Captain's Blog

  TRAVEL DAY 23 - Thunderbolt to Beaufort, SC March 29, 2023 6 Hours/46.1 Miles     We pushed on up the inland rivers and creeks making up the ICW and traversed out of the great state of Georgia and into South Carolina. The weather was beautiful and the wind was light but the temperature for us Floridians was a little cool at 62 degrees. Crossing the Savannah River     We moved up the Wilmington River crossing over the South Channel Savannah River and Savannah River main to see huge container ships steaming into the industrial portions of the city. The river is broad here but we only needed to "crab" across the incoming current to move north through Fields Cut. Hilton Head Harbor     We came to Hilton Head Island a little later on in the day. Even though the water temperature was a cool 68 degrees, there were numerous Parasailing boats crisscrossing the waterway.  Some Rollers and Spray     As we crossed the Broad River and another large...

  Savannah     After anchoring out for 3 days, it was time to recharge not only the batteries but ourselves. We spent the next 3 days in Savannah. So much to do here, it would certainly take longer than that.           We bought tickets for the Old Town Trolley Tour, the same company we did in St. Augustine. You can hop on and off wherever you like as you tour the city and you get to hear some history about the area, and in Savannah there is a ton of history.   Trolley Map     It's hard to see everything. We started at the Prohibition Museum in City Market. A very interesting an enlightening history of Prohibition in America from the passing of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, January 17, 1920 until the passing of the 21st Amendment, December 5, 1933, 13 years later. Prohibition Museum Carrie Nation, the infamous ax wielding Prohibitionist        We met up with another looper who passed us coming...

  TRAVEL DAY 22 - St. Catherine's Island to Thunderbolt March 24, 2023 5.1 Hours/39.7 Miles     We pulled anchor at 8:30 am with a destination just outside of Savannah. Yesterdays long travel day put us a little closer to today's target destination.  Newport River      We turned 90 degrees to port on the Ogeechee River through Hell Gate to Green Island Sound to the Vernon River. When you see "Hell Gate" on the chart you know you are going through an area that requires both hands on the wheel.  We traversed more marshes and as the waterway narrowed the shore line had more pines and oaks. It is amazing how much the landscape changes within just a few miles.  Pines and Oaks     Seeing the US from the water is absolutely incredible. Every stretch we do lined with homes reminds us we are traveling through the "backyard" of America. It is a totally different perspective and we cherish every minute at 7 mph.  Most sailboats we saw wer...

  TRAVEL DAY 21 - St. Simons Island to St. Catherine's Island March 24, 2023 6.9 Hours/54.4 Miles     Coastal Georgia has some incredible tide swings. Anywhere form 7' to 9' is what we have seen so far! This makes for a challenge when anchoring. Pulling into an anchorage with 11' of water at high tide could easily leave you on the bottom at low tide.  Creek upon creek     We traveled through a whole lot of nothing. Although the views were broad and extraordinarily breathtaking, we felt like we were lost in the middle of nowhere. We wove our way from river to river in a back and forth fashion. If it weren't for a reliable GPS and a well marked channel, we would surely be lost.  How in the heck did these cows get here?     The ICW is unique to other waterways in that the green markers are always toward the ocean and the red markers the shore. It is this way on both coasts of Florida and the eastcoast of the US. We followed the Magenta line on t...

    TRAVEL DAY 20 - Jekyll Island to St. Simons Island March 23, 2023 1.32 Hours/9 Miles     We were able to make a late departure from our quiet anchorage since we only intended to travel 9 miles to St. Simon's Island.  Small fishing boats everywhere in this anchorage     We decided to anchor out again saving us some dough for touristy kinds of things. We chose to anchor near Morningstar Marina where we could dinghy over to their dock and catch an Uber to St. Simons. There is a municipal dock that we could have used for free but it had a 2 hour limit, so we opted to pay what we thought was $5 and ended up as $20. I tried to negotiate a $10 tie with a $5 tip but the dockhand said she couldn't. Oh well. She did however give us the name of a driver at the marina that guaranteed he was cheaper than Uber, and he was. At $10 cash each way it was a deal, and we got to ride in a Maserati.  All of the docks here are long       We toured the...