Tuesday-Thursday, November 12-14,2013

Tuesday, November 12

Today is going to be an easy 30 mile day.   We have reservations for 2 nights at Thunderbolt, GA because of the weather forecast.  We’ve been pushing our boats pretty hard for the last two days and arriving at our anchorages later in the day than we would like…..near dusk!  This makes for 2 tiring days!!!We deserve a night or two at a dock!

We decided to leave the Skull Creek Anchorage by 8 am and thought we had everything timed correctly.  We wanted to pass through today’s trouble spot at the appropriate incoming  tide.  We cruised very, very slowly because low tide at Field’s Cut was at 10:12.  Ha Ha! We still got to the cut sooner than we anticipated..by 11am. When I called Tow Boat US, he seemed to think there would be no problem with us motoring through with a 5 foot draft even at low tide L …don’t think so!  I was warned to follow his directions to a T.  “Keep 50 feet off the shore  that is on our port side when entering at the north. Travel ¼ mile and then move right of center, just like driving a car.  At the south end, motor wide of the dock on our port side”….we’ll wait another hour!

When we neared the cut, the trawler Seawolf passed.  Al called him to see if he could watch the depths and report back to us if he saw anything less than 5 feet.  All of a sudden, Seawolf radioed to let us know that he was grounded and hard!!  He also draws 5 feet.  The tide was coming in and he would have to wait until his boat started to float again! 

It was finally time to attempt Field’s Cut.   We got in line and followed other sailboats through, carefully monitoring the depth finder.  Once through, we motored across the Savannah River, through the Sam Varnedoe Bascule Bridge, and then the State of Georgia  Memorial (fixed) Bridge. Hey, we finally made it to Georgia!   Before we knew it, we were tied up at the Thunderbolt fuel dock….time to diesel up and pump out!! 

We were assigned dockage down a short fairway and along  a long dock….parallel docking!  The winds were very light at the moment and the currents were right, so the guys both decided to back our boats down the fairway.   Who knows what the winds and current might be doing when we decide to leave in a few days.  This way, we will just motor away from the dock bow first!!  Once both boats were tied up securely, we had time to look around.  Our boats looked so small compared to the Mega-Yachts docked further in!  The largest is 198 feet.  Thunderbolt Marina is known for their great mechanics and they service these very expensive yachts…both power and sail.

It’s so nice here today that it’s hard to imagine that we had snow back home in Ohio this morning!  Once we were dockside, we had to take our layers of clothing off, down to our t-shirts.  Wait until tonight!  We have our heater ready to turn on when that blast from the cold front hits us this evening….it’s suppose to drop to the mid-thirties.  Yikes!!  We’ll enjoy the warmth while we have it.

We walked to Tubby’s Tank which is a cute Tiki Bar and Grill.  The atmosphere here is so great….palm trees, lush green plants, and two decks that were built around the Live Oak trees.  We went for a walk to stretch our legs and decided to stop here for a drink.  Crazy that we are, we then walked to the Bi-Low grocery store.  It was suppose to be 1 mile out….I have my doubts about that!!   Lugging grocery bags on our way back, we stopped at Tubby’s again for a bite to eat.  Then it was back to the boat  and then off to do the laundry! 

Palm or Palmetto

Sights on our walk tonight!

Anchors

Shrimp Boats

 

Wednesday, November 13

Boy did the weather change quickly last night.  By the time I was finished with the laundry, the winds were gusting up to 40 kts and this lasted all night!   Our boat was listing and pinned to the dock all night!!  We had to turn the heater on because the temperatures were dropping into the thirties.   We are so glad that we made the decision to be at a dock and not on the hook!   

We are going to have a land adventure today.  It started with finding  a half dozen Crispy Crème donuts delivered to our cockpit!  How nice!!  Our plans were to take advantage of being on land and so we decided to take the bus and visit Savannah, Ga.   We had to walk about 6 blocks to the Savannah University to get bus 12 and then transfer to bus 14.  The second bus dropped us off in front of  St John’s  Baptist Church….that was easy!  From there we walked to the Visitor Center,  to see if they had maps of the city .  They informed us that we could get the FREE DOT shuttle  in front of their building. Colette  suggested that we ride the entire loop, which is about 20 minutes, and check off where we’d like to stop on our second ride around….great plan!! 

The bus driver was awesome.  He was like our own private tour guide!  By the time we made the first complete circuit, we all were having hunger pains.  So we stopped and ate at the ‘Pirate House’.  Legend has it that the pirates frequented this tavern when they sailed up the river into Savannah.  It was a neat building to check out the brick walls, old wooden floors, etc.  There even was a female pirate giving tours and singing sea chanteys.  We were glad that we stopped! 

After lunch we walked down to the River Walk to see the statue of the ‘Waving Girl’.  Supposedly this young girl, Florence Martus, would stand at the river’s edge each day waving at all the boats while waiting for her lover to return….he never did.  From there, we continued along the river and walked  through the Riverside Market area.  I bet this is a busy place during the summer months! We spent the afternoon strolling around and checking out the ‘squares’ on our way back to the bus stop.  Once we got on the bus back to the marina, we felt a sense of accomplishment for having conquered the public transit system….until we missed our stop by 6 blocks!  But hey, it’s all an adventure, right?

Other sites while walking through Savannah!

In front of Savannah

Pay Phone???

River Walk



150 ft sailboat

Fountain in Square

Cityhall

One of the many 'squares'.

Once back to the boats, we all decided to hang out on sv/Euphoria to watch a cd on 60&70’s singing groups and then plan for tomorrow’s trip.  It was an early night in preparation for tomorrow. 

Thursday, November 14

Wow, we woke up to find another half dozen Crispy Cremes!

Nine am was to be our departure time,  but we decided to stay one more night…and no, it wasn’t to get more free donuts!  Al wasn’t feeling well so we thought it would be best to stay and make our move tomorrow.   This was the perfect time for us to order our Decal which we need when reentering the US.  Talk about not being user friendly!  It took 2 ½  hours for me to complete the entire process online.  At one point, I had to call the Customs Dept for help.

In the afternoon, we decided to catch the bus again and ride to a small plaza that had a Home Depot, Staples, Dollar Tree, and Target.  Chuck broke our shower nozzle and was hoping to find a replacement.   It gave us an excuse to get out and walk.  Riding the bus back to our stop, the guys wanted to visit the Riverside Marine near Tubby’s Bar and Grill.  It was pretty amazing to find a boating store that had more supplies than West Marine!  Did we stop for a bite to eat?  Why not?

After dinner, Colette and I decided to wash our sheets. Cruisers need to be thrifty, so we threw our sheets in the washer and dryer together and split the cost.   Great idea.  It didn’t  take long  and since  the night was still young, we decided to play Mexican Train.  Al  was tonight’s winner!!  Woot, Woot, Woot!

It’s a calm night on the dock tonight!