No … we didn’t get stuck in any Georgia mud, while even we, (needing only 3′ of water) have to be mindful of the tide. With nearly 8′ of tide, most boats can travel thru even the shallow stretches at half tide or more, but sequencing your days for each shallow stretch doesn’t always work out.  Fortunately this year, we’ve made our timing work out well. Our depth sounder rarely shows less than 9′ & I can’t even remember the last time our low depth alarm (set at 6′) has gone off.

While some cruisers get tired or annoyed with traveling the serpentine ICW waters of Georgia, we always enjoy it. Birds (egrets especially) are everywhere along nearly every shore. The rivers & creeks have great names, such as Kilkenny Creek, Ogeechee River, Moon River, Skidaway River, Buttermilk Sound, Crooked Creek (aren’t they all are!), Bear River (haven’t seen any), Walburg Creek & our favorite shown below, the Rockdedunny River.

This sandbar, which blocks nearly the entire river at low tide, we crossed over at high tide. Well … we could have with 4’+ to spare, but there is a very narrow gap to the extreme left which has 20′ of depth even at low tide.

Altie

Wait … there’s a song about one of these crazy rivers – CLICK FOR MUSIC VIDEO: The Altamaha River song by Lance Stinson.  A catchy country song (perhaps you have to be on the Altamaha to fully enjoy it…).  In addition to its own song, it has a sea serpent named Altamaha-ha (Altie for short). Ironically, the ICW traverses only a mile or so of the 137-mile long Altamaha River.  Much of the ICW connects a creek here & a river there, along with hundreds of miles of man-made canals & cuts, to make it’s 1,200-mile journey from Norfolk, Virginia to Miami, FL.

The orange shows our route on the ICW. The yellow is the Altamaha River.

 Always interesting sights along the waterway.

These cows surprised us on a tiny, marshy island – just off the Altamaha.

Two bald eagles making … baby bald eagles!

Many creeks have small docks for their local shrimp boats.

A great sunset … up yet another creek.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Note the shrimper’s name: GRAVE DIGGER!

We’ll be in & around Jekyll Island, Georgia for a few days, as our insurance company doesn’t allow us to cross the Georgia/Florida line until after November 1st (even though there are no hurricane or storms on the horizon). Oh well, there are worse places to be stuck!

Savannah is one of our favorite stops.  Although we could dock downtown on the waterfront, we stay at the nearby Isle of Hope Marina – a 15-minute Uber ride away.

This is why we don’t dock downtown – the huge cargo ships, tugs & all types of vessels pass extremely close. Even at 5 knots, this monster will leave a sizable swell which will bounce back & forth across the narrow river for at least 5 minutes.  BTW – loved this powercat!

Since our last visit, the city has extended their touristy waterfront even further north (at the site of a former power plant) with yet more hotels, restaurants & shops.

No trip to Savannah is complete without a stop at Leopold’s Ice Cream – creamy & delicious since 1919!

This tug, 2 barges & 100 yards of pipeline passing by the marina was quite the show. It took extreme care, with the help of 3 additional small helper tugs pushing & pulling, to “bend” the pipeline around this sharp corner without taking out the docks or going aground.

We borrowed the marina’s loaner car to stock up at a nearby Publix grocery store – our last major grocery stop for 2 weeks. The best part of our visit was having dinner out at a fantastic seafood restaurant with cruiser friends Gene & Carol (who have a larger model of our PDQ).  It was a great evening out catching up, along with scheming where we might be able to meet up in Bahamas this winter.

We’ll be continuing south thru the more “rural” rivers & creeks of Georgia featuring strong currents, up to 8′ tides, but great scenery.