Saturday, March 17, 2007
Fire and Brimstone on New Teakettle Creek, Georgia (Mile 646.5)
Tuesday, March 13. After spending the past few days in the lap of luxury on Amelia Island, we said farewell to Frank, and soon we were back on the Intercoastal Waterway again. We cruised through Cumberland Sound, carefully avoiding King’s Bay, a restricted area where U.S. submarines run in from the Atlantic Ocean. Our journey took us through miles and miles of waterways winding through salt marshes, past Jekyll Island, St. Simons, and Brunswick, Georgia. Some people find this stretch to be boring, but we’ve always been fascinated by salt marshes, finding them serene and beautiful. All of the guidebooks warn boaters about areas of shallow water, especially at the entrance to the Little Mud River. The tides in Georgia have a range of 8 or 9 feet, so we were relieved that we were near high tide when we went through this precarious spot. I don’t think we ever had less than 8 feet under us, but we heard later reports on the radio from other boats that touched bottom frequently. Whew!
We were feeling pretty lucky as we started looking for our night’s anchorage, eventually settling on a spot around a bend on New Teakettle Creek, near Doboy Sound. Bob’s new anchor set again on the first try, and this was a really pretty spot. More good fortune. At first our only problem was an attack of no-see ‘ums, those devilish tiny bugs that bite the fire out of you. Then we noticed that what had previously been a small forest fire on Sapelo Island across the salt marsh was now a big forest fire, and a strong wind was blowing the smoke right our way. Ashes and bits of black grit began to cover the boat, and it was getting harder to breathe, so we closed all windows and turned on the air conditioner. Finally the wind shifted, and we made it through the night just fine. Later we heard that this was most likely a controlled burn; the winds just weren’t in our favor for a while. At least the smoke got rid of the no see’ums.
We were feeling pretty lucky as we started looking for our night’s anchorage, eventually settling on a spot around a bend on New Teakettle Creek, near Doboy Sound. Bob’s new anchor set again on the first try, and this was a really pretty spot. More good fortune. At first our only problem was an attack of no-see ‘ums, those devilish tiny bugs that bite the fire out of you. Then we noticed that what had previously been a small forest fire on Sapelo Island across the salt marsh was now a big forest fire, and a strong wind was blowing the smoke right our way. Ashes and bits of black grit began to cover the boat, and it was getting harder to breathe, so we closed all windows and turned on the air conditioner. Finally the wind shifted, and we made it through the night just fine. Later we heard that this was most likely a controlled burn; the winds just weren’t in our favor for a while. At least the smoke got rid of the no see’ums.
