Hi folks,

All's well here after an interesting day on Wednesday when I turned back for the first time on this trip due to weather. I was trying to cross St. Andrew Sound (north of Cumberland Sound in SE Georgia) in fog and wind, and might have made it but decided that I would not risk it. 

The jolly wind just didn't come from where the forecast predicted when I made my plan in the morning so I was motoring along, navigating by compass, and the wind and sea rose steadily. Beating into it got everything wet but I pumped out as I sailed. It wasn't too cold but it was a bit glum. There was no shelter at all unless I turned and ran before the wind (easy and fast) all the way back to somewhere a few miles short of where I started that day. That shelter spot wasn't a whole lot better so I elected to beach the boat on a lee shore of Little Cumberland Island (a private nature reserve) and wait for the tide to drop and leave me snug on the sand. The waves off shore were way too choppy for comfort and I was afraid of dragging my anchor. 
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So I beached her and she snugged down OK, but when the next high tide came just before dawn it rocked the boat on the sand a lot and basically sanded quite a bit of the new antifoul off her. And it was a higher tide with a strong SW wind and very heavy rain plus flow from the three nearby rivers as well so I got pushed quite a bit further up the shore to the highest tide mark. 
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Before he left, he said "Is there anything you need?" and I said "How about a tow truck?". He pointed to his 4WD pickup and in pretty quick order I had the rollers under the boat and a tow rope attached to his truck, and we hauled her down towards the water. Then the sand become muddy and rather than get the truck stuck, we pushed it another 20 yards by hand. Then he left, and I was still about 15 yards from the ever retreating water. 

Steve and I had calculated it would 2 or 3 pm before the tide came in enough to float her. I wanted to get going ASAP to make Brunswick marina before dark, so rather than wait, I got the boom crutch to work as a lever and pried Wanderer forward a foot at a time. After an hour's labour, I was 10 feet from the water's edge, and the tide finally turned and lapped around the bow soon after. I grabbed the things I had drying out and re-mounted the motor and cleaned all the mud and sand off everything. 

By then she almost floated. With a few more shoves I got her alive, and by 1.15 pm I was motoring flat out across St. Andrew Sound towards Jekyll Island and then up Jekyll Creek to St. Simons Sound. Left turn then into the Brunswick River and a two mile run up to the marina where I am now. 
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That night I got invited aboard a big ketch for dinner by a lovely retired Texan couple, Bob and Sally Burnette, who fed me salad (good for scurvy), red beans and rice (good for Cajuns) and ice cream (good for all time). I even got to have a shower and do laundry too. That was so much better than how the day might have ended. 

If I hadn't had Steve's help, I expect my improvised tackle wouldn't have done the job and so I'd have been stuck on the sand on a lee shore all day and then would have had to get up in the dark at 7.00 pm to kedge the boat down the beach as the tide lifted her. Then I'd have been able to sail her off in the morning.

Lessons for me:

1. If there's no shelter available, then don't beach it on a high tide unless you can also drop anchor way out in the deep and then get up early to pull yourself onto it as the tide recedes.

2. Unload the boat if pushing by self on rollers.
 

Toodle oo

Lee