"2000, December 04-05 At anchor in Wilds... " a Little Saint Simons Island Travel Page by grandmaR

After leaving Kilkenny Creek, we pulled out the jib in St. Catherine's Sound. It is pretty common for people in the ICW to fly their headsails if there is any wind at all. The winds are light and variable. The day is sunny and bright to the starboard without a cloud in the sky, and on the port side the clouds are grey and lowering.

Two Great Bay Pushers (Bob's name for some power boats) come past us in the South Newport River and toot at us twice. We toot back twice - that's etiquette. They do slow down a bit to pass. A big power boat from Miami named SHIPFACED passes very close. I don't think that's a good name for a boat. Pulled the jib in.

We pull out the jib again in Sapalo Sound and surf up the sound with a following wind of 3-5 knots apparent. Big flocks of gulls resting on the water fly up as we come thru.

We see more shrimp boats. The temperature outside is 41 deg. F and Bob makes hot chocolate. The Coast Guard Securite broadcasts are from Mayport FL now.

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Trees full of snowy egrets

Some hysterical lady is lambasting power boats about their passing wake. She does not identify her boat, and we can't tell if she's ahead or behind. I took a picture of a tree full of snowy egrets, and a lighthouse that was abandoned and has been restored. About 2:00 we saw two houses hidden in a clump of trees. They must be accessible only by boat. We see goats on an island.

We pass two boats anchored in the Back River where I wanted to stop, but Bob wanted to go as far as possible and so I could not persuade him to stop and anchor there or in the Duplin, or Darien Rivers. I think he felt that we had lost a lot of time by stopping off at Kilkenny Creek.

We go off the ICW at SM 658 in the Altamaha River west of Dolbow Island and north of Little Saint Simons Island. We are anchored by 3:30 pm after 47 miles at 6.3 mph for a total of 726 nm.

Holding was good, but there is little wind protection. It was dead calm all night - no wind - although the boat did swing with the current when the tide changed. Tide is 8-9 feet here.

There was no traffic. ROSIE who has been following us passes, and PIKA comes in and anchors right off LIttle St. Simon's Island at the entrance of a little creek. There were no other signs of civilization.

We can only get 2 regular channels on TV - one is WTOC out of Savannah.

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Anchorage north of Little St. Simons Island

December 5, 2000

It got down to 34 deg F, but we were not cold inside the boat as the temperature inside was about 10 deg. higher. We both wore our clothes to bed like we used to do camping when I was a little girl, and this time we both slept under our quilts, and were not at all cold. Although getting up to use the bathroom was a bit like getting up to use an outhouse must have been. Bob started the engine at 7 and we were pulling the anchor by 7:45. His wash down pump got a short, so he just let the current wash off the chain.

A Tow Boat US passed us going north in Buttermilk Sound. We saw several dolphins.

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