April 21 to April 22, 2019

Saint Simons Island to Savannah GA is 97 miles. Given the tidal impact (which can slow us down by more than 2 mph), we needed someplace to stay overnight before getting to Savannah. How can one pass up a place called Kilkenny (assuming you have at least heard of South Park). 

The trip from St Simons to Kilkenny was 64 miles (about 7 hours). We did not know the Georgia coastline was so remote. We traveled along the ICW for 64 miles and encountered only one bridge and very few other boats. The ICW runs a mile or two inland from the ocean a good part of the way, so that tells you no one is living out in the barrier islands. The Georgia coast has a very “Everglades” feel to it. Lots of birds, swamp/marsh and no people. The impact of the nine-foot tides is very apparent with the amount of exposed mud along the waterway at low tide and the charts showing marsh along most of the route. There are lots of birds (Sue has photos) and more dolphins than we would have expected.

Kilkenny Marina is very interesting and reminded us of our time on the rivers. The marina has been around for years and it shows. The floating docks are wood frames supported by 50-gallon plastic barrels. You need to walk in the middle of the dock, or you go swimming.  Bo seemed to pick up on this very quickly. The dock cleats are 2x8 boards sticking upward from the side of the dock. You had better know how to tie a good clove-hitch, or your boat could be moving along with the tidal flow in the morning. 

The dockmaster was there to help us dock and tie up. He was very friendly, but busy since he was also responsible for running the chain-hoist boat lift for smaller boats in and out of the river. The smaller boats using this lift had eye-bolts installed in their boats so the chain-hoist could hook on and raise them 20+ feet from the river to their boat trailers (see photos). This setup was something we have not seen before and worth a few minutes of observation…  since there is nothing else to do in Kilkenny. 

They had 50-amp power available on the dock. Most docks have a power pedestal with connections and breakers. Not Kilkenny. Here, there is an exposed outlet in a metal box (no cover, no breaker), just 240 volts of 50amp power waiting to light you up. A little extra caution was used to get our AC power going that evening.

After dinner on board and a quiet night, we were off to conquer Hell Gate at ICW mile marker 602 on the way to Savannah the next morning.