It’s Wednesday morning and we are still in Charleston and look forward to our last day of sightseeing after a week in this wonderful city. Our loose plans have us heading down to Beaufort SC over the next few days, perhaps on to Savannah and then on to St Mary’s GA for Thanksgiving.
St Mary’s is home to perhaps the largest Thanks Giving Feast/Party on the ICW and attracts nearly 100 boats and hundreds of cruisers who make it a point to stop there on their way south each fall. As I understand it, the Riverview Hotel hosts the event and volunteers provide turkeys and help run the event. Here’s a description on the hotel’s website that describes what is involved.
“Every year the St. Marys boating community hosts a Cruiser’s Thanksgiving at the Riverview Hotel. Local volunteers bring the turkeys and hams, set up tables and chairs, and organize the annual feast. The cruisers bring all the side dishes. We gather the night before at Seagle’s Saloon for an Oyster Roast and pot-luck social to meet new and old friends. On Thursday, the Captains come over early to set up tables along with the locals. Complimentary coffee and donuts are served. During this time tables may be reserved for your party and decorated however you like. The Captain & First Mate, and their Crew bring over the side dishes around noon with dinner at 1:00 p.m. Also, on Friday morning there is a Swap Meet Sale and Book Exchange in the side yard of the Riverview Hotel. Coffee and refreshments are served. (Because of limited seating, the Cruiser’s Thanksgiving dinner is not open to the general public.) To RSVP please email: gailabrandon@tds.net“
I RSVPd today and look forward to learning more.
As we have headed south over the last two months we have met many cruisers who say that this is one of the highlights of their trip and a visit to St Mary’s should not be missed.
While we have done the entire ICW to date inside, we do plan to head out into the ocean from Beaufort or perhaps Savannah and do a run outside to St Mary’s. Me, I am looking forward to sailing again as the mainsail cover hasn’t been off since we left the Chesapeake. Going outside is a must for us as we draw 6′ and there is considerable shoaling in Georgia. In order for boats with our draft to make the trip, we would have to time much of our time underway according to the tides which would make the trip very tedious as there just isn’t enough water at low tide for us to make it through.
Last evening we hosted two couples aboard Pandora for cocktails having met them both while doing laundry at the marina. One couple, aboard an IRWIN 42 has been sailing to the Bahamas for the last 5 winters and it was fun to hear of all the great places that they have visited. Hearing more about where we are headed was inspiring to us both. The other couple, new to cruising, are heading south on their first trip. On top of that, they were also new to sailing so this is all new to them. We learned a lot and it was fun to make some new friends.
Another highlight yesterday was the arrival of a Volvo Ocean Racer 70 footer. Maserati was at the face dock at our marina and had just arrived from Spain with a full crew. Their next step, after clearing customs here, will be to head north to New York City where they plan to make an attempt to break the New York to San Francisco monohull record originally set by the clipper ship Flying Cloud in 1854, a record that she held for over 100 years. Interestingly, the Flying Cloud captain’s wife, Eleanor Creesy was the navigator and is credited with much of the success of the record run.
I didn’t take this photo of Maserati. However, if I did, it would have looked much like this. What an awesome machine. 
This is her under speed. It seems that she can run 40kts. That’s cooking. Besides, at the dock she looks like she is moving fast already.
As Maserati is an Italian boat, some of the crew feeds on their site are in Italian although much of it is in English. The site is worth checking out. There are also videos and photos worth looking at as well. This is one slick looking boat.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough on the trigger to get any photos before they shoved off from the dock. It seems that the captain of Maserati was with the customs officer in the same room as the laundry, trying to stay warm, where Brenda was doing the wash so she was able to listen in as the officer went through the clearing process. She overheard the captain say that their plan is to have Maserati in New York soon and that they hope to leave around December 11th to begin their attempt. They fully expect to break the current record. So where was I while this was going on? I was off doing grocery shopping. Bummer.
From our standpoint, Maserati is headed in the wrong direction and a NYC to San Francisco run certainly isn’t in Pandora’s future. With regards to records, I don’t expect that the crew of Pandora will be breaking any records today with the possible exception of the most visits to the local grocer in a single day. Well, you have to have goals in order to do your personal best.
Ready, set, grocery shop!!!