Days 328

Midway, GA - Thunderbolt Marina, Thunderbolt GA

Start 7:55 AM
End 1:50 PM
Underway 5:50 Hours
Distance 40 Miles
Total Miles on Trip 5223
Av Speed 6.8 knots
Weather Sunny , 70 Degrees, Wind 12 Knots E

Believe it or not todays run looked exactly like yesterday's run! The only difference was when we left Halfmoon Marina it was low tide, making the trip out even more interesting than the trip in. One of the features on our chartplotter is to record a track of where we were so we can follow it back if needed. Kevin, the owner at Halfmoon bay, asked if we recorded out track coming into the marina, or did we want him to lead us out. I was comfortable using our tracks to get out, so we lead the way. Even with the tracks it was an interesting trip. There was one section that every instinct was to stay further off shore that the track was showing, the problem was we could see birds standing in the water. At one point I had to backup and find deeper water. Between the recorded track and our depth finder, and the birds showing us the shallow spots we made our way back to deeper water. Once we got back onto the Intracoastal Waterway, for the most part, we had deeper water, or at least deep enough that the shallow water alarm never went off.

Once we left Blackbeards Creek we had had another five hours of twist and turns, surrounded by low lying marshes. We also traveled against the current for most of the trip. It was very easy to tell when we had the current at our backs. We would go from doing seven knots to almost 10 knots without touching the throttle. One other fun spot we went through was Hells Gate. Hells Gate is a very narrow cut between the Ogeechee River and the Vernon River. The cut is plenty deep enough, but in parts not much more than 50 feet wide, and it runs very close to shore. At one point you question if the marker is in the wrong place, and should you be further away. But following the channel markers got us through it.

Jim & Norma (Dorothy Gale) did not come all the way to Thunderbolt Marina, so it was just Mark & Karen (Kay Dee) and us going in. Jim & Norma decided to anchor out about 3 miles south of the marina in a small creek. While the dockmaster was not the greatest help docking, it was nice to have a couple of other loopers come catch our lines. Thunderbolt Marina is just outside of Savannah GA, getting us close enough that we could Uber into town. As soon as we had everything secured and setup on the boats, we hailed an Uber and headed to downtown Savannah. We had an enjoyable afternoon walking along the waterfront checking out some of the shops, and of course going out to eat.

We did find two looper boats, docked downtown, and had we known we could dock there we probably would have. We only scheduled one day in Thunderbolt Marina, and probably could have done two, but it is hard to decide where would be good to spend extra time.

One of the problems with only staying one night in any town, by the time we get settled and into town, it is usually late afternoon. That does not give us a lot of time for exploring. Our next two stops we will be two nights, Beaufort SC, and three nights Charlestown SC.

Tomorrows run to Beaufort SC should be an easy run.