Time & Tide

We left Palm Coast this morning at 8:00am and headed north through St. Augustine, Fernandina Beach and into the waters of south Georgia. The weather and seas were mostly cooperative with partly cloudy skies and a brisk western wind. We made great time and mostly had the waterway to ourselves. Nice!

Even though the intracoastal Waterway is mostly well managed, there are a number of places (especially cuts and creeks) where the water can get very skinny. Add to that a tidal swing of up to 6 to 8 feet in some spots and you soon learn that time and tide are as much a part of planning and navigating as actually driving the boat!

When I was planning out our trip about a month ago, I decided to look forward in time to a few places where I knew the tide might be a problem. One such place that always presents a challenge is Jekyll Creek just south of Brunswick, GA. In this rather short passage you can find water depths to as low as 3.5 feet with the channel only 20 feet wide. To put that in perspective, Endless Summer draws 4.0 feet of water and is almost 16 feet wide (beam). So to put her through a very small eye of the needle is not my idea of a good time.

I knew we would be arriving at the entrance to Jekyll Creek today at dead low tide, so we made plans well in advance to stay at Jekyll Harbor Marina for the night. While we are dealing with a strong west wind and current banging up the side of the boat, we are happy to be here and safely tucked in for the night.

Tomorrow morning, we will depart Jekyll Harbor Marina at HIGH TIDE, which is almost 7 feet higher than when we arrived today and will casually and comfortably navigate the creek in route to Savannah (Thunderbolt), GA.

LOW tide at Jekyll Creek Entrance (-9 feet)

Ominous skies and strong west winds