Wilmington Island

Wilmington Island, Ga Public Library

Well I waited too long to fix the computer. I was getting ready to transmit a blog when my laptop said "Error during delayed write." I rebooted it and during the boot it said it was running CHKDISK (SCANDISK?) I let it run. That was a big mistake. When it finished it said "Error writing bitmap. Unable to write C:\". I rebooted again and now it just says "read error" and nothing more. I think that the disk's directory FAT is trashed. It can be recovered but it might be expensive, so I sent the laptop off to the manufacturer for repair. They will probably replace or reformat the hard disk and I'll loose all emails since last October, and loose my address book once again. Don't look for regular blogs to resume until late in May.

We've been having a wonderful time on the ICW. It started with a cruise up from St. Augustine. I wanted to sail outside, but the winds were too close to being headwinds. We stayed inside, and for a while I was in a bad mood because I thought we made the wrong choice. Soon however it turned into a beautiful day and the waterway was very nice and very interesting. We anchored at Alligator Creek (30 34.563N 81 28.285W) in the exact spot where I anchored for a week last year waiting for Libby to fly down from West Charlton.

Saturday, the weather became fierce. Just as we passed the Wolf Bay nuclear sub base, the winds got up to 31 knots and the waves were so choppy that our prop came out of the water every few seconds. We were forced to turn back and stop at the nearest anchorage (30 51.584N 81.30.257W)

Sunday it was a much nicer day and we enjoyed the different character of the Georgia ICW. The ICW follows rivers surrounded by very wide flood plains and salt marshes. There are almost no houses or camps on the shorelines on either side. It must be that the shores are inaccessible by car. As a result we saw lots of nature, lots of wildlife, lots of dolphins, and very little evidence of people. The weather was splendid. We anchored for the night on the Hampton River (31 17.069N 81.22.793)

Monday was more of the same, splendid weather and beautiful nature. We anchored at the north end of Saint Catherine Island (31 41.480N 81 09.273W) and took the dinghy into the beach. We were able to walk several miles around the north end of the Island to the ocean beach side. It was lovely, and again there was no evidence of other people to see. It was great.

Tuesday, still more splendid weather. We're stopped in Turner Creek, next to Wilmington Island GA. We plan to stay here for several days. We can take a bus from here into Savannah so there may be no need to sail up the Savannah River.

Along the way we met American Spirit, a cruise ship that cruises the ICW. Our friends Norman and Martha were looking for such a cruise. I don't know where it originates, but American Spirit's Captain told me that their destination was Charleston. They stop most nights at interesting places. Sounds like a very fun cruise.

From here we can continue up the ICW through South Carolina, or head outside to make a direct passage to Cape Fear or to Norfolk. We're still worried though about getting too far north too fast. We're like Floridians, with a new-found aversion to cold.