May 10-17, 2010

Hilton Head and Savannah

It’s been awhile since I wrote – busy and then too tired. Grateful is in Charleston right now – Mark is in MN to go fishing with friends and my Mom is visiting Charleston with me.

Mark and I spent a very pleasant week in Hilton Head. It is all the good things you hear about it. There is a lot to offer for any interest. We stayed at the Palmetto Bay Marina which ended up being a good choice for us. It was quiet and had great walking areas for Porter – a park not too far away where he could be unleashed.

Our first evening there, we had dinner with Tony and Joan (m/v Destrier). We had spent some quality time in Mobile with them in November. It was fun to get together with good food (at the Black Marlin restaurant) and even better stories.

We rented a car for a couple of days. We toured much of Hilton Head and re-provisioned, but sadly I took no pictures. Mark and I were most impressed with the maintenance of the natural beauty of the island. By that we mean that it was difficult to find restaurants or shopping malls because signage was minimal and trees, shrubs, and flowers hid parking lots. Just lovely.

We also drove the 40 minutes to Savannah and toured that beautiful old city. General James Oglethorpe originally laid out the city in a grid pattern that included lush, green parks every few blocks. No matter where you are in the old city, there is an oasis within walking distance. The city is charming.

There is the capitol building at the end of “Bull” Street.

This house where Hollywood stars stay when visiting the city,

And other homes that were just beautiful – too many to publish them all.

This little building with original facade is now a Christmas store, but was originally a Ford dealership.

Another grand home that I placed in the wrong place and can't change

We stopped at this church – impressive both inside and out.

The fountain in Forsyth Park.

We enjoyed our day in Savannah and topped it off with what else but good food and chocolate. Yes, we found a wonderful chocolate store and purchased original pralines – among other things. We then went to Paula Dean and Sons restaurant for a late afternoon buffet lunch of good old southern cooking that included fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, mac ‘n cheese, cornbread and peach cobbler. Can’t you just feel your arteries clogging???

On Sunday, we were pleased to spend some time with Adam and Teresa (niece and husband). They arrived in Hilton Head to vacation for a few days. It is always good to visit with them.

May 5-10, 2010

Before I had a chance to tell you about Georgia, we had moved on to South Carolina! We aren’t traveling that fast – Georgia only has about 110 miles of coast line, but the ICW is approximately 140 miles because of the convoluted passage. So I will start with our trip from Fernandina Beach to Jekyll Harbor Marina and then our stay at Jekyll Island. Oh what the heck... I'll throw in the rest of the story just to be caught up. You all can read at your leisure.

Fernandina Beach to Jekyll Island, GA

Now this is the way to cruise. We were only going 32 miles so we could start out later. We were also gauging our departure and arrival times to take advantage of the tides. We are finding that the currents seem to be quieter at flood and/or ebb tide. Flood tide at Jekyll Island was 2:45 so we left Fernandina Beach at 11:00.

We were excited to pass by King’s Bay. This is a submarine base for the US. We read that when these subs enter at St. Mary’s Sound, often they are on the surface and throw huge wakes. Well, all we saw was the submarine dock – empty – and the patrol boat on alert. The ICW passes very close to the base and we saw a patrol boat start toward us right before we made our turn into the ICW channel. They definitely were ready in case we had continued straight.

We arrived at Jekyll Island Marina very close to our planned 2:45 and experienced no difficulty with the current. I suspect Mark’s great driving had something to do with this also.

Jekyll Island

What a pleasant stay we had at the Jekyll Harbor Marina, Georgia - a clean marina with accommodating staff and the first courtesy car since Mobile, Alabama. Our four days here were quite hot – high 80s to low 90s – and very humid – about 85%. The locals say this is pretty normal for this time of year.

I was captivated by this place as soon as I took Porter for a walk. The live oak trees were gigantic and bearded with Spanish moss. As we walked further the vines covering the trees created giant sentinals along the road. . Later we found a nature trail and both Porter and I were happy.

The marina has a restaurant on premises, Sea Jays, and we ate there with Edy and Lorne (m/v R-Hope) on Thursday evening. Of course we compared stories and because they are from the east coast, we asked lots of questions about what to expect ahead and good places to stay. (I haven’t been very good about carrying my camera with me so didn’t get a picture).

Friday we made reservations and played golf at Pine Lakes, one of the four courses on the Island. I am not a good golfer, but I enjoy the game – That day was better than normal and I almost broke under 110.

The marina shuttled us to the golf course and then after a lunch at the clubhouse, they came to bring us back. As we approached the marina office, our driver complained that a van was in the courtesy van parking spot, but then noticed that it was a florist van and said, “Well it is Mothers Day, after all.” This detail would not be something I would typically write about except that when we parked and were hauling our clubs back to the boat, the marina staff said that the flower delivery was for me!! I was very surprised that the kids found me, and my flowers and chocolates were fantastic – What a perfect day I had.

Did you notice that I didn’t mention Mark’s golf score? He’s starting to talk about quitting golf again. I hope not as I truly enjoy golfing with him. I told him before we go golfing again, that he needs to eat a good breakfast instead of the one he had :-)

Saturday we got the bicycles out and rode around the historic district. We stopped at the Jekyll Island Club for quick meal with tame squirrels in attendance. On this day there was a croquet invitational on the front lawn of the Jekyll Island Club. It didn't look much like the way we used to play it as kids.

We then rode around the beautiful “cottages” (now museums) that were on the island. These cottages were owned by influential bankers in the early 1900s who were eventually responsible for the Federal Reserve System that we still now have. Check out this article and the many others at this site.

http://www.jekyllislandhistory.com/federalreserve.shtml

Jekyll Island also has a sea turtle exhibit and hospital on the island – very interesting.

Jekyll Island to Kilkenny Marina to Hilton Head

We left Jekyll Island Sunday morning and cruised 70 miles to Kilkenny Marina. Originally, we had planned to break it up with a shorter stay, but we would have needed to travel a ways off the ICW and there was a questionable shallow spot on the charts that made us feel uncomfortable. There aren’t many marinas to choose from along this stretch of the ICW so Kilkenny became our next choice. There were mixed reviews about Kilkenny – some have loved the peace and quiet and the sky full of stars while others commented that they thought they heard the banjo pickin’ from “Deliverance”.

As it turned out, we liked this place. The people were friendly and dolphins came up the river to feed in the evening and there really was a sky full of stars. Also, since it was Mother’s Day and Sunday evening, we were entertained by the many fishing boats returning from the day and by the unique way of trailering the boats. The marina has a system that lifts a boat out of the water while its trailer was positioned under the boat. The boat would be lowered onto the trailer away they would go. Very efficient.

We were pleasantly surprised to have a fellow traveler come upstream and also stop at the marina. Tony and Joan (m/v Destrier) were looking for a place to anchor, but saw us and decided to stop. We met them in Demopolis and we were in Turner Marina in Mobile, AL during Thanksgiving. We did some brief catching up and then planned to stay in the same marina at Hilton Head. We love these kind of surprises.

Monday morning started out with Mark changing the fuel filters and by 8:00 we were off. There had been notices to mariners on line about several passages that were very low during low tide. We were trying to plan around the tides but we are not quite sure how long it would take us to travel the many twists and turns of the ICW. Because of the 8-9 foot change from low to high tide, there was plenty of clearance under the two bridges that would have typically needed to open for us.

However, the narrow cuts from one river to another became very shallow. Mark’s knowledge of river currents and where shoaling occurs came in handy for this leg of the trip and he kept us in the deeper water. We also had one local captain volunteer how to navigate a particularly tricky cut entrance -very helpful indeed.

For most of the trip our scenery was marsh grass with trees in the background. We had to laugh after cruising for 3-4 miles (half an hour), we looked across the marsh grass to see Kilkenny Marina – this is how the miles add up on the GA ICW.

As we neared Savannah we passed through towns with the names of Isle of Hope and

Thunderbolt,

and the homes became more plentiful and beautiful.

And there were plenty of dolphin sightings. Happy dolphins!!!

Finally we were in Hilton Head and the Calibogue Sound. As we crossed the sound, we saw Harbor Town Marina with their big lighthouse. We are not staying there, but rather Palmetto Bay Marina on Broad Creek. I just love lighthouses.

Porter continues to be well-adjusted to our new life.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

It's your special day so ENJOY!

I am so fortunate to have a mom who is also a good friend.

We have an appointment at the spa when you come out to Charleston.

Can't wait to see you!

Hugs & Kisses from both of us!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I am blessed to have Holly & Monica & Matt & Bryan in my life.

Thank you for being a part of my life and letting me be a part of yours.

Carol

May 4-5, 2010

St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach

Our last night in Florida was at Fernandina Beach. We had a long and hot (90 degrees and following wind) cruise from St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach. In fact, Mark took unusual measures (blue gel cool pack) to try to stay cool, but didn’t look so cool.

The farther north we have traveled, the greater the tidal change has been. It was about 5-6 feet in St. Augustine, and was 7-9 feet at Fernandina Beach. The docks lining this ten-mile, no wake canal near Palm Valley were evidence of the huge shift between high and low tides. We were passing these docks at near low tide, and noticed that some folks had rather ingenious dock designs.

As we crossed the St. John’s River – major inlet to Jacksonville – we passed before the tanker, Golden Energy, and under the bascule bridge. These two photos were taken by BeJay & Mike (s/v Carolina Moon). We are the little white boat......

I returned the favor and took a picture of them. We enjoyed dinner with them in Fernandina Beach at an Irish Pub – chicken pot pie - yummmmm.

Soon after crossing the St. John’s River we met this towboat and barge on the ICW. Mark was squeezing over to pass starboard to starboard and the captain hailed us to warn us that we were heading into a very shallow area. He told us to hold to the red marker and he would be able to get around us - Southern consideration. We were GratefulJ

Meanwhile Mark was really trying to stay cool, and really not looking cool!!

We arrived at Fernandina Beach around 2:45, took Porter for a walk and then the rain started at 4:00. Good timing. We only stayed one night, but the town is quite quaint and would be worth a longer look if we come back this way.

We have made it to Georgia – Jekyll Island! More on that later.