C Ghost’s anchor held through a very blustery night in New Tea Kettle Creek. Tom and I alternated two hour watches until the 18-25mph winds finally subsided to 10-13mph sometime after midnight. The war of wind and current continued, and C Ghost danced strange patterns as first current, then wind had ascendancy. One benefit of the boisterous conditions: No bugs in the cockpit!

First thing in the morning, we headed for the narrow and shallow Little Mud River just before full tide. Again, a total stranger on a sailboat we had not heard of before, radioed us a few miles before we reached the Little Mud River, having heard our VHF conversation with another sailboat yesterday about the strategy for getting through this section (and probably also seeing our AIS signature this morning). They wanted us to know that they had just passed the trouble spot and had 8 feet of water 2 hours before high tide. We thanked them. By the time we arrived, an extra 2 feet of depth had been added to the river, courtesy of Georgia’s steep tidal range. While we made it through without a problem, this section would not have been possible for us at or near low tide where there is only 4 feet of water in some spots.

The remainder of our journey to Golden Isles Marina in St. Simon’s Island Georgia consisted of a winding path through salt marsh. At the same time austere and beautiful, the view was mostly flat. The play of light on the water as the sun rose was awesome, and we continued to have frequent sightings of both dolphins and Monarchs. We were surprised but happy to come across two bald eagles, perched atop a navigation marker, where we more commonly saw cormorants, gulls, and pelicans.

We did our best to arrive at Golden Isles at slack tide, as the current under the bridge can be ferocious. We only missed dead slack by eighteen minutes, but already there was a substantial current pushing us towards the dock. With lines all prepared, a helpful dock hand, and judicious use of our bow thruster, we tied up without difficulty. We have our slip reserved for today and tomorrow. Since the weather forecast has turned windy and rainy for Friday, we’ve asked to stay that day as well. The marina is currently full up, but we are on the “standby” list.

After a quick lunch, we walked into St. Simon’s Island proper, stopping on the causeway bridge to take pictures. The path into town was paved and wide paralleling a beautiful golf course. Evidence of the recent clean up of many fallen and broken trees was visible all the way into town. The oceanfront portion of the town had a section of shops, restaurants and cafes. There were several shops that catered entirely to dogs, as one pampered pooch we saw clearly knew.

We walked to the fishing pier, had some ice tea at a café, and bought a new citronella candle and some mosquito coils at a hardware store. Oh, and Paula bought a spare can of Raid. You know, just in case. At this point, it was 4pm and we realized we had walked over 3 miles from the marina. Paula started thinking about rest, a hot shower, and dinner, and she convinced Tommy that an Uber ride back to the marina was a good plan. The driver picked us up in 8 minutes, and gave us a detailed account of the hurricane’s effect in town.

The marina has an on-site restaurant, The Coastal Kitchen, and we had a great meal there: curried asparagus soup, gnocchi with artichokes and Kalamata olives, Chilean salmon, and once again, the perennial favorite shrimp and grits.

Walking the docks after dinner, we met a live-aboard couple who invited us aboard their ocean-going Tartan 34C. It was a marvel with numerous custom improvements. We spent several hours talking. The Captain shared a wealth of hard-earned knowledge, caveats about the portions of the ICW we will traverse next, and his ideas about heavy weather anchoring, philosophy of living aboard, and even a bit about religion and politics!