Question? Best Fl GA SC Moorings

[Drift Woods]

I'm currently headed up the AICW following cooler weather. I'm in Vero beach at the city marina mooring field now. I love this place because it's so easy to do everything here. I plan to stop in Saint Augustine but don't have a clue about other fields to the north. Any recommendations???

[Drift Woods]

Originally Posted by Drift Woods

I'm currently headed up the AICW following cooler weather. I'm in Vero beach at the city marina mooring field now. I love this place because it's so easy to do everything here. I plan to stop in Saint Augustine but don't have a clue about other fields to the north. Any recommendations???

Found one in the city of Beaufort south Carolina and thats it. You would think that moorings would be popular with 6 and 7 ft tides. Three years ago passing through I stayed in slips most nights because anchoring in loose mud with current and nightly thunderstorms made it hard to get a good night's sleep.

[Seabeau]

I believe that the Brunswick, GA. City Marina has a mooring field. It's also a fair hurricane hole.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Seabeau

I believe that the Brunswick, GA. City Marina has a mooring field. It's also a fair hurricane hole.

No mooring field, a tiny small anchorage that you cannot get to shore from is all.

It does have the reputation as a Hurricane hole from its owner, it’s advertised as such. I’m here now, but I have concerns about it being a hurricane hole.
I think it exceptionally well protected from fetch and winds, but surge may be a huge issue, if Irma had come during high tide last year, the docks would have floated off of the pilings. Thankfully it didn’t.
See the Ga coast for some reason has huge tides, up to 9 feet I think.
OK maybe not huge, but certainly a lot bigger than the typical 1 or 2 ft you usually get in Fl.
If a Hurricane surge occurs with the high tide, well you may get a 30 ft surge.
Go downtown Brunswick, there is a sign that depicts how high a hurricane surge can be, it’s about chest high, downtown. The Marina is of course at a lower elevation than downtown.

I’m not knocking the Marina, it’s one of the very best we have ever stayed at or we wouldn’t be here. It’s heavily populated with cruisers and not just town folk. There are many Marina activities etc.

[Seabeau]

The GA Bight( the long indention of the southeastern coast line) is responsible for the extra high tides due to the funnel effect. My vacation home, dock and boat, are 25 miles south of Savannah.

[RTB]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

If a Hurricane surge occurs with the high tide, well you may get a 30 ft surge.
Go downtown Brunswick, there is a sign that depicts how high a hurricane surge can be, it’s about chest high, downtown. The Marina is of course at a lower elevation than downtown.

I have heard that there was a sign showing the high water mark from the hurricane of 1898. Where is it?

Storm surge is our biggest concern here. What I did notice during Matthew (a major cat 4 as it approached the Georgia border), and Irma, was that once the water topped the banks of the East River, and covered the marshes to our west and our parking lot almost to Newcastle Street, the water level quit rising. Maybe just luck? At that point we had three feet left before topping the pilings. That doesn't sound like much, but at that point, it is going to take a huge amount of water to rise another three feet.

Back to the OP's question, there is a mooring field in Fernandina. It's a neat little town, and worth exploring. There IS a "designated anchorage" with good holding near Morning Star Marina (St. Simon's Island). They do offer dinghy access for a small fee if I recall correctly. They have a restaurant, but you'll need to Uber for provisions. Going north, I think there are moorings at Beaufort, S.C. Not sure of anything between Brunswick and there (moorings).

Ralph

[Drift Woods]

My plan was to enjoy cruising untill it got to warm sleep on the boat. Then find a nice hurricane hole marina to leave the boat and fly back to Ft. Lauderdale for July and August. The way things are going weather wise I'm not going to get that far.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by RTB

I have heard that there was a sign showing the high water mark from the hurricane of 1898. Where is it?

Go down Gloucester street about 1/4 mile on the left by the post office maybe? I think some kind of government building.
I don’t think it’s the high water mark from a previous Hurricane, if memory serves it says this could be how high the water will get from a Cat 3 Hurricane.
If I remember I’ll try to go take a picture of it tomorrow.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Seabeau

The GA Bight( the long indention of the southeastern coast line) is responsible for the extra high tides due to the funnel effect. My vacation home, dock and boat, are 25 miles south of Savannah.

I had wondered why, but never enough to ask really.
I grew up in the Panhandle of Fl.
Years ago as a Pvt Stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, I had the wife drop me off in my canoe way up the Ogechee river to canoe down it.
I never thought about tide, well the tide here is so large of course the the river flows backward on an incoming tide, I liked to have not made it, I was done canoeing for awhile.

[a64pilot]

This is the sign I was speaking of. It’s in front of City Hall, downtown.
Likely they are being overly cautious as governments are.

This is the piling on our dock about 1 ft below high tide today.


Again, not picking on anything, just a storm surge concerns me here.
Piling at St Mary’s look to be twice as tall, but maybe they have been rebuilt after being destroyed from a Hurricane? Looks like it as you motor past anyway.

Being stationed at Hunter Army Airfield for years and just being a Georgia boy, I believe this area has not been hit from a strike, not directly in over 100 years.
Does that mean that it’s unlikely, or that we are overdue? I don’t know.

[jlblan2]

If you don't get a chance to get further north, the St Marys Boat Works in the North River off the St Marys river on the FL/GA border is a great place to hole up. The North River is a great Hurricane hole. I have my boat in the Fernandina Harbor Marina and if there is a hurricane problem, we all head for the North River. The Boat Works is a great place to put a boat on the hard (great management and fair pricing) and the anchoring in the area will protect your boat.

[sailorboy1]

Aafter Beaufort SC moorings the onlyoesvI know of are in Carolina Beach SC till into the Cheasapeake

But there’s lots of nice anchorages near towns that are just as good

[Drift Woods]

Thank you all, we appreciated your quick response.

Tim