WEEK #34, 18-24MAR017, LEAVING GEORGIA

     Saturday we do not get up quite as early. We are going to go into Savannah with our relatives and take a trolley tour of Old Savannah that lets us get off and on. We get almost all the way around the route (our plan) and get off to get lunch. We go to "Leopold's" ice cream shop, a Savannah tradition. We have lunch in there.

LEOPOLDS OR LUNCH AND DESSERT

And we wait in line after lunch to get an ice cream cone topped with one of their fantastic home made ice cream flavors. After the ice cream, we head down to River St where the real St. Paddy's festival is going on. There is green everywhere.

FESTIVAL CROWD ON RIVER St., IT LOOKS LIKE THIS THE OTHER WAY

After about an hour here, we head back up the steps to Bay St to catch our trolley for the rest of our tour.

STAIRS BACK UP FROM RIVER ST TO BAY ST.

We end up walking farther than the shown stop, as the police have closed the side street to the trolley stop. There is a music festival going on in Savannah this same weekend, and there is a music stage set up near the trolley stop for the music festival. The day is near the end, so we go back to the trolley beginning and back to the car. We drive over to "The Pirate House" to get dinner. On the way we go by Forsyth Park with the big, Forsyth Fountain to take some photos.

FORSYTH FOUNTAIN, WITH GREEN WATER

We get to "The Pirate House" later than planned, and are in the queue for a table for dinner. The dinner is great, but alas they no longer have the great dessert menu I remember, and certainly do not "flambee" anything at the table now. We get back to SummerTime in time for bed.
     My sister and her husband pick us up for church Sunday morning. We are going to the First Baptist Church of Savannah which is quite old. It is quite nice inside, but not as full as expected. One regular church goer states that a lot of people leave Savannah during the St Patricks Day weekend due to the craziness. After church we head back to Thunderbolt, GA where SummerTime is docked. We are going to have lunch in "Tortuga Island Grille" . We have to wait again, but we are not disappointed. After brunch we are dropped at Thunderbolt Marina, and my sister and her husband head back to their home in NC.
     On Monday we decide to stay another day and take care of some chores aboard the boat. It is a mostly productive day. On Tuesday we get up, get a pump-out, fill the water tank, and fuel SummerTime. I think we are going to take near a hundred gallons as we last fueled before returning to Ortega Landing.  And we have run Mr. Perkins kind of hard some times when the tides were against us. We barely get in 80gallons, so I apparently misinterpreted the gauge and how hard we had run the Perkins. We get off towards Beaufort, SC about 11am. It is not a long run, and most of the ways the tides are with us. We meet a tug pushing a barge right as we cross off of the Savannah River.  The runs today are rivers, cuts between rivers, sounds, and more cuts. We do not see a lot of pleasure boats until we pass by Hilton Head Island.

HILTON HEAD LIGHT

There are actually people parasailing behind boats. It is warm, and you do  not have to get in the water to parasail behind a boat.

PARASAILING NEAR HILTON HEAD

It just seems cool as I started the day in long pants and a wind breaker. We meet two more tugs pushing construction barges at various points. It is nice to see commercial traffic on the ICW, which was the purpose of the ICW creation. And we pass by the American institution that is Parris Island.

PARRRIS ISLAND, BOOT CAMP FOR SOME

It is only a few miles before Beaufort. We get to Beaufort right at 4pm, when we told the dock master we would be there. We dock at Downtown Harbor.

BEAUFORT IN SITE

After securing the boat, we go just a block from the marina to old town and one of  its many restaurants.
      For Wednesday we borrow the marinas courtesy car and go to the grocery store to stock up. We go to one of the many eating establishments and get hot dogs for lunch. After lunch we decide to tour the town differently than we have in the past. Beaufort has a lot of old houses (more than 200yr old) that are occupied, and so not available for tours.

MAXEY-RHETT HOUSE

GRAND MAXEY-RHETT CREEK HOUSE

But you can take a horse and carriage tour and see all of them from the outside, and get a history (and sometimes gossip) commentary on them at the same time. There are a lot of people visiting this historic city, and we are put on the carriage tour to occur in the late afternoon. It is good as we get an extra block or travel for being on the last tour for this carriage. It is a nice tour, and some of the streets you travel both directions on, so the photos on the wrong side going away, are on the correct side coming back. The slow moving horse tour is worth the cost, and it saves our legs for nearly an hour. We get back to SummerTime and decide to eat aboard. We are expecting company for Thursday. There is an 87' USCG patrol boat at the dock for the evening also. And a big R/V, or research vessel. Everyone seems to be seeking shelter from the winds forecast for Wednesday night and Thursday.
     

OUR PROTECTORS & GUARD

On Thursday we have old friends aboard who arrive in Beaufort to spend the day. It is the first time in many years we have seen each other, so the first part of the day is spent catching up. We go into town for lunch at a different establishment offering sandwiches and light entrees. The food does not disappoint. Afterwards we visit some shops and do some touristy things. Barbara buys chocolate at one of them. We visit some more, and our friends drive us across the river for dinner at another great seafood restaurant on the water. They drop us back at SummerTime after dinner, and head back  to their home in SC. It has been a very pleasant day with friends. It was not a good day to travel, the CG stays at the dock all day as well as two other cruising boats. And the R/V "Silver Crescent" shows back up.
     Friday finds us doing a quick load of laundry before heading out. After all the checks and last minute errand running (PO) we get away just before noon. We are hoping to get to a creek or river a few miles short of Charleston to anchor for the night. We start out on falling tides, and fight the current some initially. Eventually we are traveling with the currents. It is another day of running in rivers, cuts connecting rivers, and sounds. I have traveled I-95 through Georgia and Southeast SC, and you cross a lot of salt marsh doing that. When you travel the ICW, you realize that a lot of the coast of these two states is nothing but salt marsh.

SALT MARSH , DANGER FROM INSECTS ALSO

The colonial settlers were pretty hardy, as there are a lot of insects that live in these salt marshes. The insects are not too bad today as the wind is blowing for the most part fairly good. I did put insecticide on my arms and neck before leaving the dock and creating wind while moving. We get to our anchorage on the Stono River about 10 miles short of Charleston about 6pm. Shortly after we anchor, the wind dies down. I am glad we have screens on the windows. The small gnats are out as part of a welcoming committee. I go on the flybridge just before dark to program the GPS  for the next days run. But the "no see-ums" are a little more numerous than I wish to deal with. I go back into the protection of the screened cabin. The anchorage for this night is very still with almost no wind, and SummerTime only changes position on the anchor with the tidal changes. There is no lapping of water against the hull as most nights have with light winds.

MULTI-FACETED SHIP REPAIR YARD ON ICW JUST SOUTH OF CHARLESTON, SC