Sailing Through Georgia

SHIP'S LOG:

Current Location: Jekyll Island, Georgia 311'02.790N/ 081'25.357W

Today I closed the Florida Cruising Guide and packed a way the Charts of Florida. I am now in Georgia at Jekyll Island. And so far the good weather is coming with me. It was in the 90's today and equally high humidity and the only wind was out North contradicting the prognostications of the boys and girls of NOAA.

It was an easy day and surprisingly there was very little traffic on the ICW in either direction. Few boats were traveling today. I would have thought that there would have been a lot more as the weather was very good and cruising is always a good way to enjoy a cool breeze. Aside from local fishermen, I can't say I saw more than half a dozen boats. It stuck me as strange, but what the heck, I had the day to myself. I did encounter "Lesser Light," a Nordic tug from Clinton. CT. we chatted for as long as we were in range but he was doing a couple of knots fast that I was able to do and drifted out of radio range.

When I got into the norther part of the Cumberland River just south of St. Andrews Sound, I ran into something I had never seen before . . . . . Jellyfish. Now I am not talking about one Jellyfish, or a dozen, or a hundred, I am talking miles of Jellyfish. I can't even begin to think how many there were. All I can say that from when I first noticed them, I cruised over two miles through them. And they were not just here and ther but thickly present, like balloons at a New Years Eve Midnight Balloon drop. I have no idea what they were doing there. Perhaps it was the time of the year for Jellyfish to congregate to "propagate the species!" I am not sure what kind they were, but I wasn't going swimming to fine out if they were the type that stung. It was just a bizarre site to behold.

In the east coast boating world, there are to national tow boat operations, Towboat/US(red boat) and Seatow(yellow boat). They boat maintain ceneters in various boating areas which allows you to call over the radio or by phone if you get yourself in a sticky situation. There is a serious competiton going on between the two and they always seem to be trying to get the upper hand over each other. One particularly annoying thing they boat do is responding to requests for radio checks. A hundred times a day, someone will call on channel 16 and ask for a radio check. They are asking if they can be heard and how well. Channel 16 is an international hailing and distress channel and is only to be used for such. If the Coast Guard responds to a call for the radio check, they will remind the caller of this fact and tell them to us another channel for the purpose. Outside of Florida, channel 9 is often used and monitored by the Amateur Radio Relay League. In Florida, channels 26 & 27 will let you monitor your own signal. But back to our competing towboat companies. They always respond to requests for radio checks on 16 with a cheery to the point of making you sick," Radio Check loud and clear at Seatow in Mayport," or wherever. Often times, one company will talk over the other and all you get is gobbledygook. And after you hear the same voice make the same response for the hundredth time you want to throw your radio overboard. It gets even worse when one follows the other in responding and then gets followed by the Coasties telling the caller to do radio checks on another channel which happens 10% of the time. It makes you want to scream!

I will be doing a nice short trip tomorrow, from Jekyll Island to Fort Frederica on the Frederica River. It is only about 13 miles away. I was going to stop on the way down but got hit with a rather nasty storm the night before and the day of and bypassed it in favor of a straight shot to Jekyll Island to dry out and get a nice hot shower. So now I will get to see what I missed!