December 17

December 17. Morning finds us anchored in the Ogeechee River in Georgia. We’re pulling the anchor at 0700 so I’m up at 0600 to do boat chores and take care of the dogs. By the time I’m back with the dogs Christy has the boat squared away and we’re ready to go.

This morning the dogs and I are walking on the same tiny strip of beach from last night and its dark as hell. It’s surrounded on all sides by tall marsh grass except for the small opening we land the dinghy at. Molly’s done with business so she’s lagging behind as Tucker searches for just the right spot dragging me along with him. Suddenly there’s an explosion of sound practically at our feet as a full grown alligator lunges from the weeds. Tucker and I almost kill each other trying to get back out of the beasts way. Then in a moment of clarity I realize that it’s not that big a beast, nor is it an alligator, it’s a pelican. But it was big, no really, kinda scary too, huge beak and all. Coulda lost an eye or something. Tucker may need therapy.

So we were underway at 0700 with the ships compliment physically unscathed. It was another day of following Non Linear south. Georgia is the only state that says they don’t have the money to keep the ICW dredged as the rest of the states do. It shows. Today the tides were in our favor as we hit the worst of the areas with the tide full or close to it. Also on the plus side was the fact that there are very few bridges, we had none in our 56 mile day today.

We still had plenty of hide and go seek with the deep water and the day was quite tedious. We’re anchored in a small stream tonight called the Frederica River. It branches off from the ICW for about 7 miles then reconnects further downstream. Two thirds of the way down the Frederica is a state park with the remains of an English fort built in 1736 to protect English interests in the new world from the Spanish in what is now Florida. The dogs enjoyed it and so did we but in different ways.