"2000, December 03-04 Rural Coastal Georgia Marina" Richmond Hill by grandmaR

I have almost no pictures of this area because there's nothing to take a picture of. The country is so flat and with so few trees that you can see a sailboat mast from a long distance, without being able to tell exactly where they are in relation to the ICW. .

Few signs of man except for sailboat masts across the marsh grass or gravel and sand bars. There's no phone service on either cell phone.

We went to the Kilkenny Creek Marina which technically has a mail address of Richmond Hill, although I don't think it is very near to the actual town.

Because the marina is so far off the ICW and takes us such a long time to get to, we usually anchor one night while going through Georgia in the Wahoo River which is about half way between Thunderbolt and Jekyll Island or Golden Isles Marina.

I am not absolutely sure that these pictures are of Kilkenny Creek, or that I took them, but it looks like Kilkenny Creek, and the picture properties indicated that they were taken with my camera, although the date (January 3, 2000) is a bit strange.

Floating docks at Kilkenny Creek

Pulled out the sail in the Vernon River and Bob made hot chocolate. Went through Hell Gate and it wasn't too bad. The tide gave us a boost up the Ogeechee. From the Herb River, we reached Kilkenny Creek Marina by 12:44 (much earlier than expected) after 32.5 miles which took a little over 5 hours at 6.4 mph, for a total of 685 nm.

We stopped because it was another raw damp day, and Bob got chilled and started to shiver. I wanted electricity so we could have heat.

Their floating docks are wooden on blue barrels, so you have to walk carefully as they bounce around a bit. When you stop on it, it gives under your weight. The bigger pieces just give a little, but the smaller connector ones dip down a lot. It is like walking on a jungle suspension bridge.

There were several boats anchored up from the marina. The anchorage looked as protected as anything in this flat country ever is.

MERIDIAN a big power boat that we saw last at Dock Holliday Marina came in and got 300 gal. of fuel. They expect to be in Jacksonville tomorrow. They complained because they have only 3 sides to the steering station. Also a boat named EZ BREEZES came in - very chilled - with an aft cockpit boat and no heat.

Since their pay phone was intermittant and wasn't too reliable, he let me use his only phone line to download e-mail. I had the laptop on the freezer in their very warm one room office/bait sales/lounge. No cable at the boat, and we could get reception on only two good channels with the antenna. Watched football on the one good channel. Seems to be cold in Jacksonville too.

Kilkenny Creek

Last night the heater made the cabin so hot that I got up and turned it off. I was wearing a heavy shirt and sleeping under a blanket and a quilt. Bob was not sleeping under his quilt. It got down to 64 deg F inside, and Bob got cold and complained (and turned on the heater again) but still didn't get out his quilt. It was back up to 69 by 7 a.m., but he was still complaining. There was frost on the inside of the bimini which later melted and dripped on us.

There was also frost on the enclosure curtains and on the dock. Since we are tied to the dock starboard side to, and the boat backs to starboard, and there is a lot of current pushing us forward, Bob is concerned that we will hit the boat ahead of us while trying to get out. I suggest that he pull the boat back a couple of feet (there's no one behind us on the face dock), and then let the bow go first, and then back up onto the dock which will make the bow swing out. So that's what we did. The guy from the boat ahead came out to help, or to be sure we don't hit him or both, but we did OK without him having to help much.

We got away from the dock about 8.

Next - an anchorage north of Little St. Simon's Island

• Pros:Nice helpful people
• Cons:A long way off the ICW
• In a nutshell:Wild and rural