Sailing Trips - Savannah to Brunswick

For those non-sailors out there, the Inter Coastal Waterway or ICW as it is known to cruisers is a sort of water highway system that runs from Norfolk VA to Corpus Christie TX. It connects rivers and creeks, allowing boats to travel south without having to go out on the ocean.

Great in theory. However the ICW has it's own challenges. The biggest being the upkeep. Rivers flow into the sea - as many songs tell us. Tides rise and fall. All of this causes shoaling. Upkeep takes money and a very coordinated effort. Have you been watching Cspan? None of that is happening in at any level of government. This makes navigation on the ICW a challenge at times. Especially if you are traveling on a vessel with a 5'5" draft and 58'1/2" mast. Very little sailing if any gets done on the ICW. Constant attention is required in ICW navigation.


However, the flip side is traveling through some truly magically countryside brimming with wildlife of all types. Many quint little villages and marina's can be found on the ICW. Americana on the waterway. No, I did not copy that out of a cruising guide. Those are my flowery words!

Sailing trips - River monsters cont

Crap! I spoke too soon. Look what was coming around the bend on the river to greet us when we departed Savannah.

Sailing trips - Savannah river monsters

We did not know the port of Savannah is the 5th busiest container port in the US until we got there and read it in the cruising guide. This port does more container volume than NY and New Jersey together. Target, Wal-Mart, Ikea, Best Buy, Dollar General and many more have massive warehouses close by.
OMG! They are HUGE. And close!
And alarmingly quiet with very little wake. They ran day and night up and down the river. It was entertaining to sit in the cockpit of Honey Ryder at night and watch them ghost by.
And fast. One of these behemoth's radioed us before dawn as we were approaching the outer Savannah sea buoy. You would have thought Hammer Down Sea Salt was at the helm. It steamed by in no time flat. *Check out the orange escape pod on the back of the one above.
Of course the tugs were on the scene as well. Monsters in their own right. We found their movements fascinating. I have decided that I want to go out on a run with one of these workhorses.
Each one was different with different equipment.
Seeing these giants made me realize how lucky we were that it was only the USS Monterrey that overtook us on the sail up the Savannah River. While the warship was big, at least it had a moderate beam. These monster container ships basically take up the entire width of the river.