Fernandina to Brunswick

Our last adventure on the ICW for a while was the trek from Fernandina to Brunswick.  We originally planned to go outside in the Atlantic, but the timing of the currents looked really favorable for staying inside.

We started early to catch the river currents heading to the sea.  Just a bit into the motor, Mary checked our dripless shaft seal.  It was more than dripping at 2000 RPM.  so we throttled back, slowed down, stopped most of the water intrusion, and continued on a bit slower than planned.  We put out the headsail whenever possible to make up for the lower RPM’s.

Our most exciting part of the trip was running up Jekyll Creek behind Jekyll Island.  We hit this three mile stretch right at a -0.5 foot tide.  The minimum depth we saw was 5.3 feet.  Our keel is supposed to be 5.5 feet.  Either we dragged without feeling any slowdowns, or we need to adjust our depth sensor a bit.

The currents were working for us. At some points, we think we had three to four knots of current pushing us.  Even with the low motor speed, we still arrived about an hour ahead of schedule.

Welcome to Georgia!