Georgia Isles; Cumberland

11/11/2012 =>Georgia Isles, Cumberland Island

0900:  With not too far to go today, and having enjoyed the early morning bike ride yesterday, Mike and I set off for the local coffee store on our bikes…with a bit of a stop at the beach with salty!  Both of us are really starting to enjoy this island hopping!  Super excited to reach Cumberland today!!  I read up more on the island since seeing Night Music:  the island was once wholly owned by the Carnegie family.  They used the island as their summer retreat, eventually expanding their mansion numerous times, adding additional bldgs, stables, all the updated/modern at the time amenities.   In the golden era, this was “the” location to be.  They hosted many different embassaries, etc at their estate!  Unfortunately, the whole location caught on fire sometime in the 60’s.  The family chose to will the estate to the State of Georgia as a natural wilderness area:  no further building and the stables to be let loose to roam the island, hence the now wild horses.  The only way onto the island is by personal boat or a ferry.  We arrived at the anchorage by 1520.  The sun was just starting to set, but we were too excited to wait until tomorrow to start to explore!  We rowed ashore to the Cumberland Island Camping station.  You can really “rough” it at these sites:  a tent in the middle of huge Cyprus trees covered in moss, surrounded by tons of wild animals, no electricity, no running water sites.  The “path” directly to the beach is a dirt covered road of sorts with the trees drapping all around…and lots of horse piles everywhere, ha!  Salty didn’t know where to sniff first!

path to the beach

The sunlight filtering through the trees was simply amazing. The sound of the ocean roaring could be heard crystal clear all the way back at the anchorage, the place was already a favorite stop of mine in the first 15 minutes.  When the trees finally gave way to the beach, we had to walk along rolling dunes covered in wild grass and flowers.  Seriously, this place is amazing!  The beach itself is wide, flat with pure white sand.  Due to the lack of people traffic and constant surf, many shells wash ashore at every tide:  these are in perfect condition!  Conch, conk, huge scallop shells everywhere!  Both of us were looking forward to exploring the “ruins” of Carnegie in the morning…and seeing some wild horses!

11/12/2012   Georgia Isles, Cumberland Island

I am not sure when we got to shore this morning, just that the day was amazing!  The weather was warm, but a little overcast.  We set out to see the “ruins” at the south end of the island first, before rounding the southern end back to the beach. We saw some horses at the ruins, but not as close as I wanted.  Salty was going insane with them:  I am pretty sure she thinks they are just large dogs to play with.  As we walked, we saw an armadillo and a couple of wild turkeys too!  Poor Salty kept getting those spiky prickles stuck deep in her paws thoughL. 

Salty mets the locals

When we got to the beach, I must have collected about 20 shells before feeling bad about taking so many!  I ended up keeping only the ‘best’ of the bunch, cause really what the heck would I do with 25 conch shells?  Ha.  As we first approached the beach, we had our first close encounter with 3 horses:  they were just chilling at the entrance.  We watched them for a bit as they played with each other before continuing on.  Even more horses were just “relaxing” by the water; we got within 15’ of them before we felt invasive!  A little while down the beach, a little boy starts running full speed towards us:  its Ethan from Night Music!  He recognized Salty from down the beach and ran over to say hello!  We met up with Nick and Stacy for a bit as well.  They told us about a lady they met that morning who was celebrating her 70^th birthday by camping on the island..amazing!  Mike and I were ready to head back to the boat around 1400.  As we began to leave the beach, Salty ran ahead of us to make friends with a couple backpacking onto the beach:  it was the lady celebrating her 70^th!  We talked with her (she has led an amazing life) and she complimented my eyes and cheekbones, so heart her very much..:).

 

The Ruins

After refueling at the boat, Mike wanted to go back on the island to go to this shark teeth area:  Nick and Stacy had mentioned a location at the south end of the island perfect for sifting through the dredged sand for shark’s teeth and fossils. They told us we would have to cross tidal flats to get there…so okay, we went back to the island to find this location (I think mike is still upset about not finding anything in Solomens’)  We walked across the flats, but didn’t see what they talked about and headed back towards the water’s edge.  Mike was walking ahead of me when he started and turned around, hollering for me to hurry up and get closer to him.  That would have been easier without the dog pulling me through muddy areas, so alas I got to him “too late” to see what he saw:  a 10’ alligator sunning himself on the flats!  The gator ran into the water (thank lawd) as Mike approached, but I was still able to catch a picture of him swimming away!

Gator!!

As we walked along these flats, we noticed tons of clams poking up through the sand…as lovers of clamming in NJ, we thought this was too easy!  I looked up clamming on Cumberland, and yes, this was a good/allowable area to clam, if you have a license…shhh!!!!  Lets just say we went a bit overboard, but had a wonderful dinner that night!  Not happy with his search for these dredges, Mike attempted to walk along the water to the area he was certain Nick talked about.  He made it maybe 10’ before he quickly sank into the mud to mid thigh!  Of course, I laughed till I cried (horrible wife).  He finally got back onto hard land, minus one sandal and covered in stinky tidal mud.  After that he was done:  poor man had to walk one foot bare the mile and a half through the woods (don’t forget all the horse poo!) to the dinghy. 

hahahahahahaha!!!

That night we seriously debated about staying another day at Cumberland, for we had yet to explore the northern end of the island:  a tidal swampland…seriously!  But something told us we should move onto Florida…

Georgia Isles: Blackbeard, Simon, & Jekyll

11/07/2012 =>Georgia Isles:  Saboo Island/Blackbeard’s Island

0830; Dear lawd, its soo cold!!  My phone is stuck on its home screen for NJ weather, and I promise you its only 10 degrees warmer up there than here!  Not to mention, I am on a sailboat with no heat, ha!  Today we set out for Saboo Island, also known as Blackbeard the pirates’ homebase; not sure what to expect!

1330:  We dropped the hook in the anchorage…and saw..nothing!  Trees lining both coasts and an empty ferry dock.  We rowed to shore to explore (and let Salty take a walk).  Immediately, the island gave us the creepy, scary movie feel:  narrow road over marshes into deep forest, empty rusting out cars lining the sides of the road, no humans, no animal sounds! Further down the road we encountered a street sign for a wildlife refuge on the island, maybe that is where all the quiet is from…doesn’t explain the cars though! 

creepy island

 11/08/2012 =>Georgia Isles:  St Simon’s Island (anchorage)

0900; Georgia’s stretch of the ICW is renowned for being shallow/shoaling/misleading markers…basically it’s all sorts of messed up.  We were to cross a particularly tricky area called Mud River.  We planned it correctly to reach it just before high tide, which for once this trip what we planned to achieve actually worked out!  We crossed some 11’ areas, which if it was low tide would mean 4’ or less of water, insane! 

1530; As the days are getting shorter and shorter, we decided to anchor just outside a marina in St Simon’s to take advantage of the whole day of paid dockage the next day.  We rowed into the marina for showers and reservations for the next day.  The marina is host to many large boats, both sail and motor.  We came across a HUGE 100’ cruiser named Bolero.  Our boat was originally named Boloreo, so of course I mentioned to Mike that this was supposed to be the boat we bought!  Ha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11/09/2012 =>Georgia Isles:  St Simon’s Island (marina)

0730: we wanted to get into the marina bright and early!  They offer use of their courtesy car for 2 hours and we desperately need to restock the boat!  I was excited to see a Harris Teeter located on the island!  We ran in there with high hopes of good quality with lower prices, and our hopes were quickly dashed L.  Upset with the cost, we moved onto the other 2 grocery stores with a bit more success.  Both Mike and I are amazed at the high price of groceries in the south!  I guess we just figured it would be cheaper than up north. 

When we got back to the boat, I watched a 38’ sailboat come into the dock behind me.  We had just gotten our bike/Salty cart out for a bike ride.  As the boat tide off, a little blond boy hoped off with his father onto the dock.  He looked over at our boat and the bikes and got immediately excited:  “Dad!  They have a kid on their boat, look”…sadly, I realized he was talking about Salty’s kid cart!!  Haha!  Mike and I helped them finish tie off and introduced ourselves.  The boat’s name is Night Music, the couple are Nick and Stacy.  Along with their 4 yr old son Ethan, they have been travelling for the 8 months from Tennessee!  Insane to think about doing this with a ¾ yr old! 

We packed up our “child” and began our bike ride around St Simons.  The island has a main bike trail through/along the major roads to all the main attractions:  Main Street, beach, shopping, etc.  We took the trail to the Main Street to hit up the Lighthouse and fun stores (junk stores are soo fun to walk into!). 

It has been forever since we have done our cruising “duty” of getting ice cream at every port, a problem I felt we needed to rectify instantly!  A really cute and homemade ice cream shop was just the ticket!  Mike fell in love with their Root Beer Floats while I indulged in homemade Praline ice cream!  So good! 

After dinner, we met up with Night Music for some drinks and conversation!  They have an interesting life being full time cruisers with a 4 year old!  As the only “stop” we had planned in the Georgia Isles was our next location, Stacy suggested Cumberland Island afterwards for a real “wild” forest beach with wild horses!  Of course I want to go!  They have already gone north on the ICW and were traveling back South in hopes of making it to Grenada, so they know all the good stops!  They too have run aground, but the scary kind:  they showed us pictures of the boat sitting on its side in about 2’ of water!  I would have freaked out and been hitching a ride with whatever boat passed us by!  

11/10/2012 =>Georgia Isles, Jekyll Island

0800:  Woo Who!  Fresh muffins and the daily paper delivered to our boat this morning!  Awesome J.  We took a quick ride to drop off our Red Box rental this morning before setting off the dock!  Early morning bike rides, sans Salty are quite nice!  Not to mention the weather is starting to feel more like GA in the fall than NJ in the winter!  Yea!!! I think I may even wear shorts today, ha!  Our trip to Jekyll Island was not far at all!  We left at 1200 and arrived at the anchorage around 1300.  The island has 1 marina and 1 anchorage:  the anchorage is not rated highly and has many moored boats (heard this one before).  After searching for a good spot, we realized we are too far from the dinghy dock!  There was a little bit of a beach not far, so we decided to “skip” the island, only going to row to the small tree lined shore to let Salty out later.  Unfortunately, the anchorage had other ideas.  Mike and I went to take naps/read and by 1500, we were already dragging anchor into the ICW channel…great…We called the marina for a space and pulled in a long face dock:  this dock set up reminded us of  Delaware City with lots of transient sailboats all lined up end to end.  Plus side, being in the marina entitles us to their courtesy bikes, pool and…hot tub J!!!  With only about 2 hours of daylight remaining, we quickly hoped onto the bikes to go explore as much as possible!

old 40's style manions and bike paths

Salty likes the beach here

After dinner, it was still semi warm…so hot tub!!  Was wonderful to sit and relax (and not freeze outside!)

Savannah!!!!!

11/01/2012 =>Turner Creek, GA

0800:  According to all weather reports, today was to be a perfect day for crossing the bay and heading into Georgia!!!!!!!!!  Our boat was getting a bit aromatic (happens when at port for 7 days) and needed a good pump out.  Mike sent me to the store to get coffee and some sammies, while he attempted to leave dock and redock at the pump solo:  I am proud of his ability to do so (everyday getting closer and closer to that extra anchor, me and salty “disappearing”) however, he kinda/maybe/sorta/definitely permanently deflated one of our fenders (oblong inflated rubber bumpers that are used for “fending” or bouncing boat off of piers/docks, etc.).  He wont talk about it with me, but my guess is I am still needed~ ha!

We have a day to kill before going into Savannah.  There are a couple of really good marinas/anchorages right south of the city proper…and since we were at dock for so long, figured to anchor and save some mola before heading into the city!  We got to Turner Creek around 1500.  The designated anchorage is very narrow:  partially inside the actual small channel and very close to power lines only set at 35’…We are anchor shy after Charleston and like chickens, opted to instead go into this very tiny, very rustic marina…the only thing this marina had going for it was the Publix literally in the same parking lot.  Unfortunately, as we were going to be with friends and in a city the next couple of days, reprovisioning was out…and I still felt like crud.  Mike and Salty went for a couple walks that afternoon/night, but I stayed huddled up in the front berth with 10 layers of cloths on, taking the happy pill, and sleeping:  hoping to all that is holy I would recover tomorrow to enjoy our friends in Savannah! 

11/02-05/2012 =>Savannah…and slamming hangovers

Savannah has been a goal for us since the beginning of this trip;  we loved our very fast time here last March and our great friends Tim and Janelle Sandberg live in Atlanta…they agreed to meet us in Savannah when we finally sailed there!  As if that wasn’t incentive enough, our NY great friends Juli, (Mike) Kerr, and (Mike) Lupo also were to be joining us!  Kerr and Lupo’s flights that Thursday were cancelled:  and STILL they wanted to come down (road trip).  Juli’s flight that Friday morning into ATL was still scheduled…random NYC! 

Savannah has 3 options for dockage in the city proper; City docks (first come, first serve), City Market Docks, and the Westin (located across the river, but they have a free ferry).  Our first (and cheapest) option was the City Docks…however we assumed as it was a weekend with a major event (Rock and Roll Marathon), we would be unable to get a spot…so called the City Market, right below the City Docks.  The dock master strongly urged us, as a boat our size, to NOT dock there/city docks, and go to the Westin…well, okay…so we made reservations…As we sailed closer to the City Docks…just to check them out, we noticed only one boat at a 200’ dock…and decided to just screw the reservation at Westin and pull in!  The thing with this area:  you are on a major shipping channel, and thus will be passed by GINORMOUS ships…like 6 story tankers, fully loaded with truck freights (or whatever you call those things that go on MAC trucks)…to say I wish our 3^rd bumper was hale and hearty would be an understatement.  Within 45 minutes of being docked, a big freighter went by; at one point, I thought the boat would be on top of the floating dock due to the wake!  Ha!  And the current is INSANE, again think the East River..and tie off to a small dock there…but alas, we were happy to be soclose to all the downtown awesomeness!  Right on River Street, actually! 

I had called ahead and made reservations with a reputable Dog Daycare/Boarding place for Salty.  I figured it would not be fair to her to stick her in the boat all day/night while we were out partying!  Animals Resort has the best reviews, and what looked like the best facility (she was getting her own room, with a car bed and a tv…seriously)..However it was a bit of a journey to get there.  We set out of the boat to walk the long way to drop her off.  We contacted Kerr and Lupo:  they were staying at the Holiday Inn right across from us! They wanted to take the journey with us…little did they (or I) know true distance…or the interesting neighborhoods we would walk through to get there!  Haha!  Plus side, we have know seen ALL the parts of Savannah, good or …scary… (thank you both for taking that…amazing journey with us J)  Once Salty was in good hands, I felt like our crazy weekend of Southern Hospitality and Friends could begin!!! 

Janelle, Tim and Juli joined us around 1600!  So excited and happy to have our friends with us!!!  The Sandbergs have never seen the You & I, so of course we needed to show off J.  After a proper viewing, we all went in search of some grub and night life!  I will skip over some of the happenings that night, but you can always ask one of us for stories in person! Ha.

The Savannah Crew

Saturday was set for recovering from Friday night, eating some more good food, and walking around the many squares/parks in Savannah…and I dragged Jules and J to an old cemetery (love these things).  MORE drinking, eating, laughing, joking, etc throughout the night!  And I mayyyy have been a little pushy about taking a Pickle Back Shot J!  We had a blast!

Pickle Back Shots...bad idea

Sunday….dear lawd!  OWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha.  We met back up with the crew; Lupo and Kerr were heading out early for their 13 hr drive home.  Juli’s flight wasn’t until the next day, so we all got brunch in the city market.  Thanks guys for also driving us to pick up the Salt!

After our crew all left, Mike and I decided to hang out for one more night (sooo hurting!)  We were able to set up a dinner reservation at Lady and Sons, the restaurant owned by Paula Dean!  Sunday’s are buffet only, which was great for us, as that was what we wanted anyway!  The food was awesome…but everything and I mean EVERYTHING was covered/drowned/infused with butter…that was fried in butter, then steeped in more butter…but seriously, soooooo good!

11/05-06/2012 =>Isle of Hope and Kilkenny…

Many, many cruisers have mentioned to us to stop at Isle of Hope after Savannah…and we are still trying to figure out why!  We anchored outside the only marina…paid the 11.00 pp for a shower and quasi use of the facility…the walk to the only grocer was very long and down some very shady (no sides to the narrow streets) and not safe!  We grabbed some food to make for dinner and pretty much holed up in the boat for the night (got cold again too!)

The next morning, Mike had planned to meet up with some friends of his grandparents outside their neighborhood in Kilkenny Creek…Awkward moment is when you call said friend of the family, and they have no idea who you are, ha!  Kilkenny Creek is truly in the middle of nowhere Georgia…and a bit scary!  The temp continuously kept dropping all day and into the night; both of us were shivering by 2000.  Mike and I had a long discussion about our trip/ourselves all the while listening to the Presidential Election results on AM radio.. The results are we will be stopping soon, heading back home…but will have to research where the best location for that will be…not to mention we HAVE to at least make it to Florida!  Ha.

 

Hilton Head Island

10/25/2012 =>Hilton Head Island, SC

0830:  the decision has been made…or rather Sandy made it for us!  Mobileweatherundergound.com/accuweather.com/windfinder.com all are predicting the same thing:  massive winds and high surf well into next week due to Hurricane Sandy (the bitch!)  The N wind was already picking up this morning as we pulled anchor and headed for the fuel dock!  In fact, attempting to dock the boat at the dock was a wonderful challenge this morn; 2 circles, a smashed finger (it’s a lovely black with some hints of purple surrounding the nail),a  bleeding knee, and 3 splinters in a foot later, Mike finally left the cockpit to start the process of the refueling (it’s good to be captain, I tell ya!) Salty and I went for a walk down the docks onto the Beaufort walk.  As we passed the boats docked there, we saw Galileo (last mention from dismal swamp/Elizabeth city area) and Windaway, both docked end to end of each other!  After our walk, as I was going back onto the docks, I see Mike about to walk towards the boats of our friends.  I yelled out to get his attention:  I already had a plan!  We ran back to the boat:  I grabbed one of our designated bottles of wine (we bought 4 for this purpose) and made 2 different notes!  The first was to go with the wine for Windaway as a “thank you for saving our boat!” and a quick little note for Galileo saying hello!  We left our wine bomb and note and headed out (needed to make sure we were still with the tide) to a hopefully protected anchorage or marina at Hilton Head Island.  I had researched an anchorage and a marina within short distance of each other at the island.  Our plan was to see the anchorage, if it would be good for the night of high N winds before moving into the marina for the passing of Sandy.  As we crossed the sound into the Hilton Head Island passage, the wind started blowing hard from the NE…and while the weather was sunny, the rocking and bouncing made for a very, very uncomfortable ride (Salty was forced into her lifevest and stowed in the main cabin…she hates this btw).  As we got the desired anchorage…well, at 1300 the boats moored there we already rocking and rolling!  Imprudent descion to move onto the marina was made.  The marina is called Shelter Cove (a good sign) and offered a “stay 2 nights, get one free” deal, so while the initial price per sq ft was higher than we liked, it ends up working itself out!  Best part of this place, unbeknownst to us, is that it’s actually owned by Disney…ha!  Disney’s Hilton Head Resort operates the marina!  I can now say I have stayed at a Disney Vacation Resort! Woot wooo! Ha!

Hilton Head Island

As we docked, the 48’ trawler owners came out to help with our lines.  They are a couple from Rhode Island (Block Island!) who were slowly moving south, restocking for the past month at this marina.  We could hear the wind starting to howl, so obviously decided to go to the beach! 

HHI is very bike friendly:  the whole island contains paved bike paths, sometimes along the road, sometimes through the woods.  This is the best way to get around the island, I think anyway!  We hoped onto the bike trail leading to the beach.  We had heard from our neighbors at the marina that the sand on the beach was compacted so much to allow for one to ride their bike along the shore line…and that we did (with salty in tow,  of course) 

Spoiled Dog

 

As the winds were predominately from the NW at the time, the beach felt rather calm…minus the insane waves and grey skies.  We rode down the beach quite a ways to the main strip of stores/restaurants, mainly to just walk around and enjoy the scene.  On the way back, we stopped at a gas station store…and bought our first RedBox movie rental.  We were super excited to go back to the boat and do NOTHING but watch our movie!  That night the temperature started to drop and the wind got even noisier, but we felt barely a push in the boat.

10/26/2012 =>Sandy comes along:  HHI

0830:  the decision has been made…or rather Sandy made it for us!  Mobileweatherundergound.com/accuweather.com/windfinder.com all are predicting the same thing:  Hurricane Sandy is to cross 20 miles from us this night.  Severely high winds (50 mph) and rough seas (excess of 10’ swells) combined with the high tides to hit around 2000.  As the morning progressed, the howling of the wind intensified, but again, we were in a very safe harbor!  In fact, the marina’s resort surrounded the marina on all sides, with restaurants/shops at the ground level: not one of which bothered to bring in their merchandise or outdoor seating!  We talked to our neighbors to the port (large trawler) early in the morning about having a cocktail party around 1700, and shortly before we set off to explore some more of the island, our neighbor to starboard came over to say hello!  His name is Nick (think of a cross between Drew Carry and our friend Dave Tannenbaum), he lives aboard his 28’ motor boat…which his cat!  He is one of the rare liveaboards, in that he actually has a job…and a condo on the island.  He chooses to rent out the condo and live in the marina…kind of a cool life style!  He offered to let us use his internet, as he pays so much for it but rarely ever goes on; SWEET!!  I quickly logged onto the computer to set it up; perfect signal! 

At encountered much the same as the day before:  overcast, windy, and a bit rougher seas.  The temp was dropping though, so I made Salty wear her sweatshirt!  Our hurricane Happy Hour aboard the 48’ trawler was very nice!  Nick even came in, and we were able to talk to all about our travels/their travels.  I can tell you though…the galley in that boat was bigger than the Bedford Place’s!!!  They even had a washer/dryer AND dishwasher!  So jealous!  Flatscreens are a perquisite in these puppies too!  Both Mike and I decided we shall def have one sometime in our future…nevermind that as soon as it starts, it burns more gas than we use in a month, the boat has HVAC!   

10/27-30/2012 Hilton Head

The resort has a deal:  stay 2 nights, get the 3^rd free…so we took advantage of it.  Weather was still insane in wind and seas enough for us to feel safer at the marina.  Most days, we just explored the island on our bikes with the occasional stop at the Piggly Wiggly.  Nights however turned colder and colder:  we got down to 36 degrees for 2 nights in a row!  I am not completely sure why (36degree nights with wind in a non heated space mayyyy have been the cause) but I got evil sick!)  I am prone to sinus issues, and as such have enough prescribed medication to choke a horse, but I still got a severe fever, cough, swollen glands, and achy!  Both Mike and I dreaded the flu attaching itself to me!  I was hesitant to take my “happy” pill (a crazy antibiotic my doctor gave me only 5 of before leaving, to combat my crazy attack of the heads) due to its strong side effects; nausea, sleepiness, and the random “you may do drive a car, make food, eat food, have intercourse, wander the streets..” and not remember….Can you imagine if I decided to take a walk around HHI!! Ha.  We had no choice however.  Mike closed me into my bunk with a bucket for the night, while he stayed on the couch in case I decided to become a culinary expert or take a midnight bike ride!  It’s amazing how well those pills work; by morning, I was covered in sweat (fever broke) and the glands were back down to a slightly larger than normal size!  Still felt horrible, but …what else does one do when getting over an illness but take a 6 mile bike ride to Wal-Mart!  Ha.  (I was running out of box wine).

We left Salty at the boat for this ride, Mike not wanting me to have the added stress of her and to take my sick a$$ out to lunch somewhere warm.  The ride back was great!  We rode to the closest beach and let the wind push us home!  Honestly, I could put my feet up on the center bar and still keep going without peddling!

Puppy free ride!!

Much of our nights during this time period were spent watching and listening for Sandy as she ripped up the North.  Both of us were glad to have been in safe harbor, but at the same time wish we could have been home:  Jersey City flooded last year with Irene, we both thought our condo would be washed out by the runoff coming down Waldo.  Our thoughts and prayers were with all our family and friends, their homes…B elatedly, we remembered we still own another sailboat!  We hope Sly John stayed right where we left him: next to Nan’s house on a lagoon at Barnegat Bay.

10/31/2012 =>attempt to leave HHI…

0900;  Its SOOOOOO cold!  I am slowly getting better…but this bitter cold is NOT helping.  I am in SC for goodness sake!  Our deal with the marina was up, and we wanted to move onto Georgia so decided to leave…ha.  As we entered the main waterway, a huge wave hit us on the portside…fun!  We knew it was either turn around or grin and bear it for an hour to another marina south, at the tip of HHI…so we just went through (salty went below).  We pulled into Harbortown Marina at HHI around 1030.  If you have a lighthouse picture of HHI in your head, it’s from this marina/golf course/beach area.  The lighthouse sits right at the entry of the marina.  Like the Disney place, this is surrounded by stores/restaurants, etc….including a little convenience store (coffee!).  Also, upon registration, we received a bunch of discounts to local places and a bottle of wine..so, aside from Cape May this is my new favorite stop! 

Hilton Head Lighthouse

As it is my favorite holiday, I dressed up Salty in her “Go Navy” sweatshirt and put my sailor hat on her…she promptly turned her back on us and refused to even glance our way…so I switched out the sailor hat for my panda winter hat…she was much more apt to sit for pictures.  A neighboring boater came over to talk to us briefly, as well as unload a bag of fun size candy (milky ways, snickers, etc)…sweet! Ha.

Salty as a "sexy" Panda

 

As we were relaxing with our new “free” bottle of wine, Mike received an email from our yacht club:  the photos of the devastation to the yacht yard where amazing and extremely sad!  Boats were thrown all over each other, broken apart, some even up on the cliff!  The bathhouse, locker rooms and storage building were reduced to nothing (what happens when 30’ sailboats come off their land jacks and just float around…).  We saw pictures of the Amory, where we held our wedding reception and across the parking lot of the club; ground floor windows/doors blown out, the outdoor area completely gone!  Our renter in Jersey City held threw the storm, saying the backyard fence between us and the next bldg was done, but that was it.  We considered ourselves lucky, but were anxious to hear from friends/family about their well being.

At the same time, we were also waiting to hear about flights in/out of NYC.  Some of our besties’ were to be meeting us in Savannah come Nov 2^nd! 

Steamboat (Mickey) and Beaufort

10/22/2012 =>Steamboat Creek

Salty hiding in the "shade" on the passage

Today is a pass-through day; just travelling through the ICW to an anchorage when we feel like stopping!  By 1600, we were ready to drop the hook!  The closest location was a place called Steamboat Creek, truly in the middle of nowhere!  Ha. There was a little dinghy ramp and dirt road to land Salty on, so we were able to take a walk up the road for a bit!  That night we had some more dolphin visitors, but that is about as exciting it got!  A nice relaxing day for us though, is boring for readers however…ha. 

10/23/2012 =>Factory Creek, Ladys Island SC

0900:  We landed Salty at the dinghy dock and I went for a solo, much needed run!  We were going to be pulling close to 8 hrs today, so Mike founds it very prudent to let Salty (and me) off in the morning!  As approached Beaufort, SC we decided to anchor across from the city itself on Ladys Island, in Factory Creek.  The anchorage is rather tight, but close to a food store, as well as West Marine, which we need to hit up!  …and since Publix sucks with meat prices, decided to get some pizza from the local place…Southern pizza test, round 2!  It’s getting better! Ha.  In the morning, we will move into the Beaufort Anchorage area to start exploring the city of Beaufort! 

 

10/24/2012 =>Beaufort, SC (anchorage)

We got through the 9am Ladys Island Swing Bridge and into the Beaufort anchorage!  As we anchored, we notice the boats all swinging in odd ways!  Being chicken from last anchorage (Charleston…) we waited for the next tide change before leaving the boat…and watched the boat off our portside come infront and move laterally across our boat to end at our starboard!  This made us so freaking nervous!! Ha.  We pulled anchor and went further away from the field!  Charleston really did a number on our confidence! When we finally felt comfy, we headed into the townJ.  Beaufort is a cute town, very old and quaint!  I am sure further than the 15 blocks inland it gets more commercial/box-like, but from our point of view, the area looked untouched from the civil war era!!  I had read about one of the graveyards (learned in Charleston:  a graveyard is for a religious burial ground, cemetery for non secular) in town being from the orgin of Beaufort; in fact, became a military field hospital (the above ground graves) during the civil war…so of course I wanted to see this!  Both Mike and I were amazed (in a respectable way) at seeing the many graves marked with a Civil War Vet/Killed in Action icons.  In the North, minus Gettysburg, I have never seen an icon for this war before and was amazed!  Most we saw were survivors of this war; which lead to us wanted to have talked to know how they lived afterwards!  Sounds weird, but it’s such an interesting time on US’s history, all politics aside just military/naval aspects alone!

memorial to Confederate War Vet

After walking around for about 4.5 hours, we were tuckered out (Salty too!) and getting lazy! Ha.  We still have to another 2ish hours until tide change (helps to row with the tide) and were hungry!  A very nice man at the dingy dock earlier that day, had 1-mentioned that he saw us in Georgetown, but that there is a good burger/bar place with free wifi! So we sought this place out:  happy hour with ½ priced burgers!!! WOOOO!  4.50 for a burger/fries and 1.00 tap beers!  Right up our alley!  Salty was even given a huge bowl of ice water!

When we headed back to the boat at near sunset, she was still parked where we left her! Woo!  Our plans for tomorrow are…up in the air!  We know a hurricane is a’coming, but with the way weather can change so quickly, especially depending on the sea, we are not sure of what course to take!  We have to wait till at least 0800 for the fuel dock at Beaufort Marina to open, so I guess will check the weather again then!

 

Charlie's town and runaway boats!

10/20/2012 =>Charleston, SC (anchorage)

This morning brings another milestone for us:  Charleston!  We left Prince Creek at 0750, with hopes of getting into Charleston by 1100/1130…but first we would have to make the last swing bridging into Charleston on time..We were late…again, but the bridge let us come through anyways!  We passed that first hurtle at 1100…now onto the second!

Charleston is an old city, which means an old port.  There are 2 marinas, one huge one located just outside the city’s main anchoring field, the other just north of the downtown area.  The huge one has a dinghy dock for those anchored out in the field…Both Mike and I had read many, many reviews about this anchorage:  most were that the location is excellent, but the atmosphere is not.  The anchoring area contains derelict boats, some at moorings, some partially sunk, and some washed ashore…all not a very telling visual.  Many of the reviews on activecaptaion.com stated loosing an anchor:  it would become stuck on the debris at the bottom of the area.  They all suggested using an anchor trip line to help retrieve the anchor when you are ready to leave. For whatever reason, I was not feeling to anchor there.  I called the 2 marinas:  both were booked until the following morning…shoot, we would anchor anyway!  We chose what we felt was a good spot:  we passed our friend Kissimmet and our pirate friend so figured if they were here, we should be safe!  We dropped anchor (and trip line).  We sat on the boat for close to 2 hours to monitor her holding:  she was sound!  I still felt weird and knowing the row would be insane across channel, took Salty with us in our exploration of Charleston for the day. 

We planned on walking along the waterfront to the downtown area:  something we didn’t do when visiting last April.  We passed many huge old houses and explored White Point Garden, one of the original battery/gun locations from pre civil war days (or I should say “the war”, there is only one down here.) As we meandered around the downtown area some more, we both became ravenous!  While looking for a place to eat that would be dog friendly, we stumbled upon a take out place located next to its main restaurant:  Hymen’s.  Unbeknownst to us, this is “the” place to get good southern food in Charleston!  The line for the restaurant was out the door, but we were hitting up the express, so just had to wait for our food to be done!  I decided to get shrimp and grits, which came with fries, coleslaw and hush puppies for 6.00!  Mike got the low country chowder and a seafood Panini.  Once we had our goodies, we went in search of a place to devour the food…and devour we did!  Those hush puppies were fried bits of heaven!!!  And my shrimp…mmmm…so good, and soooo bad for you!  We explored some more, even managed to watch some of a adult league rugby game (Mike’s first experience with the game)  but then started the long way back to the boat:  we knew we would be stuck on her for the rest of this night, as the tide would have changed to get us back to the boat…and we didn’t want to fight it to come back out.

At the dinghy dock, as I am taking the line off the cleat, I see a note tucked onto the cleat: “We have found a O’Day center cockpit dragging anchor down the channel.  We placed her across from the Coast Guard Station, please call”.  I quietly hand the note to Mike.  He reads it, and is like what?  I run up the dock to look out towards the Coast Guard Station, use my zoom from the camera to see  a boat at anchor:  our boat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Mike calls the number listed.  The guy is a fellow anchorer and they saw us leave earlier, after securing the boat came to drop the note off on our dinghy so we wouldn’t row out to the field.  He didn’t seem made, mentioned that he thinks the anchor line pulled out keel when the tide changed, hence the pulled anchor…ok..

With rapidly beating hearts, we head off to our boat!  Nothing can describe the feeling of seeing your boat not where you left it, about .75 miles away, and only .25 m from the Savannah breakwater…with the current running that way!  We board the boat, expecting to find some more notes about how idiotic we are, ect.  A guard at the Coast Guard station yells out to us: we thought we were in trouble for the boat being so close to them!  But he just wanted Mike to verify who he was, and that we were indeed the owners of this run away boat…the guard did holler “you should put more line out next time”…yea, it took a lot for mike to not say anything back to him, as we did put enough line out!  Both of us were ashamed and embarrassed!  We knew both the marinas were full;  we had nowhere else to go but back to the anchorage!  With heads hung low, we motored back over to the field, expecting the other boaters to point and laugh at us!  I was at the helm while Mike was about to drop the anchor again when “You and I, You and I, this is WindAway, over” came across the radio.  I grabbed the radio and replied back.  Windaway advised us to NOT anchor where we were at the time..Mike grabbed the radio from me and started talking to Phil:  Kissemet, WindAway, and 2 other boats we never met saw us dragging down the channel, got into their dinghy’s (with motors) and as Mike says, became the “super cruisers” to rangle down a runaway boat!  When they reset our anchor, they found a large piece of metal attached to the trip line:  the freaking trip line got stuck on some wreck at the bottom.  When the tide changed, the trip line stayed where it was, hitting the keel in the swing.  The trip line pulled the anchor up, hence the runaway boat!   We then try to find another good spot to anchor, this time closer to the bridge:  with the view of a ketch half sunk, its 2 mast sticking out of the water we hesitated to drop the hook here as well!  Again, over the radio “you and I, this is Kissemet, over”.  He advises us to not drop hook here, our other boat rescuer already lost his anchor there this morning (meaning it is stuck on something at the bottom and there is no way to pull it up), the boat also lost its chain, as the whole thing broke off!  Not sure what to do, we ask Kissemet if we can anchor near him, his reply “No, don’t come near us, my anchor is stuck.  I will have to cut it loose in the morning when we leave”.  WTF!  2 anchors and a runaway boat!!!  When we finally did drop the hook again, the sun had completely set, like it or not, we were staying put (hopefully) were we were….many, many drinks later we stayed up for the tide change, and didn’t go cruising down the river this time!  We barely slept though that night, constantly waiting up from every noise or wake movement thinking we were drifting!

10/21/2012 =>Charleston, SC (maritime marina)

By 0700, we headed over to the downtown side marina, hoping they would have a space available for us that early in the morning!...and they did, thank the Lawd!  I could have kissed the floating dock, I was so happy to be “moored” to something!!! After settling into the marina (staff was very cute, fyi!), walking salty, showering, and making much deserved pancakes, we again set off to explore Charleston, sans Salty this time.  Boht of us very much wanted to see Fort Sumter!  You can only get there by boat, and through one company.  We thought it would be super expensive, but was very reasonable and just up dock from where we were!  Its 30 minutes out, hour and a half at the fort, then 30 minutes back.  We really enjoyed seeing the fort and learning some new stuff:  what the confederate flag really looks like, what the fort when under, that South Carolina LOVES to be the “first” in everything…ha!

After the tour, we made a stop at a close grocery store; Harris Teeter.  Mike had gone in the day before to check it out, said I would love it as “it’s if Trader Joe’s and Shoprite had a southern baby”, ha!  He was right!  I like this store!  Cheap with good selection, woo! 

When we got back to the dock, we made friends with our neighbors and then had dinner:  we scheduled a ghost walking tour of Charleston/graveyards that night too!  The tour was fun, though I didn’t at all feel creeped out in any way!  Mike on the other hand got super cold in one of the graveyards and caught something funny on a picture he took from his phone...we will let you believe what you think!  Afterwards, we hit up Wet Willies:  a frozen margarita/daiquiri bar.  The drinks are cheap and all in slushi machinces behind the bar! We had stopped here last April as well!  And they are opening one in NYC, for your information!  I would make a stop there when it opens, but most likely it will be in a tourist section and just annoying to be in…We got abck to the boat late…and very exhausted!  Happy to be at a marina for the night thoughJ