Offshore South Carolina to Florida

[aoconnel]

We will be taking our boat from Jacksonville to Charleston in a couple of weeks. It is a 70 foot Hatteras with a 6 foot draft. We are told that we cannot get through Georgia with this draft and are requesting information on where we can go inside and outside on this route with our draft. We only cruise at 9 kn. Marina recommendations would also be appreciated. Thanks for any information you can provide

[a64pilot]

You can certainly get into Brunswick, but the Marina is a ways up river, not too bad, they have or used to have very good fuel prices and is a very cruiser friendly place, extremely well protected, no waves at all, zero.
Anything in Savannah is even further up river.
I don’t think that trip would be worth going all the way out to the Gulfstream for myself, but if you did you would get a significant speed boost, but it’s a ways out and the out and back wouldn’t be worth it I don’t believe.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

You can certainly get into Brunswick, but the Marina is a ways up river, not too bad, they have or used to have very good fuel prices and is a very cruiser friendly place, extremely well protected, no waves at all, zero.
Anything in Savannah is even further up river.
I don’t think that trip would be worth going all the way out to the Gulfstream for myself, but if you did you would get a significant speed boost, but it’s a ways out and the out and back wouldn’t be worth it I don’t believe.

He's going southbound. The Gulfstream is northbound.

We took 5 1/2 ft draft through the Georgia ICW a few years ago. We had to plan tides in a few places but it wasn't tough. Not sure if anything has changed.

Savannah, Brunswick St Simons, Jacksonville all decent entrances.

[a64pilot]

Sorry, I default to thinking North bound I guess

[tkeithlu]

The gulf stream is indeed north bound, but the along shore current in the Georgia Bight is a loop south bound, or at least a very sluggish current until you get WAY off shore. St. Catherine's and Sapelo Sounds are good entries for anchoring and getting out again, but watch the tides anywhere on this coast - they run several knots. The ICW behind Sapelo and St. Simon's Islands has lots of twists and can shoal, making the channel tricky - I stuck a 6' draft aground behind Jekell Island once.

[GRIT]

Thread title says Southbound, first post says northbound. Jacksonville to Charleston...

I don't know which way he's going. Some clarification is in order.

Cheers.
Paul.

[captmikem]

Originally Posted by aoconnel

We will be taking our boat from Jacksonville to Charleston in a couple of weeks.

Sounds northbound to me, easy shot, less than a day at 9 kts.

Just do a direct course sea bouy to sea bouy. If you want to break it up into two days you can always pull into Savannah, takes a bit longer but either way is pretty simple and easy, and you will get a push from the stream.

have a good trip,
M

[TBW]

If you do one day or two, be sure you do not short cut the Charleston jetties. They are low and can be hard to see. The sea buoy is best. Two full days if you go all the way in at Savannah or one long day if you do it in one jump.

[skipmac]

FYI in addition to the one in FL there is a Jacksonville NC on the New River next to Camp Lejeune. Assume the OP is going southbound as stated.

If so, staying closer inshore will keep him out of the stream.

And as noted, you can take 6' all the way on the ICW but will have to play the tides in a few spots in GA. Get the latest online updates from Waterway Guide and other website.

[gonesail]

if doing it on the inside .. I ran aground with 4.5' at Jekyll Island but was able to turn around and wait for the tide at the marina dock. Isle of Hope south of Savannah is on the ICW as well.

[kapnkarl]

With your size & draft boat, I'd be tempted to go outside, given you have a reasonable weather window. Based on Navionics autoroute, it looks like it's 165+ nm from the St John's inlet to Charleston inlet. At 9knots that's 18 hrs and that doesn't consider getting out St. Johns inlet, in Charleston inlet & tied up, possible southbound current, etc. So if you go outside, it's either an overnight passage or a stop somewhere. I think I'd skip the ditch unless I was willing to time it to run on rising tides, and then add some more time of course. Right now Windy shows the Gulf Stream is running 40+ miles off of Jacksonville and a little more off Chareleston, so that'd be a bit of a detour to get to/from it. Safe journey whatever you decide.

[tomrealest]

Go Outside. It's faster and once you have gone on the inside of Georgia once, for me anyway, that was enough.