![\"Georgia](\"https:\/\/aweewalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Georgia-coast-kayak-trip-010.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDon gave a synopsis of the trip in front of the fire. \u00a0The trip required planning of symphonic complexity and precision.<\/p>\n
Weather, and particularly wind, would be the most important variable, with tide close behind. \u00a0The water rises and falls at least eight feet each tide cycle in this retgion, driving huge volumes of water through the channels between islands. \u00a0The inlets are the most hazardous stretches; they offer long fetches for waves. and wind and tidal current can clash in unpredictable ways. \u00a0Last but not least, the state of the paddlers–individual and aggregate–changed like the weather and mustn’t be overlooked.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n We were told the next morning would be difficult. \u00a0The forecast was correct. \u00a0It rained during the night, and was overcast and cool as we paddled off the island into a headwind that reduced our progress by a couple of miles an hour. \u00a0We did better when we turned south and headed down Bull River, the main channel through the island. \u00a0There, we got a wind assist as we made our way toward the southern end.<\/p>\n Things changed, however, when we got to Wassaw Sound, the wide stretch of water between Tybee and Wassaw islands. There the wind blew onto our bow quarter, creating waves that one wanted to head into for stability but that eventually had to be taken obliquely to make the heading. \u00a0It was tough.<\/p>\n Wind at your back in such conditions sends the boat down into the trough of waves, where the bow buries momentarily. \u00a0To the paddler the view is like outtakes from a B movie about submarines, filmed in a special effects tank. Unfortunately I have no picture to support this \u00a0description. \u00a0That’s because in paddling there’s something analogous to the “observer effect” in physics, which says that when you measure something you alter the state of the thing measured. \u00a0When you stop paddling to take a picture of how you’re doing, how you’re doing can change in a hurry. \u00a0As a consequence, pictures tend to be taken in calm conditions. \u00a0At least mine are.<\/p>\n After a long stretch with no breaks, we made landfall on an oyster-shell bar on the southern side of Wassaw Sound that marked the entrance to a creek int o Wassaw Island. \u00a0We had waves on the starboard beam in this final stretch, and \u00a0then had to change our heading and paddle against a tidal current so that we wouldn’t be swept into the ocean. \u00a0Don told me once that he worries when people come ashore quiet; it often means they’re spent, physically or emotionally. \u00a0Some of us came in quiet to this oyster-shell bar.<\/p>\n We weren’t nearly done, however. \u00a0We paddled the length of the island to the inlet between it and the next one to the south, Ossabaw. \u00a0We stopped at a place called Pine Island and waited for the tide to change so we could cross in slack water. \u00a0There was a beautiful stretch of beach, but it was too cool to swim and we were too tired anyway.<\/p>\n As we ate lunch on the edge of the high ground somebody noticed two wild pigs making their way through the marsh behind us. \u00a0They were feral pigs, the descendants of escaped barnyard animals, but no longer barnyard approachable (except after they’d gone by).<\/p>\n Somebody got the idea of starting a fire to stay warm and entertained while we waited for time and tide. \u00a0It was a brilliant suggestion.<\/p>\n We crossed more easily than expected and arrived at \u00a0a place called Bradley Point, which was just inside the mouth of a creek at the edge of a live-oak forest. \u00a0We stayed there two nights, as the next day’s conditions were unfavorable and Don had built an extra day into the itinerary for just such an eventuality.<\/p>\n On our free following day half of us explored the island on foot–the ocean was a few miles down a path through the woods–and the rest paddled up the creek we were camping on. \u00a0I was in the latter group and left later than it, passing several of the paddlers far up it where they’d turned around. \u00a0I proceeded on a while; they said they were going ashore and would wait for me.<\/p>\n I reached the tip of a peninsula of high ground and went ashore. \u00a0As I was stretching my legs in a clearing, a piglet appeared out of the underbrush. \u00a0Then another and another; I counted seven in all. \u00a0They were tan, brindled, and black-and-white. \u00a0They were more juveniles than piglets, but far from full-grown. \u00a0It took them a long time to detect me.<\/p>\n I paddled back down the creek and stopped where Don, Mike Tannen and Walter Brown had stopped. \u00a0I told them about the piglets. \u00a0Lacking an entree for dinner, we hatched the idea of herding them to the end of the peninsula and dispatching one. \u00a0We spread out like beaters on a quail hunt and walked toward the end of the land. \u00a0After a while Mike and Walter saw several of the piglets behind us. \u00a0This was undoubtedly the best outcome.<\/p>\n Returning to the boats, we came across a dry wallowing hole.<\/p>\n We paddled back to camp and after lunch headed down the trail toward the beach. \u00a0The path went through a forest with swamp on either side. \u00a0The trees were gnarled, shadow-throwing, and covered with spanish moss.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was difficult to imagine how things looked 175 years earlier. \u00a0The Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia were prime ground for raising rice, cotton and indigo. \u00a0They had plantations with the hundreds of slaves on them and some of the cruelest conditions of servitude recorded in America. \u00a0Some islands bear evidence of this notorious history. \u00a0They have dikes and outlets from long-gone rice fields; a few even have slave cabins that have been preserved. \u00a0But there was no such evidence here. \u00a0Or at least none that we could see.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We finally got to the beach. \u00a0One of the options for the next day was “going outside”–paddling in the ocean. What we saw wouldn’t support that decision. \u00a0The conditions weren’t extreme, but there were endless ranks of swells we’d have to take abeam, with some breaking on invisible offshore bars.<\/p>\n But the beach was beautiful.<\/p>\n Back at the camp, we traded stories with our compatriots. \u00a0Bob did his Richard Avedon imitation, with Diane Stoecker posing.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n