Done!

Came in to Palatka about 1:00 pm yesterday. Gps showed 427 miles.  An alligator, lots of dolphin and some good friends along the way.  
 

long, good day

Low thirties when the anchor came up. 

Crossed the line into Florida, ended the day

with 36 nautical miles on the gps . 

 

 

chilly / updated

Update:  The small craft warning has been extended through the day and the wind persists.  Since there are no “outs” - places where I could seek shelter between here and Cumberland Island - I will stay anchored here on Jekyll Creek, relax, read and catch up on the log book. 

—————————

Chilly this morning. 

Hope to sail when 

the wind drops in 

a couple hours.

 

waiting out the wind

Waiting out the wind on Jekyll Creek.  At the marina I was in a western facing dock and would have been pounded by the wind, so moved across the creek and anchored last night. 

 

poor timing

Wonderful sailing through the marshes yesterday morning on the Mackay River.  Timed my crossing of St. Simon Sound poorly, tacking into a strong west wind while fighting a strong ebb current.  Found myself losing ground and was slowly backing towards the ocean.  Quickly surrendered and started up the outboard to power to Jekyll Island.  Lesson learned on ebb tides and west winds. 

 

a challenging day

 Spent the afternoon tacking into the strong ebb tide.  A good challenge and made a lot of miles. 

some great sailing

I had a couple of days of great sailing where the winds and tides just carried me along.  Another great day of sailing today, but with opposing wind and tides.  Wide tacking to get onto Sapelo Sound, short tacks of two minutes or less on winding creeks. A lot of playing the gusts.  Challenging, but fun.  Anchored now on the Crescent River.  Anchor light photo, above, was from my anchorage last night at St. Catherine’s Island. 

 

two days in one

You’ll have to excuse the photos here, they are reverse order.  Still working on this posting from the phone thing. 

Perfect wind and tides today, sailed from Skull Creek on Hilton Head to the Herb River in Georgia.   Normally it takes two days to cover this distance, a series of creeks and rivers with continually changing tides.   But it work out perfect today. 

The last photo, which should have been first in this post, is by Webb Chiles.  Gusty in the morning, so I started off mizzen and jib, the single reefed main and then full sail. Webb came down to the docks to see me off after a nice visit with him and his wife Carol. Thanks, Webb, for an enjoyable stay.  

 

this is a test

I have had trouble posting from my phone.  I made a change in my safari settings and this is a test to see if it works. 

For information about the photo, see Webb’s journal below.

https://self-portraitinthepresentseajournal.blogspot.com/2026/02/hilton-head-island-steve-earleys-two.html?m=1

 

a beautiful morning on the Coosaw River

 Having trouble uploading videos from

My phone.  Click the link below to see

a video from this morning on the Coosaw River. 

https://youtu.be/1Mwo5LhWAk4?si=as8W9ST4_I7dhtPq