Update

Not sure where we were when I last wrote. We anchored out at St. Simon's Island awaiting high tide on the following afternoon so we could get through Jekyll Island Creek which gets very shallow. There was a line of about 8 sailboats going through the creek at the same time as us. We made it through and after a nice day of travel anchored in Brickhill River off Cumberland Island where there is a mansion built by one of the Carnegie's and now owned by the state of GA. While walking Moose, the Park policeman came by and told us he had lived on his sailboat until he took this job about 8 months back. He is the only law enforcement/EMT on the island and is required to live in the mansion. His ketch is anchored out in the River.


 We are now far enough south that the days are warm but of course being in the south means bugs. So out comes the repellent. There are always tradeoffs. The sunsets and sunrises in GA are beautiful but the 7-9 ft. tides I can live without. It makes travel and anchoring much more complicated. If we anchor in 15 ft. at night we can be looking at 6 ft. in the morning  The nice thing is that the bottom is much cleaner than in the Chesapeake so we don't spend as much time washing down the anchor chain when we leave in the mornings.  We headed out for St. Mary's this morning and as we traveled along the Cumberland Sound a Patrol boat from the submarine base came charging up behind us with a machine gun on the bow. We slowed and they told us that there would be a sub leaving within the hour and we were to maintain a distance of 500 yards. We were already out of the sound and into the St. Mary's River however before it came through.


 Our chartplotter and gauges have been giving us some trouble. The rpm gauge is intermittent and the temp gauge is not registering at all. When the chart plotter stops working I spend a lot of time with the chart in front of me calling off the markers for John at the helm. I pretty much do that anyway as I don't trust the chart plotter but it requires much more attention when all we have is the paper chart. The ICW is really just a channel down the center of various rivers, sounds and cuts through land. There is shallow water on either side of this channel and often the channel is very narrow although it looks like you have the whole river in which to travel. It is maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers and in the past several years it has not been a priority and there has been little money to keep it dredged. The stimulus funds did provide some funding for the dredging in problem areas. It used to be used much more by commercial traffic but that has fallen off and with mostly recreational traffic there is little pressure for the funds to keep it deep enough for marine traffic. The currents move the sand and cause shoals to form. Many communities on the ICW have lobbied for keeping it open as they derive a lot of business from the boating community but with the economy as it has been not much was done until 2010-2011 when some funds were made available. There are still problem areas so we have to watch the tides carefully as we travel. 


Well once again aground going into St. Mary's River. Waited several hours to float off and as we floated off we lost our steering. John went below to set up emergency steering which was almost impossible. The emergency steering is such that once hooked up it has to be driven from below in the aft cabin where you can't see where you are steering. So the person below must shout out the port window to the person in the cockpit who shouts back which way to turn. There has to be something about this setup we don't understand at this point. John thinks that it might fit  up behind the cockpit through the aft locker but it is not immediately obvious and we will mess with that after we get the steering fixed.


We are now in a repair boat yard. Very rustic. Lots of boats on block stands only a few in the water. Not much dock space so boats are rafted up next to each other. No landscaping just a lot of weeds and dirt. They had to shuffle things around to make room for us. There is one bathroom/shower and a lot of nice people who are living on their boats while working on them.They seem to gather on the porch in front of the restroom and visit. Since we got in late and it got dark quickly and started to rain we didn't really get to know anyone although we said hello and Moose made a few friends on his walk. 


 We are waiting for the repair guy to meet us this morning to see what the problem is. John determined that the cables are ok on the steering mechanism under our bed. Next step is to remove the compass from the steering wheel binacle in the cockpit and examine the cable sprocket. Removing the compass requires marking it in order to make sure it goes back on correctly. It's placement must be very exact of course and will probably require an expert at some later time to reset it. The fellow who will take a look thinks that it is not a major problem-famous last words. Once again it is good this system quit now rather than in the middle of the Gulf Stream. Every time a system breaks down we learn how it works and how to repair it ourselves so it serves a purpose. Actually John learns. I am so far behind the curve in all of the mechanical stuff. I listen but I first have to learn the language before I can begin to understand what is being said.


Steering appears to be repaired. There was too much slack in the cables and allowed the chain to jump off of the sprocket. John, with the assistance of Phil the electrician, pulled the chain back onto the sprocket and tightened up the cable. We believe this has solved the problem. 


Thanksgiving dinner was great. There was so much food. It was held in the dining room of the hotel in the historic downtown on the harbor. The hotel set up many tables to fill their dining area to seat all of the cruisers. We had a very nice time. The winds were sustained around 20-25 with gusts to 30 and many cruisers who were anchored in the river did not wish to leave their boats as there has been much dragging in the anchorage. One couple we met had another boat drag anchor and hit them at 4:30 a.m. They sustained damage to their catamaran. They left the anchorage this a.m when the winds came up and motored over to the river where our dockyard is for some safety. It looks like our plan is to leave here Sunday morning on high tide as our dockyard is high and dry at low tide. 
We met a really nice couple from Toronto who are working on their boat getting it ready to head to the Keys and on to the Bahamas. They have a car and we went to dinner with them and they shared a lot of their experiences and general info about crossing the Gulf Stream and checking in with customs. It was very informative and helpful. We are set to leave just before high tide in the a.m. continuing south to Stuart to pick up our sail at Mack Sails.


Thinking of you all,
Elyse

In St. Mary's, Georgia

Hi gang,

As I think you know we had planned to be in St Mary's, GA for Thanksgiving.  We are here.  As I am sure you have learned, we don't do anything the easy way.  The place with the least amount of water along the ICW is the passage by Jakwll Island.  We have done it several times.  We got all worked up and went through yesterday without any problem by waiting for a bunch of other boats.  In the past we did it on our own and ignorance was bliss.  We anchored in a great creek last night next to Cumberland Island.  There are wild horses and alligators.  We saw neither although I had Moose looking for the latter early this morning.  We then headed for St Mary's.  We were going to be their early and find a place to anchor among what looks to be at least a hundred boats.  Half way up the river I ran aground.  Remember the tides in Georgia are seven feet or more.  The tide was falling.  We had no choice but to wait for it to come back.  When it came back in we started the engine and got ready to float off the bottom.  I instructed Elyse to move the wheel back and forth in the hope it would free us.  All of a sudden Elyse announced that we had no steering.  The wheel would spin.  We called Tow Boat to pull us off and take us someplace.  While they were on their way we floated off.  Actually we were under power.  Instead of dropping anchor which would have been the smart thing, I ran below and started to assemble our emergency rudder.  As I was putting it together the tow showed up.  They took us to this old boat yard full of great characters.  They promised the would be sure to get us to the Thanksgiving dinner. 

We are hoping the steering problem is small.  The guys at the ;yard think so.  it's like the chain coming off your bicycle.  We will see in the morning.  We have now both showered and will have our dinner.  We are safe.  We miss you all and look forward to hearing from you.

Eat lots of turkey.

John & Elyse