Georgia On My Mind

We had planed to go on the ICW to Savanah GA and spend a day or two.  However, we spent a couple of days there in the not too distant past and the weather was only going to be so so - so - we decided to skip it.  The weather forecast was for sunny and 12 C with a light wind and a short slow waves on the Atlantic so we thought we would make the best of it and take a long run from Hilton Head Island SC to Brunswick GA in a day.

The challenge with running in the Atlantic (other than wind and waves) is that you really only should enter and exit at major ports of call.  In these areas the inlets are well marked, dredged and often have break waters set up to make getting in and out easier.  This was a lesson I learned well at Barnegate!  So in this case it meant running for 153KM of wide open ocean.  This distance is about as far as Reviresco wants to go in a day and is roughly a 10 hour run - no problem for the boat - but the captain and crew get tired after a while.

We checked the sea conditions and all was well so we dropped lines at 7:30AM and headed out.  The run was uneventful and a little boring at times - that is to say perfect!  The seas did build a bit in the afternoon from about 2-3 feet up to about 6 - but the change was gradual and we adapted easily.  At one point I thought I would try to smooth out the ride for Sue a little and did some manual steering.  Autopilot is great but it can't anticipate what the boat will do just adapt a second after it has done.  With me at the wheel I was able to steer into the waves and on a few occasions I was able to get our speed up from 12.5 MPH up to 18 MPH riding down the bigger waves like a 48 foot 25 ton surf board - fun!  Sue did not seem quite as impressed asking "is it supposed to do that?".  Yes it is!

Big Dredger Deploying Rigging in Channel

Welcome to Brunswick!

Brunswick Lighthouse

Sue Loves those Sunset Shots!

Brunswick GA is a small town and one of the first 5 ports in the USA, still a major trading port it supports fishing, pulp and paper, auto export for GM/Ford and tourism.  The town is not very big, about 16,000 people but the ones we have met seem quite friendly.

Next Stop FLA Baby!!!