12/13/14
Brunswick GA, ICW
Position: 31 09.056N, 81 29.979W
Posted by Bill
Today’s substantial shoal area was the Little Mud River. We left our anchorage with the plan to arrive at the entrance 2 hours before high tide, giving us a 2/3rds tide and rising. We timed it perfectly and had no incident. Coming out of the shoal area, we went into a narrow channel in the Altamaha River and we had a shrimp boat coming right at us with its net arms extended on both sides. Check out all the birds on the rigging.
There was not enough depth outside the channel for me to move over so he could pass and the channel was not wide enough for both of us, so I tried hailing him on the marine radio. I tried channel 16, which is the one everyone monitors, and when he didn’t answer I tried channel 13, which is the one that commercial ships monitor. No reply…
He was moving pretty fast toward us so I turned around and went back into the shallowest part of the Little Mud River which was wide enough for both of us and he passed without a problem. We only had 3 feet of water under the keel of our boat in that spot, that goodness it was close to high tide, but it was one of those white knuckle moments!
We had numerous dolphin sightings today. They are becoming more and more common.
We also saw a bald eagle!
Towards mid afternoon we passed by St Simons Island which is where we were going to anchor, but we made such good time we decided to go into Brunswick. There is a large marina there with cheap fuel, decent dockage prices, cheap electric and free washers and dryers. The town is also known for its charm and history. It has been so cold at night, getting down into the upper 30s, and the thought of running our heat pump helped us make the decision to grab a dock for the night. Coming into the marina we passed by the local shrimping fleet:
Approaching the marina:
The bridge going into Brunswick:
We checked out the farmers market that was still going on when we arrived, but it was pretty lame. Then we walked to dinner in town and came back and took advantage of the free laundry facilities…great Saturday night date night!
The town of Brunswick is quite picturesque, but the streets were mostly deserted, and it was Saturday night! There are quite a few restaurants for a town this size, but none in the downtown that specialize in seafood…I couldn’t believe it, since they have a fishing fleet docked 2 streets away from the area with the restaurants. Also, this is the place where Brunswick stew was created and no one had it on their menu.
Tomorrow we tackle the last of the major shoal areas in Georgia, Jekyll Creek.
St Simons pics:
