Video Transcript

Dun, dun, du, Hell Gate, can we make it? Probably.

Good morning from Georgia! Getting another late start today because we have to go through Hell Gate today. It’s not Hell’s Gate, which would make more sense. It’s Hell Gate, which makes it even more terrifying. We have to leave a little bit later because we have about three hours from here to there and we need to catch it on a mid to rising tide, so that’s what we’re doing. Having a nice late morning. Just finishing up my checks and we’ve got 45 minutes before we even need to go.

We’re almost two hours in, and we’ve done a little over 11 nautical miles. Things are going good. Today will be our last full cruise in Georgia on the Georgia ICW section and I have to say it’s absolutely beautiful. For those of you who didn’t see our earlier videos, we actually already cruised the entire east side of Florida from Key Largo all the way up.

Just thought I’d talk a little bit about the differences between the two. There are sections of Florida that are absolutely gorgeous, that look very similar to a lot of Georgia, but Georgia has these meandering paths through the marshy grasslands, so it takes a little bit longer to go north, but it’s absolutely gorgeous. I don’t think we’ve really seen much signs of civilization for a few days now. You know, the occasional fish camp here or there or something like that, but for the most part, there’s nothing out here. It’s just natural beauty, which is absolutely amazing.

Whereas when we were in Florida, there’s a lot of cities. The coastline is very built up in Florida nowadays. It wasn’t that built up when I was a child. I remember going to the beach and being able to walk right along the beach and see the dunes everywhere, and now there’s condos everywhere, and hotels. It’s unfortunate that we haven’t protected our coastlines in Florida as well as Georgia has.

We’re coming up on Hell’s Gate, not to be confused with Hell Gate, which is in like another hour, which we really have to pay attention to. And that’s another real big difference between Georgia and Florida. Georgia has a lot bigger tidal changes compared to Florida and you really have to pay attention to the tides here. Especially if you were in a smaller boat and you went up like a creek or something, you might not be able to get back out until the tide rises again. Or if you’re going through places like Hell Gate, you have to time your passage through there. Depending on your draft, you have to time the tides correctly for you to get through there.

But you don’t really have as much of that in Florida. In Florida, because there is more civilization, it’s a lot easier to stop places and get groceries and that sort of thing, get fuel. Whereas so far in Georgia, and today we’ll be in Savannah, so we don’t have too much left, there’s not as many amenities, which is beautiful and I love it, but you have to plan a little bit more. You need to have a little bit more provisions and know that you’re not gonna get groceries for a week. Know that you already have enough fuel to make it through sort of thing.

So there’s a couple of things that we’ve noticed that are different, but absolutely, both of them are beautiful. They both have tons of wildlife. They look very similar. Just Georgia has these beautiful meandering coastline. Really falling in love with Georgia coastline, for sure.

Hell’s Gate:, can we make it? Probably.

So we’re approaching Hell’s Gate. It’s 10:40 AM, so we should be about two feet above low tide. I would like to be here with a little bit higher tide, but I looked at the information about it and some notes and everything, and most people are saying that they had around 10 feet underneath. The low point, from what I could see, is around five feet. We have a 3.5 foot draft to the bottom of our props, which is our lowest point, unfortunately. But with two feet on top of the 5.5′, that gives us 7.5-foot of water.

What the charts use versus what is projected for today is, for us projected today, is about a foot above. We should have between 7-8 feet of water going through the skinniest parts, which is plenty. We’ve gone through some shoaling, going into some creeks to do some anchoring that was less than that. So, we shall see.

We’re making the turn here. Okay, so this is Hell’s Gate, or Hell Gate, dang it. Hell Gate, yeah, I know that. Dang it.

So are you at full idle now? Yep, full idle. We’re seeing 10 feet of water. There’s some nice markers here, some barrels. I’m making sure I’m on par with Bob’s tracks, and I’m also making sure that I’m in between these markers, staying right in the middle of the channel. According to the charts, we should have 5.4 feet of water, and we’re seeing 10.

I’m not saying I have the best captain in the world, but I definitely got a good one.

It’s kind of funny to me because we saw 4.5 feet leaving the creek this morning from where we were anchored, and the lowest we saw here was 9.5 feet. Now, I’m not saying that this isn’t a dangerous spot. If you’ve got a decent draft, and you’re coming through here on low tide, it’s definitely a problem.

We’ve already covered 20 miles today, and we have another 12 to go before we’re in Savannah. We should be there about 1 PM. We’re excited because Ben & Jerry’s is BOGO at Publix, so we’re gonna have some ice cream. We’ve been eating really healthy, and not eating out and stuff on the boat, which has been fantastic, but we’re looking forward to some ice cream, a little sweet treat. I am an ice cream fiend, that’s my vice.

I also wanted to point out that Windwalker, a sailboat, came through Hell Gate right behind us. If I had to guess, they probably have a 5-foot draft or better, and they’re still behind us, no problem. So we went through when there was about two foot above low tide, and it was fine for us. We saw 9.5 feet at the lowest point. Obviously, check the information when you come through.

We’re looking forward to Savannah, looking forward to the ice cream, but not really looking forward to being back into civilization. Being out in no man’s land, you know, it’s been absolutely gorgeous, just so pretty. It’s hard to want to go back into civilization, but we are out of fresh fruits for the most part, and it’ll be nice to have some more fresh foods on board. We can do a little provision.

We’re making a video for every cruise day along our Great Loop Waterway adventure. The Great Loop Waterway is 6,000 nautical miles, so there’s lots of videos to come. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss the next one. Do us a favor if you don’t mind, leave us a like, and please leave us a comment, we love hearing from you. Until next time, Captain Tom signing off.