Happy Birthday, Chuck! Celebrating in Jekyll Island, Ga.

Happy Birthday, Chuck! Last night was a little rough for the captain. There was a 7 ft. tidal change where we anchored, so it would give Chuck a chance to try some of his anchoring equipment. He got about 5.5 hours sleep. I slept all night, but woke up 3 or 4 times to check on him and see if he needed me.

He went to bed around 11 p.m. and set his alarm for the tide change at 2:30 a.m. All the captains were up checking their boats at that time. A catamaran was running up on a trawler. We had no problems, but Chuck made some interesting discoveries.

The current was about 4 knots. We used the plow anchor as our main anchor, but wanted to add a Fortress anchor to stop the boat from hobby-horsing. The current was taking the Fortress downstream and wouldn't let it hit bottom. Chuck added a kellet that he made for weight. That allowed the Fortress to go to the bottom and stopped the boat from swinging back and forth. He tried the sea anchor off the back to stop the lines from singing. That worked well, but it needed to be smaller. He looked for our bucket in the lazerette, but didn't want to make too much noise at 3 a.m.!

It was overcast and chilly when we pulled anchor at 8:10 a.m., but the sun was brightly shining by 9:30 a.m. We passed this house on the way out and it was on an island with water in front and in back of it.

It is a T-shirt and capris day today. SOG was 6.5 knots for most of the day. We traveled down North River, Little Mud River, Buttermilk Sound, Mackay River and St. Simon's Sound to Jekyll Island. We're docked at Jekyll Harbor Marina. They have a nice restaurant here, so we'll celebrate Chuck's birthday there tonight. Cruising guide says they have a hot tub. I will have to check it out!

Tomorrow we hit the Florida border: Anchoring  in Ft. George River, FL.