SEGWUN Takes a Mud Bath

During my last post, I may have sounded a wee bit bored.  Cruising slowly down the ICW watching the world go by.  Well, we've had a few interesting days.  The clouds were coming in and the wind was picking up as we were looking for a place to anchor on the 28th.  We went into Kilkenny Creek and found a great anchorage in a branch of the creek that goes to a dead end.  We had time for our sundowner and the rain started.  It was windy and raining the whole night long but by morning it was clearing up nicely.  As we headed out into the Sapelo Sound, we were hailed on the radio by a boat that was heading out to sea.  Many boaters going south use the ICW to avoid having to do overnight sailing out on the Atlantic.  On the ICW you can stop and anchor pretty much anywhere.  But down at this part of the ICW, there are many Sounds that give you access to the Atlantic and you can do a day journey on the Atlantic. If the weather is fine and the winds are right, it's a good option since you avoid all the winding creeks and rivers of the ICW.  So, our dear friend on the radio suggested we should go out to sea and take advantage of the "flat seas" and good wind.  It was a split second decision for us and off we headed.  The sea was not quite as flat as we were expecting, swells in the range of 4-6 feet, and the wind direction coming from southwest meant we had to tack about 9 miles out and 9 miles back.  The sea was green and I have to admit, I felt a little green as well.

The next Sound to get back into the ICW was very narrow showing depths of 4-5 feet on the plotter.  We didn't want to risk it, so we continued south and came into St. Simons Sound, just as the sun was setting.  Getting back on to the ICW route took us to Jekyll Creek, approaching low tide, and pitch black.  Well, it was a difficult navigation and we grounded the boat a couple of times before we gave up and decided to sit tight near the side of the creek for the night and do it during daylight.  We anchored but not being happy with it, we decided sometime around 11PM to move the boat a little further back, where we thought it would be more out of the way.  In some ways this was a good thing as a few large barges came through during the night and we would have risked being in their way.  However, somewhere around 3AM, we woke up to a strange feeling.  The boat was leaning heavily to the right.  The tide was now going out again and we were stuck in the mud.  As the tide continued to go out, we were sitting with a 20 degree list.  The keel was planted completely in the mud.  We could have jumped out and walked around the boat.

What to do!  Wait for the tide to come in as there really is nothing else you can do with a beached boat.  It's a bit awkward to get around with such an angle; and a bit worrying.   In comes the tide as we hold our breath; and up comes SEGWUN.  We thought we might have to have it towed out because we felt we were firmly stuck in the mud.  Lucky for us, we got out and continued along without any problems.  Phew!

Our next stop was for water.  We should have topped up our water tank when we took on fuel in Charleston, but we thought we were doing so well on managing our water supply.  I think the top half of the tank is bigger than the bottom half because all of a sudden we had no water left.  Yikes!  We're stuck in the mud and we have no water.  Well, the really funny part is that while we were trying to sleep sitting stuck in the mud we kept hearing what we thought were helicopters over head.  They would come and then go and then come back again.  It finally dawned on Jens that it was not coming from outside of the boat but from the water pump trying to pump water that wasn't there.  Ok, now we know what that sound is.

Fernandina Beach Anchorage

Well, here we are now, safe and sound in Daytona at the Aquamarine Marina.  We've got a list of maintenance and odd jobs to do before we head home on December 12th.