It’s Wednesday morning here in historic Georgetown and it’s going to be a lovely day indeed.

This will be our third day here and it’s going to be tough to leave.  The town has a lovely waterfront area including a boardwalk that runs down the length of this tiny harbor.  Speaking of tiny, we are anchored off of the town dock which is very nice and convenient.  However, the harbor is so narrow that we have had to re-anchor more times than I want to admit as each time the wind shifts, and shift it does, we have to up and reset the hook so that we don’t end up too close to some boat or dock as we shift to a new direction.

And to make things even more exciting, the wind has been coming from a variety of directions and it really pipes up each afternoon so that our chain is stretched tight, making us feel that if our anchor shifts (drags) in the soft mud bottom even 20’ that we will end up too close to something hard and pointy.   We prefer not to be really, really close to “hard and pointy”.

So, aside from the “having to re-anchor” thing, it’s really a lovely spot.

Georgetown is a town of “contrasts” with beautiful homes and old civic buildings as well as a nasty steel mill (are there steel mills still in the US?) and a stinky paper mill to boot.  To look in one direction you see a beautiful waterfront and turn your head and you’ll see the paper and steel mills.  Not so beautiful.  And, when the wind comes from the “right” direction, the paper mill smells like a stale brewery.  However, for us, the good definitely outweighs the bad.

For the two days we spent motoring here from south of Charleston, we have “enjoyed” some really shallow spots.  Because of the high tides, around 7’, along the 70nm run, you can use the tides to get over the shallow spots but that means making the run on a rising tide.  And that meant that we had to time our departures each day to coincide with rising tides which meant that sometimes we had to wait till mid morning to depart which somewhat restricted out travel time and distance before the sun and tide went down again.  However, we made it and here we are.

About 10 miles south of Georgetown, we anchored along one of the canals in a lovey windy creek nestled in rice fields.  The view was spectacular with birds everywhere, including a bald eagle perched on a tree that watched us as we motored by.   After a while he took flight and circled us.  A bit blurry, perhaps because I wasn’t quite awake yet but impressive, never the less.  The canal is as straight as a highway.  However, you don’t get this sort of “big sky” view on just any “road”. I can’t say that it’s clear to me what the purpose of this watch tower is but I expect it has something to do with the rice fields.   It looked pretty nice in the early morning light.We also passed a floating bridge in the canal.  It was quite interesting as the “barge/bridge” was just the right length to fit between the two landings on each side of the canal.  The barge appears to be fixed at one end to a piling on shore and pivots with a large rotating “outboard” that moves the other end of the barge into position on the opposite shore.  Once in position, ramps are lowered on each end of the barge and vehicles can cross.  It’s an ingenious piece of equipment.  Note the “outboard” on the end of the barge.  I think it’s run by hydraulics from a large stationary diesel engine on deck.   I guess it’s pretty heavily used by vehicles in the rice fields as there were plenty of pickup trucks parked on both sides of the canal. So, back to Georgetown.

We walked the mile or so out to the Piggly Wiggly grocery for some fresh food and were struck by how different the food that they stocked were there verses what we are used to in CT.  The produce section was very small and was dwarfed by the baked goods, mostly cakes and pies.  “Forget the apples, I’ll have a case of Little Debbie danish.” Oh yeah, and lots of fried pork rinds too, it seems. There was also a huge variety of grits to choose from.  The meat cases were loaded with all sorts of smoked items, mostly unrecognizable but these were labeled as “smoked pork necks”.  Yum… There was also piles of “meat by-product” looking stuff labeled as “sousa” and “blood pudding” in the meat section.  They were thick slices of what looked like a soft and lumpy bologona.   I expect that you DO NOT WANT TO KNOW what’s in it.  However, it’s not expensive.

Setting aside the grocery experience, the town is really quaint.  This old building houses the local “Rice Museum”, which we are going to check out today.  There is also a really nice little nautical museum.  They had some really well done models. I particularly liked this river boat.  We also went out for lunch at a riverfront cafe.  There was a spectacular and huge, salt water aquarium.  It was clearly a very well cared for tank.  Notice the soft corals.  I expect that they aren’t feeding them smoked pork necks.    We went for a walk down a few of the nicest streets, lined with beautiful live oaks. We particularly admired this beautiful home, two hundred years old this year.  It turns out it was for sale and we were invited in for a tour.   “Hi, want to take a look inside?”  Sure…Each room was more beautiful than the last.  The place was absolutely packed with antiques.The place looked like it had just been renovated, and it was, in preparation for sale.  The asking price, $1.5m, complete with all furnishings and they’d even throw in a brand new Land Rover.   I can’t even imagine what this house would be worth in Essex. 

I suspect that this is a very full price for this area but the antiques along must be worth a good deal.  Supposedly, the owner buys homes, fixes them up and sells them.  I guess he must have some sort of antique business to fill them with so much stuff.  “I’ll take it but you’ll have to knock off $10,000 as I just can’t live with that sideboard in the sitting room.”

Anyway, nice house.

As we make our way up the ICW we often see boats that we have seen before. This lovely little trawler has been stopping at some of the same places as we have since central Florida and we keep seeing them along the way.  It’s very well kept and has really sweet lines. All and all, we really like Georgetown however, time marches on so I guess we will have to head out tomorrow.  We have to be in New Bern on the 11th and still have over 200 miles to go.

The next few weeks are going to be very busy as we unpack Pandora and get her ready for sale.  I’ll bet that we’ll find things in lockers that we have long forgotten.

And, I won’t even talk about the logistics of renting cars, storage units, going to wedding in Columbia SC, arranging for hotels, a flight home for Brenda and closing on a new boat.  Yikes!!!  As Scarlett O’Hara, sort of, once said “I won’t think about that today, I’ll think about (logistics) tomorrow.”  

Speaking of plantations and the old south, perhaps we’ll have to visit the rice museum.   Yes, that sounds good.  Well, we’d better get going.  

It’s Sunday morning and the temperature went down into the 30s last night so we left the heater running all night.  That worked out pretty well.  Glad that we have it.  It is supposed to get warmer in the next few days but these cold fronts are wreaking havoc on the weather here.  I had feared that we would encounter pretty cold weather by being this far north so early.  No disappointment on that score, unfortunately. 

Anyway, cold or not, we are anchored just outside of Charleston in a very narrow section of the ICW, Elliott’s Cut.   The current runs like mad through this narrow cut with currents on some points of the tide at around 4kts.  The cruising guide suggests transiting it with the tide.  Good thought.  I’ll keep that in mind.

Speaking of tides and currents, our lives since entering GA waters days ago have been governed by the tides.  Actually, it’s all about not running aground as there are many areas of the ICW that are very shallow due to major cuts in the Army Corps dredging budget over the last few years.

Today, for example, here near Charleston NC, we have to stay put until we can time our transit of a particularly shallow part of the ICW to be sure that we hit it on a rising tide.  With our draft of just under 6’ we are on the upper limit of water depth, about 2′ too deep at low tide, in a particularly nasty section of about 8 miles that we have to get over today.  However, with a tide range here of nearly 6′ we can time our transit to get “over the humps”.  Fingers crossed…

Ever since entering GA it’s been tough with so many shallow sections.  However, with a tidal range of 7-9’ it’s not too difficult to make transit as long as you are willing to leave with the tide.  Sounds easy and it is.  However, sometimes it means that we have to wait till mid-morning to leave which severely limits the miles we can go before evening puts an end to the day.   The worst part that we have to transit today is just north of Charleston and low tide is at 10:30 which means that we really can’t leave here until shortly before that time.

Our next stop is Georgetown SC, a spot that we have heard is quite nice and quaint.  Given our “tide inflicted” late start today, I doubt that we will make it all the way there today.

Shoaling and cold besides, we have enjoyed our run over the last few days.  In particular, we had a nice time in Beaufort, SC where we stopped for a visit.  We had spent time there a few years ago when we last came through and it was nice to be back.  I wrote about that visit in this post.

I won’t repeat that here except to say that it’s still lovely.  While we were in town a strong front came through and dumped loads of rain. The sky looked particularly ominous as it approached. One great thing about changing weather is that it made for a great sunset just in time for cocktails.So, cold or not, I guess that I had better get on with it.  Hope we don’t run around too many times today and let’s hope that spring catches up with us soon.  Burrrr…

 

 

 

It’s Thursday morning and today we head out from Savannah after two days of exploring the historic district.  Last time we visited this city we took Pandora up the river and tied up at the city dock.  It turned out to be a “not great idea” as we bucked some remarkable currents and also picked up a nasty poly tarp in our propeller along the way.  All worked out well in the end, but it was a bit harrowing at the time.  I wrote about that experience here.

This time, to keep things a bit less exciting, we opted to tie up at a marina in a nearby town Thunderbolt, that was named, legend has it, by native Americans for a fresh water spring that “sprung” when it was struck by a powerful bolt of lightning, way back when. By staying here we were able to avoid the long run up the Savannah river and all that comes (see fun experience referenced above) with being in a busy shipping port.  This is a very convenient spot and there’s even a nearby city bus to take us into the city center and to do a bit of provisioning.

Besides, they even give you Crispy Crème donuts each morning, delivered to your boat.  Believe it or not, I have NEVER had a Crispy Crèam donut, EVER. Now I have…

Anyway, we enjoyed being in the city again and walked all over, taking in the sights.   With the risk of repeating myself from our last visit, you might want to take a look at that post from a few years ago.

We discovered that there was a nice little maritime museum in town, the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum.  It’s a lovely spot and as an added benefit, they even have some terrific gardens on site.  It seems that they host events on a regular basis and what a spot it is. You enter the main entrance to the museum through the gardens.  It’s a lovely spot and the museum is housed in an old mansion.  Very tranquil.While the museum is not particularly large, they have a nice collection of good sized models, the sort made for ship owners and, as you can imagine, there is a focus on Savannah history.   In fact, they have a LOT of models of boat named, you guessed it, SAVANNAH, including the only nuclear powered cargo ship, the… SAVANNAH.   It was launched during the Eisenhower administration as part of the “nuclear for peace” initiative. Oops, it didn’t work out particularly well and the ship was soon retired as too costly to operate.  Nice model though, even if the photo isn’t so great.

And this ship was also called…the Savannah.  The Civil War looms large as a part of the history of the area and there were some really nice models depicting ships of the period.   This model of an ironclad was great and easily 6′ long. Particularly nice detail of the engine room in a cut out area. Beyond the Savannah themed ships, there are plenty of nice pieces to admire including a good collection of scrimshaw.  What nautical museum is complete without a bunch of carved whale teeth?Brenda particularly liked the piece with a sheep carved on it?  Now, how often do you get to see sheep carved on whale teeth?  Perhaps only in Savannah.  Well, that’s been our experience. The gardens were a hit with Brenda who particularly enjoyed the gardens.   She was a good girl and even looked at the ship models.  “Oh Bob, I do so love looking at ship models”.   She was a good sport.  Me, I even went into a knitting store with her, just to prove what a good guy I am. 

There are some really nice gardens in the city and I think we walked through each of the dozen in the historic area…twice.  Beautiful settings.  I’ll bet that the prices of homes around these gardens are a LOT more expensive than those in more, shall we say, “pedestrian” settings.When I see folks taking each other’s pictures, I always offer to take one of them. Of course, they nearly also say “would you like me to take one of you?”  Yes, that would be lovely. There is nearly always some sort of historic ship reproduction visiting the waterfront area.  This time, the Pinta and Santa Maria, of Columbus fame.  I heard that the Pinta ran aground coming into the city.  Nice to be in good company given Pandora’s track record to date of finding the shallow spots.

Speaking of experiences that, shall we say, raise one’s blood pressure.  There is always the Savannah Serenity House to help bring things back in balance.  Alas, there was no hope when we visited as even they were having a bad day.  Note the sign on the door?  “Now Bob, do you have to be so insensitive?”   Yes, you’re right. I take it back.

Well, I had better wrap this up as is’t almost time to check and see if our supply of Crispy Creams have arrived. Yum.

It’s Monday afternoon and we are anchored near Savannah and enjoying a rainy (chilly) afternoon “nesting” aboard Pandora.  It has taken us three days to make it here from the most northern part of Florida and even though we have only traversed a little over 80 miles from Amelia Island, our last stop in FL, we have wound around a total of 128 miles through the water.    Now that’s a lot of meandering.    

There is just no way to go from there to here in even close to a straight line.  And, unless you are willing to do an overnight run in the ocean, you just have to motor the entire way inside.   However, Brenda doesn’t particularly like the “overnight thing” and besides, the winds this early in the season are pretty much out of the north so inside we went.  Had we waited for favorable winds, we’d still be in FL as they aren’t forecasted to arrive for nearly a week from now.  Later in the season, when we are well into spring, north will give way to more helpful southerly.    Alas, with the “We have to be in New Bern” itinerary, inside it is.   

I will say that the view of the marshes along the way is beautiful.

This shot of the plotter gives you an idea of the meandering track I am talking about.  To do this run without good charts would be very tough as it would be very easy to loose track of where you are.   You can see the icon of Pandora in the lower center of the plotter.  That’s us making our way through the maze of channels. The Georgia stretch of the ICW has a reputation of being among the most difficult part of the waterway to manage if you have draft of more than a few feet as there is just so much shoaling.  However, it’s not as bad as you’d think as long as you are willing to time your trip so that high tide is in the middle of the day.  That’s because the tide range here is nearly 9’ , the highest of any part of the waterway.  So, if you can wait a week, from when low tide is mid day util it’s high mid day, you can make the run in water that’s quite deep.

So, if you can get going at the beginning of a rising tide you will have enough water for much of the day.    Besides, a good part of the GA ICW is quite deep, sometimes more than 20’, even at low tide.  So, what gives the area such a bad rap?

It actually gets down to only two areas, one called Mud Creek and the other Hell Gate.  Both of these areas, and they aren’t all that long, at a few hundred yards each, only have about 3’ of water at low tide so that stops most boats when the tide is low.  So, the strategy is to make your way to each of these areas and then anchor nearby and leave the next morning on a rising tide.  Fortunately, for sailboats, these two trouble spots are about a day’s motoring apart.  Pretty convenient, right?

For those who sail in New England, hearing “Hell Gate” conjures up images of the swirling water and fast currents of the East River in NYC where many ships have met their end.   However, the GA version of same is a lot different.  It’s a short dredged (well sort of dredged) cut between two rivers.  The problem with the GA HG is that the currents at both ends, and it’s only a few hundred yards long, are fierce, running about 2.5kts on both the ebb and flood, twice a day.

A dredge that would do an area like Hell Gate, which is very shallow and narrow, would be tiny, dredges, like this one on the St Mary’s river a few days ago, are huge.  This one loomed out of the fog at us as we passed the Navy Base.  Look how low in the water it is.  It was headed out to dump what it had sucked up earlier.  The signature on AIS said that it draws 36’ of water.  That’s really deep keel.While the current in Hell Gate itself is minimal, the flood running by both ends moves lots of sand into the cut and undoes the work of the dredge in short order.  Anyway, both Hell Gate and Mud Creek are areas that cause problems ALL THE TIME and make transiting GA a “pain in the keel”.  But wait, there’s more…

In spite of the meandering nature of the area, you also face currents in excess of 2kts most of the time.  So, for part of the day you are thankful for the “good current” that helps you zip along at nearly 8kts and then you curse it as your speed over the bottom slows to a crawl at more like 3.5kts when the current is against you.  I suppose that it all evens out in the end but somehow the “bad” current always seems to hit late in the day when you are thinking “are we there yet?”

However, now the worst is behind us and tomorrow we will check into a marina, our first on this trip, and spend a few days enjoying historic Savanna.

However, before I break, I’ll  include a few photos from our run through GA.

But first, a few more of some of the beautiful homes on Amelia Island.  This one is the largest in the historic district.  It’s now a B&B.  I’d like to have the tower room please.   I had to pry Brenda’s fingers off of the porch railing to keep her from checking in.  Success!!!This porch is magnificent but it gives me a headache even to think about paying to have it painted.  Speaking of porches.  Brenda loves doorways and here are a few of her favorites.  Mine too.
As we left Amelia Island we passed an unlucky sailboat looking like anything but it’s name “Joy”.  We had seen this boat a number of times and were sorry to see her in such an unlucky spot.  I expect she dragged her anchor the other night when we experienced really strong winds while we were at Amelia Island.  That night we had opted for a mooring as we were concerned about the strong currents and wind causing problems with our anchor.  Perhaps the skipper of Joy wishes he’d done the same thing.  Perhaps it’s only luck that keeps us from having the same fate. After leaving Amelia Island we spent an afternoon walking on Cumberland Island, a national park donated by the Carnegie Family.    It’s a beautiful island with many walking trails and spectacular views.  The island is covered with ancient live oaks and palms.  It’s looks very primeval. At the southern end of the island wind-blown dunes dominate the landscape creating an other-worldly view.  You can click on this and it will get larger on your screen.The island was once owned by the Carnegie family and their grand mansion now stands in ruins.  It was once 30,000 sq ft and three stories.  It must have been an amazing place to visit. We learned that the estate had a staff of 300 at it’s peak.  Imagine the wealth needed to sustain such a lifestyle. The trees on the island are huge.  This Live Oak dwarfs Brenda sitting on a bench.There is much wildlife on the island including wild horses and turkeys.  We didn’t see horses on this visit, as we did last time, but we did see turkeys as well as hawks and plenty of other birds.  

Speaking of birds, for much of our run over the last two days we were followed by Arctic Terns who have been wintering in the south, like the rest of us other “snow birds”.  They followed close behind us and swooped in our wake to catch any fish or shrimp that we stirred up as we passed.Well, we made it through GA, Hell (Gate) and beyond.  I am really looking forward to the next few days when we explore old Savannah.

Well, I guess that’s about it for now.  It’s after 5:00 and opening time aboard Pandora so I’d better get on with it and publish this post.

Oh yeah, one last thing.  How about a shot of a beautiful sky from the other day?  The sun trying it’s best to burn through the haze.  Andn o post is complete without a sunrise, or sunset.  How about a sunrise? Well, I think that’s what it was.  Not sure… Well, it was pretty anyway. 

It’s Friday morning and the first day of spring.  Marking the passage of winter is a big deal for those who live in northern areas where winters can be long and cold.  And, I think it’s safe to say that this winter has proven to be the sort that makes the “non-migrating” folks long for springtime and the hope that snow will melt soon so that they can “get on with it” and enjoy the outdoors again without risking pieces of their body freezing solid and falling off.

However, for folks that are fortunate enough to choose their climates based on the seasons, the dawn of spring brings a different sort of excitement.   Yes, I enjoy being aboard for the winters as cold has never been something that I look forward except if it’s an “adult beverage”.  However as the spring flowers begin to show themselves I get excited about spending the summer back in the CT River Valley and our “summer home”.

This year’s return north will be particularly nice as with it will come our new boat (assuming that the survey goes well), also Pandora but Pandora the Aerodyne 47.

So, as we continue our run north to New Bern where we will leave Pandora the SAGA 43 for the last time, I have to say that my thoughts are turning to our summer in CT.

Yesterday, the last day of winter, we spent ashore on Amelia Island FL and what a nice spot it is.  At first glance the two paper mills dominate the skyline and flood the area with a low rumble of machinery running 24/7.   However, don’t be fooled as the town is really lovely as this view from the mooring field testifies.  Once ashore you are greeted by a wonderful main street shopping area.  Very southern.Along with the many shops and restaurants are some lovely old buildings, like City Hall, testifying to the wealth that the two paper plants have brought to this area over the years. The post office, while a bit scruffy, is an impressive.  There are many beautiful homes lining the residential streets.  And a few that are perhaps best described as “eclectic”.  Fun though. And, of course, as though to remind us that spring is just around the corner back in CT and that wonder awaits, the wisteria are in full bloom. So, today we’ll head ashore again for a walk and perhaps a new pair of shoes for Brenda (what is it about women and shoes?) and then we’ll head out for a short run to Cumberland Island, about 5nm north on the waterway.

The next few days running north through GA will be a bit challenging as the currents are strong and tides run in excess of 9′.  And, to complicate matters, with all those currents and huge tide changes, shoaling is rampant and the depths at low tide…well, not so deep.  This means that we will have to time our passage to coincide with high tide in the middle of the day to give us the most depth possible as we traverse what is arguably the part of the ICW where running aground happens the most often.   The good news is that tomorrows high tide is late morning and one hour later each day so we will be able to make the most of the day before low tide brings progress to a halt in the late afternoon.

Perhaps I’ll close with a few shots from last evening and the last sunset, and a terrific one at that, of winter 2015.  Not a bad way to say good by to “old man winter” and welcome spring.
A lovely schooner set the tone in the final winter light. And, I won’t break the mood by talking about the no-see-ums that wanted to be sure and get one more meal in before spring sprung.   No, I won’t think about that for now, I’ll think about the fact that springtime is here.

And about those skinny waters?   We will not be deterred as northbound we are.  

Yes spring is here and I am really excited…