05/25/08 Savannah, Georgia

As we lift anchor the moon's visible in the blue sky. When you are traveling the ICW you notice the moon and it's not with romance in mind. It's those tides again...the pull of the moon can make shallow channels even more treacherous or cause you to be visually disoriented because there's more water than normal and the edges of the channel are not as defined . The phase of the moon comes up for discussion frequently.

As we cross Sapelo Sound you get a good look out into the North Atlantic.

Our usual supervision is available via the pole wires.
Notice the support poles at the base of the utility pole.
It's a beautiful day to be traveling the ICW of Georgia

Going Ashore...

There seems to be lots of people that agree with them.
Most sandy beaches we pass have crowds enjoying the day.
This particular stretch was very popular.

Many of the hummocks were created by sailing ships dropping off their ballast long ago.
Occasionally the stones, unusual to the area, can be seen.

We cross St Catherine's Sound and anchor for the night at a small creek that has some confusion about its' name. Most charts show no name, others call it Birthday or Little Tom Creek. Since it's right next to Big Tom Creek, maybe it was named after Little Tom had a Birthday?? Whatever the official name may be it was a great little spot to anchor and even Sas got some time outside.
Now this story has no pictures but must be told so I'll use Bob's words as sent to some friends: You are not going to believe this but while we were anchored in an unnamed creek near Kilkenny Cr. GA a 4ft ray jumped up and hit the port side of the cabin, then slid along on it's side till it reached the forward end of the cockpit then slid back over. Made a heck of a racket. Ovida was in the head and I was sitting on the cooler in the cockpit facing fwd. Quite a shock. I heard a loud bang. Looked up from reading and saw this ray sliding along the deck on it's side. Sas was with me. I leaped up to the stbd cockpit seat and Sas jumped below. The ray was white underneath and black on top. If Ithe boat had double lifelines he wouldn't have been able to slide off, he would have ended up in the cockpit and maybe down below in the main cabin since the slides were out. That would have been interesting. What are the odds?

Well, from what we have heard since then the odds of seeing a ray in these creeks is pretty good. They are frequently seen jumping out of the water, so we'll have to believe his story. Since I wasn't available to witness it I can't vouch for the flying fish, but I can say there was such a bang to the side of the boat, shaking and rattling that I thought we had been hit by something. Guess we were!

Too soon the sun set & everyone got tucked in for the night.

Now it must be my Birthday because I get to do some steering today.

Bob takes over steering the boat using the ranges to keep us in deep water...so to speak.

There is a top range -
and a bottom range

These ranges were rear ranges (going North) so we made our turn (you can see the wake in the water) and then kept the ranges in line till we reached the indicated area where you either pick up new ranges or resume following the markers. Bob lines up the ranges to keep us in the channel and deep water.

We're back to a populated area. You can tell by the variety of flags flying that people are drawn to this area and from the new construction it continues to be so.

We approach the bascule bridge at Skidaway Narrows and make our way once again to Isle of Hope where Hakuna Matata docks for a couple of days and an excursion to Savannah.Hakuna Matata dockside at Isle of Hope

This boat had been sailing 'outside,' as they say (Atlantic Ocean) but was taking on more water than their pumps could handle. The marina staff stayed over to lend them a hand with an extra pump. The boat is now stored on dry land and the crew has returned home. We are grateful that we have not had such a serious problem as to end our journey.

Here's a pretty little yellow boat cruising by. Just right for two.

The next morning we walked up the street and caught the local bus to Savannah
We had limited time due to the bus schedule so we took a trolley tour of Savannah.

Savannah is designed around parks or in this case squares. Each one seemed to have its own theme with historic buildings surrounding it.
Although the trolley allowed us to see the city quickly and was very informative, it did not work out well for sharing with pictures.
Well maybe the back of a few heads...
and an occasional out the window shot.
Some of the streets were quite narrow and interesting.
This one took you to the waterfront where we saw the Olympic Caldron (remember when they were in Savannah?) The Waving Girl (there's a story behind this statue - well maybe behind them all but this one was very unique to the area). The area is filled with history including home of Juliette Gordon Low (Girl Scouts). Savannah was the setting for many movies...hey, we saw Forrest Gumps' bench site where he spoke those now famous words... "My Mother Said, Life is Like a Box of Chocolates."

Our tour ended at the City Market where we had lunch before hitting a couple of the shops.

I visited The Art Center and the studio of Michael Wozniak where I fell in love with his water colors. I purchased a small painting that would fit on the boat.
A nice surprise, other than his great paintings was that he paints the paper that he wraps your purchase in after asking your favorite color....yellow, of course ,with green and red. You can bet this wrapping paper will be saved! What fun.

But now it's time to say good-bye to Isle of Hope and move on up the Waterway

This is the last longing look at Georgia as we cross the Savannah River into South Carolina.