Hilton Head Island, SC - 6/28/11

We left Isle of Hope Marina this morning at 9:55 and after a pump out, headed toward Hilton Head Island. Moor $tuff & Quest stayed here so we picked Lucky One up about an hour later at Bahia Bleu Marina in Thunderbolt, Ga. Huen had unused credit at that marina plus the marina had the ability to lift his boat for him.
The tide times did not cooperate with our schedule today and we ended up traveling against it a big portion of the day. The good thing about low tide is the fact many of the dangerous places are exposed like this stone wing dam as we came into the Savannah River.

Most of the day was through salt marshes with not much else in sight.

Nothing in sight but skinny water. Water depths in the AICW were anywhere from 35 feet in the rivers to 4 or 5 feet in the creeks.

Since the tide can be over 8 feet here when you did see a boat dock the house was way back from the waters edge.

The famous Hilton Head Island light house.

Our guests for the week spent a little time on the bow of the boat.

Passing under a bridge with the tide still going out. This picture shows the tide down about 6 feet shortly after noon.

The girls at rest mid afternoon. They started watching the Friday Night Lights DVD series and can't tear themselves loose from the TV.

Not a great picture, but this is the new Hermit Crab that Ricki is raising. This one is very active and has already moved into a new shell.

We got to Skull Creek Marina at 2 p.m. and while I was in the shower the girls were busy looking at the critters that are in these waters. Our travels today was 36 miles.

Tomorrow we will leave about 9:30 and make the short run to Beaufort, SC and plan to stay 2 nights.

Our position is N 32 14.732 W 80 44.817

Savannah, GA - 6/27/11

Up early today to tour Savannah.
After picking up Cricket at the marina they were in, we had to stop for "HOT" donuts since the light was on.

We have made it a required thing that when we come to a new town we take the trolley ride around to see what we would like to go back to and visit.

High on my bride's list was a visit to the Juliette Lowe house since she spent a large part of her girls life as a girl scout leader.

How long has it been since we have seen a phone booth?

As we traveled around town we saw many lovely examples of Victorian and Colonial homes.

This tree is reported to be over 300 years old.

In the Colonial neighborhood the street was a mixture of clay and oyster shells. Apparently very durable since it still exists after all these years.

This is reported to be the oldest building in Georgia and is now a restaurant.

More of the restaurant.

We got off the tour bus at the waterfront and walked down River Street which faces the Savannah River. Since the waterfront stores are much lower than the streets, each store had a walkway from their second story to the upper street for loading supplies.

The five of us stopped at a pub on the waterfront for lunch.

The side streets from the upper streets to the waterfront are made of the ballast that ships used when they came to the new colonies from Europe and unloaded to get room for the products that they are taking back to Europe.

The waterfront stores cover several blocks.

More waterfront pictures.

Paula Dean's restaurant.

The next pictures are of the homes facing our marina.

Tomorrow we are planning on leaving Savannah and heading toward Hilton Head. We have reservations on Skull Creek for one night then on to Beaufort, SC.

Savannah, GA - 6/26/11

Today was the first full day back on the boat after going home for a few days. We only had a couple more chores to do before starting back up the east coast later in the week. While I stayed at the boat and changed the oil and fuel filters on both engines, Ricki and Cricket took the girls to the ocean beach on Tybee Island. While we were home I got new stainless steel cable for the dinghy davit and I still need to install that before we leave.

It was a beautiful day with lots of "eye candy" walking around.

Low tide made a very nice beach.

As you can see under the pier, the tide range here is 5 to 6 feet. Mid afternoon when the tide changed and the beach started to disappear, the girls headed for the boat.

The light house on Tybee Island.

The evening found all eight of us going out for dinner at a restaurant on the outskirts of Savannah overlooking the river. Another nice day!

Tomorrow we plan to take a trolley tour of the city.

Savannah, GA - 6/25/11

We are back !!!!

After a very nice but quick trip home to WV we are back having traveled over 1,600 miles in 6 days. Our trip home had two reasons ... needed to see our grand kids plus pick up teenage granddaughters Sydney and Catherine who will be spending a few days with us on our adventure. Perhaps the pictures next week will be a little more interesting with the girls in them. While at home we were able to spend time with our sons and their families as well as my sister Mary and Danny and friends Bill and Dianne. On our way back we stopped in Raleigh and spent the night with daughter Diane and her family where we picked up Catherine. Thanks folks for feeding us since our pantry at home is bare.

Sunday Ricki and the girls plan to go to the beach while I do engine oil changes in preparation to leaving mid week for Hilton Head and points north. There is a lot to see and do here so we will be busy until we leave.

Savannah, GA - 6/20/11

Ricki & I spent the day cleaning the boat inside and out plus a trip to the laundromat. We did stop at Wendy's for our dinner then back to the boat and continue laying stuff out to take home. We will pick up our rental car tomorrow at 9 a.m. and after loading it up, will start the 8 or 9 hour road trip back to WV. We will only spend a few days there to get our kid fix then pick up our teenage granddaughters from PA and NC before returning to the boat next weekend. We are really looking forward to seeing our friends and family since we haven't been home since April. This could very well be our last trip to WV before putting the boat up in the Chesapeake later this summer. This year long adventure is quickly turning into a 2 year trip. Too much to see and do to hurry through.

Savannah, GA - 6/18/11

Our anchorage on Walburg Creek was in a wide deep area however sometime during the night our raft up of all 3 boats with 2 anchors out moved a little with the strong winds we had. We woke up with the boats pointing in the reverse of where we started. Apparently one of our anchors dragged a little but was definitely dug in the next morning. Anchors up at 9:30 and on our way at 9:40 toward Isle of Hope Marina near Savannah.

Our trip today was 32 miles with a short distance through one of the most dreaded parts of the whole loop ... Hell's Gate. Here we are starting through what normally is very shallow water but we hit it at high tide so we had no less than 10 or 12 feet of water with the 7 foot tide.

As we came nearer to our marina we started seeing nice homes again as most of this trip today has been through salt marshes. This one had apparently brought sand in to make their own beach.

When we anchor out Huen and Cricket have to take Doc for a dinghy ride to shore for his potty break and this morning they returned with a new pet for Ricki. This hermit crab is many times larger than the ones she had in Florida.

We got to Isle of Hope about 1:15 this afternoon in scorching heat near 100 degrees. Finally it seems we have left the smoke and soot part of our trip. Normally no-seeums are in this part of the country but we haven't seen any yet.

Lucky One went to another marina to get pulled out as well as get some of the new electronics calibrated. We met them for dinner at a very nice seafood restaurant overlooking the salt marshes.

Inside the restaurant was very neat. Looks like it was built to withstand any kind of storm that would come through here.

Tomorrow we will try to clean the boat and wash the outside to get the soot off. It is also oil change time so that also will happen while we are here. The boat will be here for at least a week while we drive back to WV for a kid fix Monday. We plan to have a couple of our teen age granddaughters with us for a week or so after we return and start on up the coast.

N 31 58.829 W 81 03.350

Walburg Creek (BFE), GA - 6/16/11

This is being posted from Savannah since we did not have service in BFE. Our day started at 9:10 from Jekyll Island and we traveled 64 miles to Walburg Creek anchorage. The fires in Florida and Georgia have really made our adventure a little uncomfortable with all the smoke and soot on the boats.

Our buddy on Lucky One has been just a little unlucky. Now his refrigerator has quit and a new one will be waiting on him in Savannah. The old one is now on his aft deck and used as a shoe locker.

Our vision is less than a half mile as this photo shows a bridge not very far ahead.

A little lesson for those not familiar with the ICW ... the channel markers have a little square on the greens and a triangle on the reds to keep us on track.

Our buddy Lucky One .... nice Maxium 46

And Moor $tuff on their 35 Carver .....

Our raft up on Walburg Creek ....

The tide was nearly 7 feet so you can see the pull on about 150 of chain on Quest.

Walburg Creek ... N 31 40.425 W 81 09.647