Day 139

Daily stats
Start: 8:45 AM- Obassaw Island, GA
Finish: 2:45 PM - Little Tybee Island, GA
Time: 6:00
Daily dist: 20 miles
Total dist: x miles
Companions: Mark Gibbs
Weather: SW wind 10-15 mph, clear skies, temps in the low 80s
Notes: Mark paddled six miles down from a marina to catch up with me for an overnight on the way to Tybee.

Way back in early February while I was still paddling around the Big Bend area of Florida I go an e-mail from Georgia paddler Mark Gibbs. Mark had learned of this trip and the blog when he was at the Sea Kayak Georgia symposium last fall. After following along with the blog for a while, Mark got inspired enough to want to join up with me as I passed through his home paddling turf in Georgia. He first suggested a route on a local river but over time the plan changed to simply paddling a leg of the journey up the Georgia coast along with me. Being a moving target that isn’t always easy to catch up with, Mark moved mountains in order to meet up with me this morning in order to do an overnighter on the way in to Tybee Island (the northernmost of the Georgia barrier islands).

My paddling campanion for a couple days, Mark Gibbs

As I made camp on an island last night Mark got a ride in to a marina about six miles inland and slept there so he could get an early start and ride the tide out to meet me this morning. Right on time at 8:00 AM Mark cruised in to where I was waiting and after a short break we were on our way paddling up the open coast.

The weather held for most of the day but the wind did finally build enough to give us some interesting water as we passed over a few shoals on the way north. We had considered breaking the 26 mile run to Tybee up into two short days by camping on Wassaw island. However, because Wassaw island is a wildlife area where camping is not allowed,we were forced to skip past that island and press on all the way to Little Tybee Island just six miles from our ultimate destination at Sea Kayak Georgia on Tybee Island. The resulting 20 mile day for me was shorter than my average but Mark’s 26 mile day nearly doubled his previous longest mileage and gave him the new experience of paddling the open coast and with some rough water to boot

Mark tending to some gear on Wassaw Island (pronounced just like my home town of Wausau WI)

On Little Tybee we set up a nice campsite (albeit windy and sandy but bug free) and enjoyed some pleasant conversation as we watched another beautiful red sunset while eating our camp dinners.

Mark making dinner (Mac and cheese with tuna) in camp.