Yes, we made it through the GA wilderness and are spending the night on Saint Simons island in the King and Prince resort. This is amazing after 5 days in the wilderness. They contacted us and offered us a great rate so we could not pass on the opportunity. Thanks for the help! Here is what happened to get us to this relaxed state…

The night before leaving Tybee Island we had a great meal with Dale and his Family, then headed over to hear a presentation by Jeff Alan, who along with Mark Schoon, is paddling around Scandinavia. We were curious to hear about this adventure because oddly enough Mark Schoon was the first kayaker to help us out in our journey. When our tent poles broke in down east Maine we had them shipped to his house in Bar Harbor and he delivered them to us. Sadly, we arrived after Jeff Alan presentation had started . Oh well, we did get to say hi and get to meet some other kayakers from around the country and globe such as Hadas Feldman from Israel and Cheri Perry and Turner Wilson from New England. Its always encouraging to meet people who are as excited about the experience of paddling as we are!

The next morning as we were getting everything ready, we busted another skeg cable… $40 dollars and an hour later we were back in business. Bethany and I are notorious for damaging our skeg cables and this was the first time we ever had to buy one so thanks to all the other paddle shops for free skeg cables along the way, we did not realize how expensive they were!

Dale dropped us off at the water and we had a leisurely paddle to the south tip of little Tybee island. We spent the afternoon fishing and relaxing but then the wind dropped and we were covered with little no-seeums. Ahh I think I almost scratched my legs off just in the few minutes it took us to get inside the tent…

The next morning the wind and the wave forecast was picking up so we decided to paddle on the inside behind wassaw island. After paddling the length of the island we had another sound to “jump” over. GA sounds are infamous for being sketchy places due to the high tides that GA has. Whenever you have a strong current meeting the ocean swell it makes for some fun times… And the Ossabow sound was no exception. We made it across safely but not with ease and back to the intracoastal waterway. As the sun began to set we once again realized that we just were not going to be able to make it to our intended marsh campsite so upon seeing a sign for a Marina we decided to head in there and seek shelter. They said no lodging for 15 miles but they would let us set up our tent for the night… Just another buggy night in GA.

Awaking to south winds we struggled along for 5 miles but quickly realized that there was just no hope of crossing the Saint Catherine’s sound on a day like that so we set up a small campsite on a marsh island. Caught some fish, read and had a nice relaxing time.

After a great nights sleep, the north winds were blowing and we zipped along all the way passed Sapalo island were we were planning on staying in a small cabin in the marsh thanks to Danny of Altamaha Coastal Tours. He offered to let us stay on the island if the timing worked out and was also a wealth of information about the GA coast. However, the day we arrived there were some other folks staying there. As the sun began to set and we had almost made it to our campsite for the night, a power boat zipped along side of us and Ashton told us he was staying in the cabin, and to come stay with him for the night. Sounded great so we turned around and pulled up to a small cabin in the marsh. We spent the night learning about the island and having a good time eating steak and shrimp! Thanks so much Ashton for letting us interrupt your fishing trip!

Once again we woke up to north winds. Awesome. We paddled our way down to Saint Simons island and got picked up at a Marina by the King and Prince Resort. I wish every island that we pulled up to provided us with such luxuries. Upon arriving we realized that we needed a rest day and decided to stay two nights.

So here we are having a great day and preparing to head on to FL! If the south wind dies down we should be there by the weekend! I cannot tell you how excited we will be to reach the “Key West State.”

P.S. We also just wanted to say thanks to all the folks who helped us plan our journey down the GA Coast. Thanks Nigel from Savannah Canoe and Kayak, Danny from Altamaha Coastal Tours, Dale and Debbie, and Michael of SouthEast Adventure