Tides

 4/8- Cumberland Island to Jove Creek (Brunswick)

   Today started out well as we had the tide going with us for a few hours. There was a submarine coming out of the base and we got visited by the Coast Guard to tell us how to act when it comes. They tell you to maintain your best speed and don’t point your bow at the “asset”. Turns out we were past it before it came out but it sounded like the CG was having trouble convincing some boats to yield. There was a very high volume of radio traffic with some getting quite heated. 

    It wasn’t long after this that the tide turned and we plugged along at 4 knots. Once we cleared the northern end of Cumberland Island we really got slammed. We were only doing about 1 1/2 knots over the ground. We were nervous about Jekyll Creek which is a notorious shallow area and we wanted to get there with some tide under us. We were going so slowly that I was worried that we wouldn’t get there today. Once we cleared the bridge the current picked up but we were then negotiating the shallows. Alayne did a great job navigating through here and we made it with inches to spare. 

    We crossed into Brunswick Bay where I actually got a sail up and it greatly increased our speed. We did close to 8 knots crossing the bay but then once into the river we got held up again and had to grind out the next couple of miles to the anchorage. 

     Here we ran into our issue. It was by this time close to low tide and of course with the eclipse and all it was a minus tide. We ran aground crossing the bar into the creek. And we were good and stuck. We dropped an anchor and waited for the tide to rise. After several failed attempts to move we finally got off about 2 hours later and we moved up into the creek and anchored.

   This is an anchorage that we used on the way down and is pretty quiet and peaceful. It is in the middle of a grassy marsh and has a nice view. I love to check out the views at night as you can see all the different lights from the flashing towers and buoy lights to the bridges that are usually all lit up. You can see the glow of several distant cities although one thing you cannot see are any great number of stars. It is clear enough but there are just too many light sources to let the stars shine through. 

   I hope everyone got to see the eclipse today. From all accounts it was pretty spectacular in Vermont. Now all those people to figure out how to out of the state. 

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