Day 9: Long Day’s Journey past the Isle of Hope and through Hells Gate

Savannah Marina, Wilmington Island, GA to Darien River, GA

We left the marina during the predawn slack tide; it was dark and really, really cold, with ice on the bow deck.  Luckily, John had spoken to a boat owner at the marina yesterday who showed up at 6:00 am to assist us.  Condensation on the isinglass of our cockpit enclosure made navigation even more difficult, so we had to unzip what we could…for a short time I stood on the companionway steps holding the front portion up so John could see.

Sunrise was gorgeous with calm water.  We passed Isle of Hope on the way to Hells Gate…

“You can stand me up at the gates of hell,

And I won’t back down…”

Tom Petty

Hells Gate is an evocative name, but in this case it’s an area with a lot of shallow water that can make navigation difficult.  Our timing worked out and we went through on a rising tide.  I had imagined a Scylla and Charybdis kind of thing and was let down by how normal it looked. 

Much of the northern GA portion of the ICW looks the same: lots of spartina and some clumps of trees here and there. 

We’ve motored for 11 hours and have found anchorage in the Darien River.  Our water pump stopped working so John is working to replace it. People told us that maintenance on boats is neverending and it’s proven true.

There’s a million stars out tonight, here where there’s no light pollution. How lucky are we that we are right here, right now?