Anegada da Vida: New River SC to Wahoo River GA

Start time and hours 0715 3470.06 MM 570

End time and hours 1500 3477.83 MM 630

We woke up early for a long leg today. The New River anchorage was very calm for the night. We shared it with a catamaran which left at the same time we did. It has been a little chilly down here in the morning, low 40s. I get up and start the generator to turn on the heat to take the chill off. We then have breakfast and get the boat ready to leave. This takes about 45 minutes, we don’t like to hurry.

The anchor came up easy and clean and we cruised out of the anchorage and headed down New River to Walls cut and down to the Savannah River. We crossed the Savannah River and were now in Georgia.

Today’s cruise is also very pretty. We are loving the Low Country with its deep rivers and creeks, marshes, grasses, clumps of trees, and wildlife. We continue to see lots of dolphins, pelicans, and osprey.

We continued down the Wilmington River and past Thunderbolt. There are three good sized boat yards here, one is a Hinckley dealer. These boatyards had some very big boats in their yards undergoing service. These are the boats that make big boats look like small boats.

We followed the Skidway River into the Burnside River and then on into the Vernon River. This set us up for Hells Gate. The WaterWay guide warns you in yellow highlighting of how shallow this section can be. So of course all day long you are thinking about it as get near. We passed through Hells Gate 90 minutes before low tide and saw nothing less than 7 feet. Whole lot of nothing for us but I can see where if you are a deep draft boat is would be skinny at dead low tide.

After sweating through Hells Gate we entered the Ogoochee River and across St. Catherine’s sound. The wind and seas were mild and the crossing was smooth. It is a wide open river inlet and could get nasty in high winds. The Ogoochee took us to the North Newport River and into our anchorage in the Wahoo River.

Since crossing into Georgia the ICW has seemed less crowded. I think most of the sailboats skip Georgia and go outside. We were only passed by one go-fast boat and we passed nobody all day.

The entrance to the anchorage is easy. The water was about 21Ft at high tide and the current was not too bad. We had lots of swing room and put out about 125 feet. After anchoring the wind died down and the water became flat calm. We saw a few dolphin swimming around and lots of birds.

The nights in most of these anchorages are very dark. The stars shine very brightly and you can even see the milky way.

Dinner was a tasty beef stew prepared in our electric pressure cooker.