. It is an easy paddle away from a boat ramp to land Baxter, it is reasonably protected, and we are just scumpo here! After our customary G&Ts, Patty made (trust me, it was better than it might sound!), poached eggs over Spam (Some Parts Are Meat) covered with Hollandaise sauce! Gourmet eating on at 25 foot boat for sure!

We have not decided where we need to be tomorrow, but it has to be halfway between here and Savannah. We made reservations today for two nights at Isle of Hope Marina near Savannah. They have a fee loaner car, and there is shopping nearby, so we can re-provision and re-fuel for the long run up Georgia and South Carolina. I also hope I can get a new refurbished iPhone, since mine went in the drink from my breast pocket when I leaned over the gunwale to do some dishes - ouch! We also hope to get a Verizon Jetpack, since T-Mobile sucks BIG TIME just about everywhere we have been, and internet is so critical to keep up on weather and everything else!

A reflection on our navigation systems. This entire Great Loop cruise could be done very nicely with just a depth sounder and an iPad running Garmin Blue Chart. The Coastal Explorer laptop screen is too dark in daylight to see easily, and the mouse cursor has a terrible habit of disappearing from time to time. But worst of all, the NOAA electronic charts show only a small part of the ICW channel - they show you where you are but not where you need to go. The Garmin Blue Chart app on the iPad, on the other hand, has a magenta line labeled "Intracoastal Waterway" showing you exactly where you need to go on a turn by turn basis. Today crossing the big open waters, there were no ICW daymarks that we have come to expect, and without the iPad, we would not have known where and when we needed to turn to follow the ICW. We could have used Navionics, which has better cartograrphy than Garmin and also shows the the ICW, with a magenta line but does not have Active Captain. Advantage: Garmin Blue Chart. We got too used to depending on the ICW daymarks in Florida, but here in Georgia, you can't count on daymarks to find your way, and the iPad and Garmin Blue Chart are lifesavers!