Destination Anywhere

St. Andrews Beach

We took Elixir out again this weekend.  What was our destination?  Anywhere but the dock!

Ever since we relocated Elixir to Brunswick, we have not found a beach we can anchor off of.  On our return from the trip to Cumberland Island, we saw a potential place off St. Andrew's Beach on Jekyll Island.  So we figured we could check that out and see if it would work.

We use an App on our iPhone called Active Captain that tells us among other things, where you can anchor.  Technically and legally, you can anchor pretty much anywhere you are brave enough to try.  But the anchorages listed

Chart Plotter with Active Captain 

on Active Captain are tried and true and you know they can work.  There are also ratings that let you know any problems and how to anchor there without getting into trouble.  Anchorages are easily spotted as they are marked with a green anchor symbol.  You can see three of them in the picture to the left which are by Jekyll Island Marina.  But there was no anchorage listed for this spot (where the blue backwards C is in the middle of the picture).  So we had no way of knowing whether you could anchor there or not.

We arrived around 5pm, after waiting for the tide to come in enough to make it through Jekyll Creek.  We circled around checking the depth and found a suitable location about 500 feet off the ICW.  Good enough.  We dropped the hook and it set the first time.  So far so good.  The wind started picking up and peaked out at 15mph.  At first, the wind just drove us inside, but otherwise there was no problem.

Grilled veges on the grill!! mmmm!

But then the tide changed.  With the outgoing tide,we found ourselves in a situation where the strong wind was blowing one way, and the current was pushing us the other.  Neither one wanted to lose the battle so we became a pawn in nature's war.  First we were pushed back by the current until we were tight on the anchor line.  At that point Elixir would spin around bow into the current, straining on the anchor line.  With the hull presenting a low profile to the current, the wind would take over pushing against our wide stern profile.  We would begin to move forward in an arc, keeping tight against the line at about a knot of headway.

Off to Korea for some more Kia's

Eventually the current would begin to turn the boat, which gave the current the upper-hand.  It would then push us back and start the process all over again.  Whenever we were sideways to the current we would be violently rocked.  Then when we reached the end of the line and the boat would turn, the anchor line would always be on the wrong side of the boat and would scrape the bottom and bow as the boat turned making a horrendous noise.  When we checked after returning to our dock, we could see where the line had scraped a considerable amount of the bottom paint off, so we will have to pull the boat this winter and have it repainted.

Sun setting over the Sidney Lanier Bridge

The winds finally calmed down during the night and we awoke to a beautiful day.  With almost no
wind, the water was as calm as could be.  We got lots of work done on the boat in the morning and then enjoyed just hanging out, relaxing and grilling lunch.

But the wind was predicted to pick up again that night, so we decided to move.

We went through Jekyll Creek and anchored in the Brunswick River within sight of the Sidney Lanier Bridge.  There is nothing there and no reason to anchor there, but anchoring anywhere is better than being at the dock.

We spent the evening watching the big car carrying ships headed out to Korea and just relaxing.  The next morning we got up and headed back to the dock to head back home and prepare for the work-week.  As we drove home I kept remembering, anytime on the boat is a good time!