Big Tom Creek

Fog in Savannah Harbor

Saturday morning we left Savannah after purchasing some pralines and walking around a bit. It is now one of our least favorite places to dock. Commercial traffic was heavy during the night, sounding fog horns and creating sizable wakes. It was hard to sleep after about 4:30. There was a great deal of debris in the water, including a good sized log caught in the prop (not when it was running fortunately). And there are no amenities for the hefty price. I don't know what we were doing docking two nights in a row anyway. We are not marina cruisers after all. Savannah was luring us though and there were no apparent anchorage possibilities. The old town is beautiful, in spite of its less than great town docks. So many stately live oaks, cobblestone streets, park-like squares, and history. Too many tourists though.

Stately house along the ICW

So we motored on down the river and into the ICW with light winds, taking up with another catamaran along the way. Tom discussed all manner of cat stuff with them as we meandered through Georgia waters on a falling tide. They were off shore during the front that came through mid week and had 40 knot winds and 12 foot seas. I'm so, so glad we were heading in the Savannah River that night. They anchored with us here in Big Tom Creek. Great name, huh? We exchanged tours of each others boats. It was only fitting.

It should be another calm night tonight except for the tide shift. The tides are about 8-9 feet here. Maybe tomorrow we will head to Fernadina Beach in the ocean. Looks like a motoring event though. Light south winds predicted on the nose. Stay tuned.

Savannah, GA

We walked into town at Thunderbolt this morning, stopped for breakfast at a local place, then went to Piggly Wiggly, Home Depot, Radio Shack, and an auto parts store. We found several of the things on our lists of things we needed. The bad thing is that we had to lug the stuff we purchased at all those places back to the boat. On our way back, we came across a woman pushing a shopping cart with all of her purchases in it, and wished that we had one. Amazingly, she said she always brought one home with her from the grocery store and didn't feel bad about it because they sent a truck around the neighborhood to pick them up. And sure enough, we saw the truck with several carts loaded on it later as we continued walking, still wishing we had one.

So we took on some fuel and water and left the dock around noon, heading to Savannah, 12 miles up the river. No sooner had we turned into the river off the ICW then we had a call from an inbound river pilot saying he was heading in our direction and planning to meet an outbound ship coming down the river in about 10 minutes. So we were plodding along against the river current and fearing an encounter of an uncommon kind. You might say we were on high alert for 30 minutes or so. It turned out there was plenty of room in the river for all of us and all we had to worry about was the crazy wakes the two ships created when they met and passed us. But they sure were big and the river wasn't nearly as wide as you'd think.

River Street, Savannah

So now we are tied up to the city dock between a 65 foot yacht and a 105 foot yacht, feeling a bit small. It's a beautiful old town with incredible live oaks growing right along the river front but the accommodations leave a little to be desired. No showers or even a bathroom, and the internet sucks. And every boat that goes by (and there are many of them) rocks our boat. One huge container ship blasted his horn a number of times right next to us. Hopefully this will calm down by bed time. 

We have not been impressed with the Savannah River either. Not nearly what I expected. So tomorrow we're heading back off shore to Jekyll Island, I think.  It looks like the wind will be turning south after that so maybe the ICW will be back in our plans sooner than we thought.

Savannah, GA

Today we traveled through St. Helena Sound out to the ocean.  The forecast was for 5-10 k winds out of the NW, building to 20-25 in the afternoon with scattered showers possible.  It sounded like the perfect day for a SW sail down to the Savannah River. We thought we could be in the river by the time the winds got narly.  Well, part of that was correct.  It was 5-7 k most of the day but out of the west.  About the time we thought we might pull the jib out, either the wind dropped to nothing or it was too close to sail.  So we motored and enjoyed the sun and the dolphins frequenting our path.  About 5 miles after we got into the river, the wind built, but on our nose, the clouds rolled in, and eventually the rain started.  Tom saw a 31 k gust.  We decided to forego the full trip to Savannah (15 miles from the mouth of the river) and instead ducked into the ICW and docked at Thunderbolt, just missing a gigantic container ship coming up behind us.  It had stopped raining and blowing by that time so we didn't have to get wet tying up at the dock.  Showers, laundry, and internet are such nice amenities.

Which leads me to a discussion of some of the new amenities on the boat that we are really loving since our last trip.  First off, our windscreen.  How sweet it is not to have wind and rain blowing in your eyes and ears and everywhere else while you are trying to negotiate an unfamiliar channel.  It has been very helpful on these chilly morning in keeping us from freezing to death with the wind chill too.

Next up:  the solar panels.  They have kept our batteries in fine shape while we've been away from the boat this summer and now are adding to our available power while anchored off the shore power.  Great addition and we want more.

And last but not least: the monitor Tom added at the helm seat.  It is connected to our laptop inside at the nav station so we can view and adjust our chart plotter right from the helm rather than to go inside to check the route, etc.  We love it.  He still needs to run the wires into a protected box so it will be more permanent but, for now, we just make do with a few inconvenient wires.

After an exciting night trying to go out to dinner in Charleston ( I won't go into details except to say that we had trouble finding a place to dock our dinghy and wound up parking it next to somebody's wave runner ramp, and we had the most unusual bartender ever who gave us several "extras" for no reason whatsoever), we hauled up the anchor at 8:05 thinking we were getting a late start only to forget that we had a bridge to wait on that didn't open until 9:00.  So we sat in front of the bridge for 45 minutes.

After negotiating the bridge finally, we passed through a narrow cut with a raging tide against us and made a rousing 3.5 knots.  Later that day, we saw 9.2 on the speed scale as the tide switched directions.  Except for the tidal situation (they have BIG tides in SC and GA), we had a beautiful warm day motoring again through lots of marshland.  Shorts and T-shirt weather.

We anchored around 3:45 in Rock Creek with one other boat, a beautiful 37' Nordic Tug.  While we were listening to the weather, they hollered at us to come visit and so we packed up some cocktail hour goodies and headed over.  They were incredibly nice people and had a sweet boat and service dog named Mercy.  Gave us a tour of their boat (I've always loved the way these boats look and now I want one!!).   Later we dinghied them back to check out our boat.  John is a trimaran sailor.  Linda is a retired supply captain.  Anyway, we had a delightful evening with them, watched a gorgeous sunset and moonrise, and slept well in a very calm setting.

Charleston, SC!

 We haven't had internet for some time, thus the delayed postings.

Eagles that are hard to see

We're anchored in Ashley River on the west side of Charleston. It's a bit rocky and there's a little group of six small sailboats racing around between and around the boats anchored here. They are apparently student sailors as they have two power boats with them directing traffic. We stayed in the ICW again today due to the forecast of 8 foot seas offshore. It was a pleasant day inside on the water, motor sailing through miles of marshland. Saw eagles and dolphins.

Bridge to Mt Pleasant

Charleston waterfront

As we were not very busy, I was thinking about all the different personalities of sailors we have run across. There is quite a variety out here. While waiting on bridges or listening to the radio chatter, you begin to see a pattern develop. For example, there is always one guy who likes to lead the pack and radio friendly directions to others following in his wake. He has a great speaking voice which we imagine he has practiced a bit at home. He personally welcomes boats from other countries and never fails to issue courteous warnings regarding shoaling in areas that we might (but probably won't) come across. It's reassuring to know he is out there looking out for us. Kind of like a benevolent father figure.

Then there is the one who wants to get to the bridge ahead of everybody Not quite the same as the first personality type, you might say he is a bit pushy. This is usually a power vessel and you can somewhat excuse his behavior since you know he will move faster than you. But not always. Sometimes this is just a rude sailor and you have to just let him go and hope he gets his “comeuppence” sometime in the future.

We've also seen the exceedingly polite boat captain. He waits for you to go first, to the point of being a bother. “You go ahead.” “Oh no, after you.” “But you were here first.” Etc. etc. It can really cause delays in moving forward. The is the type that really bothers my captain a lot.

Finally, there are the boats traveling together in a pod. They talk among themselves en route, anchor together, party together, and are a little like the “in crowd” in middle school. You wonder if they are talking about you. You would like to be their friend but it's obvious they are not interested. This is the type that bothers me the most. I'm not going into the psychology of this.

There probably are lots of others but these are the ones that have come to mind today. Kind of like life at home I guess.

Georgetown, SC

We awoke this morning to the sound of water swooshing under the boat – the tide on its way out. Tom told me it was 6:00 and since I knew I couldn't go back to sleep, I got up, made coffee, and waited for dawn. I walked out on the deck listening to owls call in the woods near the boat. And waited. I watched a couple of fishing boats go out the channel with their spotlights on. And waited. I thought for sure the sun should be coming up by now. Finally the stars began to grow fainter and I saw light in the sky to the east. Boats near us were pulling up anchor. Tom came up on deck with the alarm clock in his hand. It is an atomic clock and supposed to change times automatically, but it didn't correct for the time change. So I had gotten up at 5:00, instead of 6. Oh well. I wouldn't have heard the owls otherwise.

So we left the anchorage with 4 other boats and motored into South Carolina – finally. It seemed we would be stuck in NC forever. Went through the bridges together same as yesterday. We picked up another catamaran part way through the day, making 6 of us in line. Took off layers of clothing as it got warmer and warmer. And entertained ourselves pronouncing the name of one of the French Canadian sailboats over and over, trying to replicate the way their French speaking friends pronounced it. The boat's name is Maga Jo, but it sounded so much better with a French accent.

The Waccamaw River which we traveled on today is wildly scenic. The trees have subtle Fall colors now. Turtles were lined up sunning themselves on all the fallen logs. We drifted around multiple bends in the river where the other boats disappeared and there was no sign of civilization anywhere. And there were islands of water hyacinths floating by periodically. One of my favorite spots on the ICW. We did get to sail briefly late in the day when the wind picked up on our beam in a wide, straight part of the river. With the current and sail we were making over 8 knots. Tom needed his sailing “fix” badly and the other catamaran was moving up on us from behind, so we added a little extra push to stay ahead.

Georgetown waterfront

And now we are anchored in another of our favorite places on the waterway – Georgetown. There are no alligators here this time around. I guess they are hunkered down somewhere. Our friends who were behind us on the dock at Carolina Beach during the “wind event” are anchored next door. It's a calm night so far.

Tomorrow we might head offshore to Charleston if conditions are favorable. And it's getting warmer every day.

A good day on the water

Today we left Joyner Marina and headed across the Cape Fear River on a falling tide. The water was calm and the wind was moderate. It was a fast trip down the river without any barge or other large craft encounters in the shipping lanes. It was quite cool, however, until after lunch when the sun came out from behind the clouds. There were several boats ahead of us because we were delayed leaving the dock. We wanted to wait until the boat behind us left to make it easier to get off the dock.

The wind was very flukey once we got back in the ICW, varying from 5 – 15 knots but mostly from the north. Had the jib out part of the time for a little assist when we had the current against us. All in all it was a pleasant day on the water but not very exciting. After the howling wind we have been experiencing, this was very welcome.

Pulled into Calabash Creek to anchor around 3:45. There were already 7 boats here taking up most of the good anchoring spots so we motored on up to the town to see if there was a better place. Nope. Back we went and dropped the hook behind the last boat in line in 11 feet of water. I think the tides here are around 4 feet so we should be good. It is a little close to the channel but it will have to do. Another boat came in after us and anchored partially in the channel. Hope no large fishing boats run into them early in the morning.

Two small cruise boats, looking very large on the ICW, pulled in from Little River Inlet and headed south. It appears they are casino ships that live nearby and (maybe) take a trip out in the ocean for an evening of gambling and come back to their sheltered spots for the night. The Myrtle Beach crowd I presume.

Really don't like going back to standard time. It is getting dark so early now.