Crescent River, Ga

We awoke to another sunny, hot and light breeze day -- sleeping last night was rough --- there was only a very light breeze and courtesy of the strong tidal current, the boat mostly faced away from it. I had rigged a towel to steer some of the breeze into the big forward hatch before I turned in; it worked for a while, but eventually the overnight breeze died, leaving us in a breeze free V-berth for much of the night.

I usually go up on deck shortly after wakening to check out the weather and the morning. Today, I found a fisherman in a small boat quietly fishing just of our port bow. The water was still and he seemed to be bottom fishing -- we saw him pull out two small sharks, one of them a hammer head, in the few minutes we watched him while we were pulling up the anchor -- he was still fishing quietly as we left the anchorage.

The fisherman off our bow

The current was initially against us, but we soon came upon St. Catherine's sound, where it reversed and started to help us -- like the inlets in North Carolina, this pattern of hinder/help (or vice-versa) occurred each time we crossed a sound in Georgia -- the salt marshes are much wider along the Georgia coast so we running further "inland", away from the ocean -- the sounds connected all the river and creek systems in the marshes to the ocean.

Scene long the way:

Cleaning his catch / Feeding the Gulls

As it turned out, we traversed a number of sounds today and we were getting more help than hindrance so we made it a long day to take advantage of the friendly currents -- we ultimately did over 45 miles and ended up in another salt marsh anchorage behind Sapelo Island called Crescent creek -- it was much like the one from the night before.

Another creek lined with private docks

We had had numerous dolphin sightings over the day and we took a swim to cool down once we dropped the hook -- if today sounds a lot like yesterday, you are right -- the serpentine trip through the Georgia Marshes feels very repetitive -- almost monotonous.

Ah, but there is always something new to experience, even in the Georgia salt marshes -- I was on deck just before dusk and heard a strange "Snap, Crackle, Pop" sound coming from a disturbed patch of water that moved from our stern to the port side of the boat (and then disappeared) -- the guides had said this might happen -- the noise comes from tiny (inch long) "snapping shrimp"; they have a large claw and scientists have proven that the rapid closure of the claws causes cavitation air bubbles to be generated and it is the popping of those bubbles that makes the noise. These fellows are so noisy that in the large schools found just off the coast can hide a submarine from sonar -- I wouldn't be surprised if someone in the DoD has put out a grant trying to get someone to figure out how to use these creatures to "cloak" subs :-)

Finally, the setting crescent moon, milky way,  star and lightning show were both on again this evening with one important difference -- the clouds were higher above the horizon and the lightning brighter in this anchorage -- we had clearly drawn closer to the locale of the storms but they were still too far away for us to hear them.

Tonight's Crescent Moon