May 4th

May 4th. We left the Fredericka River and motored 50 couple miles to Kilkenny Creek in the heart of Georgia. Deliverance wasn’t filmed here but I’m sure it was the inspiration for the story.

There is a marina 2 and a half miles up the Kilkenny Creek. It’s the only place for at least 20 miles to get diesel. When we get there Bedazzle takes her spot at the fuel dock while we circle slowly as there’s only room for one of us at the dock at a time. She has 2, 34 gallon tanks and took 33 and a half gallons in each tank. Talk about cutting it close. 

After Bedazzle pulls away we take our place on the fuel dock. I tell the attendant that I need diesel and he points at the pump handle lying on the dock and says that’s it right there and walks away. So while I’m pumping fuel Christy takes the dogs for a walk. When I’m done she’s up near the office so as she approaches to pay for the fuel a huge dog / bear thing rushes from the door and attacks. In an instant he has Molly by the neck and flings her through the air then goes after Tucker who is now after him. Christy is screaming, I’m 100 feet away at the fuel dock and to far away to help but luckily a guy standing there kicks the beast and gains control of the animal.

Christy lets our dogs go and sends them down the dock to me. Molly is completely uninjured and Christy goes inside to pay and confront the marina owner about his dog’s behavior. His only answer is “hmf, he’s never done that before”.

When its time for us to leave the fuel dock we have a cross wind holding us tight to the dock. A boater who has taken a slip here for the night comes over to fend for us as we back away from the dock. The guy says he’s helped the last couple of boats leave as nobody from the marina will come down to the dock and help. What a shit hole. Later the crew of Bedazzle told us that their experience there was pretty much like ours. What a shit hole.

Both of us anchored further up the river in 10 feet of water. It’s just after low tide and the tidal flow here is going to be about 8 feet. The wind is 15 knots from the north. The meandering river flows basically east and west at this spot. Whenever we anchor someplace with a change of direction due to tidal flow I always stay up to size up the situation as the current turns.

The tide was supposed to change around 2300 hours so I was writing a trip report while waiting. At about 2330 hours I went topside to check out the situation. Holy crap, they’re gone!

Where we are anchored is dark as hell with only a scattered handful of lights around us on the horizon. I had established a line of position with a distant red flashing ICW light, Bedazzle and ourselves. When I came topside we were still tucked up against the north shore of the creek. I saw the red light but Bedazzle was gone. They had dragged more than a hundred yards from their starting point east of us near the north shore. They had traveled with the outgoing tide and were driven south of us by the wind. Their anchor seemed to be set now and I could see that they were not moving but I couldn’t tell how close they were to the southern shore. I woke Christy for a consultation and we decided to call them on the phone so they could assess the situation themselves. They ended up pulling the anchor and dropping it again, this time they were good for the remainder of the night.

Since so much of this trip report was dedicated to the Bedazzles I asked them for a suggestion for “Boat Name of the Day”. So here goes………

Boat Name of the Day………”Bow Movement” was a sailboat they saw in Titusville with a runner up award for a powerboat named “Dollars Aweigh”