Day 118 enjoying Hilton Head Island

We spent a relaxing day exploring and enjoying Hilton Head Island. They have some very good bike paths that are often well separate from the parallel roads. For lunch we went about 4 miles north and ended up eating brunch at a local restaurant. I had baked salmon on grits covered with crumbled bacon and cheese. It seems that the Admiral's new fondness for grits is catching...

After a little re-charging of the batteries on the electric scooters, we set off for the beach in the late afternoon. It was about mid-tide when we were on the beach, but much of the beach that you see (first picture) would be covered at high tide.  However, the Admiral seems to approve of the beach (second photo). It was nice clean, very fine-grained sand.

On the way back, we had to have a photo stop at the beach for the Disney resort. The actual resort is on the other side of the marina where we are staying. "Beach House" refers to the waterfront complex with showers, etc. and a parking lot.
Yes, you guessed it. This is another photo mainly for the Grandkids.

We also stopped at the famous Palmetto Dunes Golf Course, which was designed by Robert Trent Jones. As you can see, it is very beautiful with wide fairways that are well spaced with an abundance of trees. This was our view from dinner at the restaurant in the club house. There is a practice putting green in the foreground, first tee middle left and 18th green at the middle right. While we were waiting for our dinner, Terry sent a text message to a friend in Qatar who is an avid golfer. Almost immediately, she received this reply from Andre.  "Maybe I can transport my inner being to John and play a round of golf! So envious right now. Oh well glad someone can enjoy it even if just the sight." Now, when he sees this picture, he will really be jealous.

     With 23 golf courses of at least 18 holes each, this is definitely a place to be for golfers (and anyone else for that matter).

Day 117 off to Hilton Head, South Carolina

We left the dock this morning at 8:25 am with a destination of Hilton Head, specifically Shelter Cove Marina. 

We took a planned 11 mile detour so that we could see the downtown Savannah area by boat. As we headed up the Savannah River, our first view was historic Fort Jackson, which protected Savannah from boats coming up the river.

The skyline is not impressive, but that is at least in part by design. Savannah has done a great job of historic preservation and keeping new construction in line with existing architectural elements.

We had seen the rows of restored warehouses two days earlier when we had walked along some of the waterfront two days ago. However, we got a much different perspective today.

We even got "waked" by a container ship as we were leaving the down town area. The ship was only partially loaded and was putting off a huge bow wave (> 6 feet). Like I said earlier, it was an 11 mile detour to go to downtown Savannah, but the views were definitely worth the time. As we continued our intended trip to Hilton Head, we continued to cross and follow parts of many different rivers.

With today's tides of just over 7 feet, we continued to experience the continual speed changes from less than 6 mph to over 11 mph several times. As we approached Hilton Head, one of our first views was the Harbortown Lighthouse, which is seen so often on TV coverage of golf tournaments. 

We arrived at our marina at 2:35 pm for a total of 46 miles in a little over 6 hours. The marina is like a big lagoon surrounded by 5 story condos that are actually nicely done (i.e. probably very expensive). At the far end of the marina there are three condos where the bottom floors are stores and restaurants. We walked down there for dinner outside at a Mexican restaurant complete with live music.

We did a quick walking tour of part of the area, and I stopped to give Poseidon a helping hand...  Okay, it is just a posed picture, and the statue is a giant sun dial. Tomorrow we plan to tour around the area and possibly spend some time on the beach. In an aerial view of the Hilton Head area, it kind of looks like a giant golf course, but other boaters have assured us that there is plenty to do and see here besides golf courses. Well, by then it was time to "rush" back to Lucky Us to listen to the Aggies versus Sam Houston State football game. after all, everyone has to keep their priorities straight! 

Day 116 Last full day at Isle of Hope Marina (Savannah)

     A fairly quiet day with some work on Lucky Us as well as some fun. The Admiral worked inside while I cleaned the starboard (right) side of the hull (finished the job). I had sprayed on phosphoric acid (Day 115) to remove the brown moustache on the bow. Of course, the rest of the hull did not look nearly as white so I hauled out the phosphoric acid spray bottle and took off some more rust stains. Then I used Formula 409 along with the long handle scrub brush to clean up the rest of the hull. I followed that up with some Soft Scrub to remove "rubber" marks from fenders, dock rub guards, etc. Of course, I should have done the port side, but since we were tied along side a dock. There was no pier to work from on the other side (at least that was my excuse).

    By then it was lunch time, which was followed by a (well deserved, ha ha) nap. After that we borrowed the loaner car from the marina and went to see "Love Is All You Need" with Pierce Brosnan. It was actually a pretty good movie for a "Chick Flic", and of course, copious amounts of popcorn helped improve my opinion...

    After the movie we made a quick stop at the local Piggly Wiggly supermarket for some cleaning supplies for me. T his is just in case I get motivated to clean the port side of the hull in the future. Notice that I did not say "near" future. The Admiral wanted me to be prepared in case I suddenly got motivated. She really is so thoughtful...

     We also stopped at Best Buy and bought a router with a signal booster. We have Google TV on both TVs (salon and master stateroom), but the free wifi at the marinas is generally a weak signal so we usually cannot stream movies without long breaks while the signal reloads. Wow! We had been researching all sorts of much more expensive options for external, marine antennas and boosters. So far, at least at the Isle of Hope Marina we had a much stronger signal and uninterrupted movies.

     Tomorrow we are off to Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Day 115 touring downtown Savannah

We had reserved the Isle of Hope Marina loaner car for the day to tour downtown (historic) Savannah. However, before we left the marina, we had to move Lucky Us to a new dock. We had to back out of the same narrow channel between 2 large boats that we had entered two days before. The Admiral had all our our fenders hanging off both sides. I guess that it pays to be prepared (or lucky) because we made it out without touching either of the boats. 

Just to be sure, there was a marina employee on each of the boats to push us off if needed, and fortunately all they had to do was watch. We then drove downtown to the Visitor's Center to start our self guided tour. They had a very nice history museum where the Admiral got to "visit" with Forrest Gump. One of the other displays included this steam locomotive. This picture is for Grandson Will, and I will spare you the other train pictures by e-mailing them specially to him.

Ship building played an important role in early Savannah, including the Civil War ironclad Savannah. The ironclads were not very seaworthy so the Savannah spent most of her time anchored in the river as a floating fort to protect the harbor.

After the museum, we boarded a free bus that makes a circuitous journey around and through the historic downtown area. We got off on the waterfront downtown and lunch at thee River House as we watched tugs and one barge move around. The site for the town was chosen for the high (30+ feet) bluff along the edge of the river.

The waterfront is lined with restored, historic warehouses like this one. The lower floors of the warehouses are full of restaurants and bars. The ground level on the water side is about 10 feet above mean high tide. The floor of the third level is about at the top of the bluff, and there are stores and offices that face downtown (the other side). The car on the very left is coming down the slope from the top of the bluff

. The higher elevation of the town helps protect it from storm surges of 22 feet or more during hurricanes. This interesting fountain pays tribute to the importance of the port of Savannah. The wheel on the paddle wheeler even turns. The Savannah River is in the background. When we leave Savannah in 2 days (Day117) we plan a little detour to come up river to see the city from the water.

After lunch, we walked up the bluff and went about 3 blocks to the City Market area. It is a very pretty park like area with lots of art stores and restaurants

The last picture is of my favorite flower seller (aka Admiral Terry).

We did some shopping on the way back to the marina. As we were eating dinner on board Lucky Us, a severe thunderstorm passed through the marina. It turns out that a 78 foot motor yacht suffered what was probably a near hit. We learned this morning that it damaged some (all?) of the electronic gear. A near hit is where the lightning hits the water near a boat, but part of the electricity travels over and through the boat. In a direct hit the lightning can burn a hole right through a boat (worst case scenario).

Well, tomorrow is a day of relaxing aboard Lucky Us, but by now, you know that will evolve into lots of little jobs...

Day 114 first full day at Isle of Hope

Today was our first full day at Isle of Hope (Marina) on the very southern edge of Savannah, Georgia. We visited Wormsloe Plantation (Historic Site) about a mile away. The first English settlers arrived in 1733, and one of them (Noble Jones) was granted this plantation of 822 acres. A few years later Jones and his family were the only original settlers remaining. The others died or returned to England. The 1.5 mile oak tree lined driveway into the plantation is the longest (straight) tree lined driveway in the world.

Part of the basis for this settlement was that there would be no slaves (later rescinded). However, this group was to ultimately form the basis for Georgia as a British settlement and ultimately a state after the Revolutionary War. Only remnants of Jones' house remain. The walls of the house (foreground) and the surrounding fortified wall formed a "fort" of sorts to help protect Savannah from the Spaniards in Florida.

The house and 8 foot high walls were constructed using wood and tabby, which is a crude type of concrete made from oyster shells, sand and lime. This particular structure was made of huge bricks of tabby. The tabby mixture was poured into wooden boxes several feet on a side and left to harden into the large bricks.

A short distance away from the ruins was a reproduction of a typical home from that period. They had one, all purpose room with a fireplace on the main floor with a sleeping loft on the second floor. This was a pleasant walking tour of about a mile, and we had a picnic lunch on a table outside the visitor's center.

For dinner, the Admiral had reserved one of the marina's loaner cars so we went out to dinner at the "Sweet Potato Kitchen". I had pan fried, Macadamia nut encrusted Mahi Mahi with roasted brussel sprouts and sweet potato fries.Wow, it was very different and quite good! We also did some grocery shopping after dinner. On the way back, we drove along the waterfront adjacent to the marina where there are some beautiful old homes. We are looking forward to spending the day tomorrow seeing the sights in historic downtown Savannah...

Day 113 to (the very southern edge of) Savannah, GA

First - An addendum to last night's post:
We met a fellow looper (Mike) at the Kilkenny Marina last night. He has been at this spot for 67 days due to boat repairs and other issues (wife had knee surgery). It was a fun visit as they also are now too late to do the northern portion of the Great Loop (Great Lakes) this year. No problem! They are going to go back south and spend the winter in the Bahamas... Sounds like fun!

Second - You may not care, BUT about 7:00 pm, we received a FaceTime call from grandson Will (age 3 1/2) asking where are our latest post was... I guess that I have been put in my place.


We left Kilkenny Marina at 8:00am for a 26+ mile trip to the Isle of Hope Marina, which is on the VERY southern edge of Savannah, Georgia. About midway on the trip there is a short (man made artificial channel) cut between two rivers just before they join and enter the Atlantic. There are shoaling issues in this cut, and we wanted to be through this cut at no lower than mid-tide. By leaving at 8:00 am, we passed through the cut at mid-tide and even then had no more than 2 feet of water below the keel at several places. With a tidal range of 8 to 9 feet in this area, it looks like we (i.e. the Admiral) made a very good decision.     We started the trip with temperatures in the low 70's and (very) scattered clouds.

The trip turned out to be very good for bird watching. The first photo is of Wood Storks in a (very dead) tree. The second photo is of an osprey in flight carrying a fish. Yesterday, on a much longer trip we saw no (?) ospreys, but today we saw 5+ and several empty nests on channel markers. I guess that it is probably just statistics of small numbers...

We arrived at the Isle of Hope Marina at 11:15 am and were given docking instructions over the radio.

In retrospect, I remember them saying that "we" will meet you at the dock.... The picture is taken from the fly bridge of Lucky Us looking back at the "entrance" to our dock. Looks narrow doesn't it? Fortunately, the Admiral puts out fenders (and docks lines) on both sides of the boat in case there is a last minute change in the docking arrangements. Lucky Us has a 15 foot beam plus about 2 feet of extra width with the fenders. I have no idea, but I think that the opening was just over 20 feet. One of the dock hands was standing on the bow of the 65+ foot (nearly new, multi-million dollar) yacht on the left to fend us off for obvious reasons. He said that he never had to push us off but that one of our fenders did "touch". Once through the opening, we then had to move sideways to the dock directly in front of the big yacht. At check-in at the office, we decided to stay 4 days (4th night free) instead of our original plan of 2 nights, and they promised that by then boats would be moved around so that it would be "easier" to depart. I sure hope that "check is in the mail".

Days 111 - 112

Day 111

The Admiral and I finished replacing the float switch on the aft bilge pump. -works fine now! We spent the rest of the day catching up on "odd jobs". We did walk downtown and had lunch at a Thai/Sushi restaurant. Gee, this sounds like a kind of boring day, but a little rest and the catching up on the odd jobs is an important part of our routine.

Day 112

We left Brunswick, Georgia this morning at 8 am and headed toward Savannah. The marina in on the left with the reproduction lighthouse and farmer's market on the right. We plan on one long day (today) and then one short day to get to Savannah. We will stay the first night at Kilkenny Marina on the Kilkenny Creek in Richmond Hill, Georgia.

We arrived at Kilkenny Marina at 4:35 pm after 75 miles in just over 8.5 hours. The marina is about 2 miles west of the Waterway up a stream channel. The picture shows the bow of Lucky Us taken from the dock at the marina. In the background is about 2 miles of salt marsh, then the Waterway and finally a tree covered beach (sand) ridge with the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Along the way we saw the Atlantic Ocean five different times when the Waterway crossed different inlets. At each inlet there were one or more rivers flowing across the IntraCoastal Waterway and out into the Atlantic. The interaction of the rivers flowing out into the ocean is "interesting". The rivers (and the Waterway) actually reverse flow depending on whether the tide is coming in (or rising) or going out (or falling). The currents were relatively strong (about 2 mph) so we spent the whole day at different speeds. Each time that we approached an inlet, we would gradually speed up (or slow down) and as we crossed the inlet we would slow down (or speed up). So, except for two speed zones, we spent the entire trip with the engines at a constant 1500 rpm, and our speed varied from 5.8 mph to 10.3 mph depending upon the current.

Tomorrow - on to Savannah, Georgia.