South Carolina!

 Crossed into another state on Saturday and have enjoyed our stay at Port Royal in the Beaufort, SC area. The cruise up from Isle Of Hope was great, very pretty. We saw Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island off our starboard in the distance. The winds have died down a little but the currents remain very strong. We are learning how to play the tides and try to dock at "slack tide" to minimize the effect of the current. Sections of the AICW are still very shallow. We hit ground in the middle of the channel on Saturday. Dang it!

Our plan is to cruise through Charleston Harbor and head to an anchorage on the way to Georgetown on Wednesday.

Great little restaurant at the marina...

Harbour Town in the distance... you can barely make out the red and white lighthouse.

Visiting Friends

 Had a great time touring Savannah with our friends from back home, Martie and Doug. We took a trolley tour and walked all around the town hitting a few restaurants and famous sites along the way. Savannah is rich in history from both revolutionary and civil wars.

Made a quick visit to the beach on Tybee Island too.

Several films have been set in Savannah including "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". The Bonaventure Cemetery was featured in it.

 Forrest Gump  sat on a bus stop bench in Chippewa Square as he famously observed that "life is like a box of chocolates." The actual bench is on display in a nearby museum.

Ise Of Hope Marina - Savannah GA

 On Saturday we cruised 30 miles up the AICW to Ise Of Hope Marina in Savannah and had a wonderful day. Completely different than the day before. A big cruiser passed us going way too fast and throwing a huge wake in a narrow part of the channel as we entered Savannah. In a tortoise vs. hair turn of events, however, we ended up passing  him while one of Georgia's finest was ticketing him for his wake in a no wake zone. We smiled and waved as we passed. 

We will stay here for two weeks. Very, very pretty here and looking forward to exploring the area.

The Atlantic Intra Coastal Waterway has many different types of water. Sometimes you are in wide-open sounds that make you think you are in the ocean and then a few miles later you are in a ditch that, especially at low tide, seems too narrow to navigate.

Sunbury Crab Co (and marina)

 This funky little marina is famous for its restaurant more than its marina. When we called to make our slip reservation Elaine asked what time we wanted to eat dinner and seemed relatively unconcerned about the details of our boat. Turns out we were the only boat at the dock but the restaurant was packed! We had to have reservations. We feasted on shrimp, blue crabs and of course beer. After the day we had, more than one.

Brunswick to Sunbury Crab Co

 We stayed extra days in Brunswick to avoid forecasted storms. Very clever we thought but funny how things turn out. Never saw the predicated storms and left very early on Friday morning in beautiful weather and low winds. High tide, plenty of water, minimal current, yay! Sing it with us...

"But then the weather started getting rough... our tiny ship was tossed... the courage of the wide-eyed crew, was very quickly lost."

One hour into our 9 hour cruise in beautiful blue skies the winds began to roar. Long day in four foot seas to say the least but "the Bles-sing!" was a blessing and we safely made the trip landing at Sunbury Crab Co and Marina around 3:30. That's when more fun started. We worked with an under-trained dock hand for about an hour in a 17  to 30 mph cross wind to get her close enough to toss lines. Spare you the details... suffice to say our least favorite trip since the start of our adventures.

The Marina is located off the beaten path up the Medway River. Thought  it might be sheltered from the wind but... not the case.

Bad day on the Medway

Brunswick Landing

 We had a nice 5-day stay (Sunday night May 2nd until Friday May 7) at Brunswick Landing Marina and we passed this monster salvage operation just before landing in our slip. Know what it is? It is a slice of a giant cargo ship that capsized in nearby St. Simon Sound. Ship capsizes off of GA coast in Sept. 2019

So they are slicing it up and shipping out the sections one piece at a time. You can still see the cars it was carrying inside!

We had a good time visiting with other loopers and boaters in the boaters lounge during happy hour. Free draft PBR!  

Greetings From Georgia!

 We made it out of Florida! The 30 miles from Fernandina to Brunswick Landing Marina went smoothly on a high tide. Several boats went out in the ocean but we were glad to be on the ICW. It was rough enough. Planning on staying here at least four days maybe longer depending on the weather.

Fernandina

 We discovered another gem here in Florida. Fernandina is a terrific little town on Amelia Island that caters to tourists and boaters. It has a bunch of shops and restaurants and a very nice marina with the best dockhands we have encountered yet. These boys, 3 of them, were at the dock dressed professionally and had us tied up and plugged in before we could shut the engines down. Very, very nice.

The tides are as advertised. Pretty big, about a 7 ft swing from low to high.

High tide.

Low tide

Our cruise today will take us up the ICW to Brunswick GA through some shallow spots so we are waiting to leave on a rising tide around 10:30.

Diesel Angel

 We had a great time in St. Augustine and took in a lot of history on the Trolley Tour. Much more than we will ever remember. Saw the fountain of youth, statue of Ponce de Leon, old buildings, Flagler college, statue of Flagler, Casillo de San Marcos (the fort), cigar factories, house with a cannon ball in the wall, statues of the founder Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. Very cool place. We highly recommend it!

Friday morning we got up ready to head north again. The night before we decided we should get fuel and planned to leave at slack tide around 8 and stop in at the City Marina for fuel since we didn't think there was fuel at our marina. May not sound like a big deal but every additional stop is another chance to ram something accidently. Thinking about getting out of a narrow slip, navigating the river out to the main channel and stopping at a crowed city marina and then making 60 miles... we didn't sleep well.

Then he appeared. Our Diesel Angel. Through the morning haze Jane saw him first, a halo (or ball cap) around his head, a diesel nozzle as his trumpet standing there on our dock! She was of course afraid to speak to a real live Deity so I was elected to approach him. "Yes of course I can fuel you up." Yay! Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of fuel without leaving our slip! Fifteen minutes later we pulled out and headed to Fernandina Beach with one stop eliminated by grace.