Go Down and Stay Down

I am slowly, deliberately and with much focus navigating the Umbrella Cut, named probably because it is the shape of an umbrella -- unfortunately, not the broad, wide expanse of an open umbrella, but rather, the thin, linear form of a closed umbrella complete with squiggly handle.  The chart reads 25, but my depth sounder gives me 9 feet.  This is a super narrow waterway known for extensive shoaling, and the tide is going down.

Jamey pops his head up for the umpteenth time, "It's nervewracking!"

"Go down, and stay down!" I command.

I see him pull out the iPad again, also for the umpteenth time, checking where we are on its chartplotter.  Meanwhile, things are going amok with the kids.  Sage is sitting on the galley counter, chowing through the pretzels, Skye keeps wandering up without a life jacket, and Phoenix and Indigo are arguing heatedly about something.

"Put that iPad down, Jamey!" I tell him.  "Stop checking the charts. What good will checking do? How does your worry help keep us from going aground?  You need to pay attention to the girls!"

I feel for him.  It is hard trusting someone with less experience through these tricky cuts; however, he knows that I am careful and have no hesitancy in calling him when I have any doubt or need.

He finally listens, and we both feel that we have made some progress in how we work as a team.
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We opted to go through four narrow cuts today instead of across one gnarly sound.

The ICW route across Jekyll Sound goes out through the inlet and into the ocean for a short distance.  With the high NE winds over the past few days, we were aware that the ocean swells would be huge and that the going would be rough and extremely unpleasant for the girls.

"You'll have to lash those girls to their bunks," said the lady at the marina where we stopped to get gas.

"Tie everything down!" warned our friends, Bruce and Nancy, radioing from their boat Seabird as they traveled across the sound ahead of us.

The alternate route that we took ended up being quite pleasant.  It did require absolute focus and utter attention given to the water, the depth sounder, and the chart plotter.  The lowest that the depth sounder gave me was 4.5 feet, and that occurred when I got a bit distracted by looking at the route ahead on the chartplotter.  We went very slowly through the dubious areas and were able to speed along at a good pace through the other parts.

Umbrella Cut

Huh?  You want me to pass through that?! White represents where there might be usable waterway. Blue is shoaling. Green is bad.

Luckily, Sage's visits were short and sweet.  Minimal distraction is crucial!

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WHERE WE STARTED: Anchored in Frederica River, Mile 670

WHERE WE ARE: Anchored in Brickhill River,  Mile 704, by Cumberland Island National Seashore

THERE TO HERE:  39 miles (5 extra miles from our detour), 7 hours, Nancy at the helm.  Gusty NE winds throughout the day.  We sighted tons of dolphins and started seeing American White Pelicans in addition to the Brown Pelicans that have been with us since Virginia.

Watching a dolphin surf the boat's wake.

White pelicans feed by dipping their bills into the water while swimming.

Brown pelicans feed by diving aggressively into the water after their prey, capturing fish in its pouch.  This one came close to us this morning before we pulled anchor and hovered around us as if it were trying to tell us something.  Jamey noticed a band on one of its legs.