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.

05/22/08 Frederica

We head out of Jekyll Creek towards
St Simons Sound.

There's someone already at work this morning.

As we leave the Creek there's our usual review board of birds set to watch us make the turn.
We're hoping they will give us a '10' as we manuver around the point

The birds hover and splash about the fishing boat coming in with her catch.

The weather is warm today and there are also people along the banks.
We begin to make our turn off the ICW and up the Frederica River.
The banks are sparkling and green.

Birds bob along on the buoys.

New home under construction

Older home peeking out at us
Osprey skimming along the water with us in search of food

and just around the bend is Ft. Frederica National Park.
Although it is listed as Ft Frederica there was a settlement at this location.

The dock warns us that it is dry
2 hrs before and 2 hrs after low tide.
That means there are 4 hours that the dock is dry and
time before and beyond that the water isn't high enough to float your boat!
There's got to be some planning involved in going ashore here.

Anchoring also proved to be a challenge.
The combination of the wind and current had Hakuna Matata just lazily sitting broadside in the river not reacting to either and not helping set the anchor. Bob had to convince her to do otherwise with our faithful dinghy and soon had us swinging securely on two anchors. Many of the creeks are beautiful to visit but can have swift currents and a wide range in tide.

We were comfortable leaving her to go ashore
confident that she'd be waiting in this spot when we returned.

What you are looking at on the upper left bank is the structure that most recognize as being the fort. However it is the remains of the fort's powder magazine. The fort was actually much larger.


When you enter the park from Frederica River you walk through a wooded section before coming upon the ruins.

We made our way to the main entrance of the town where we paid the fee and wandered about in the store/museum. Our first visit was short as the tide was dropping and we had to return quickly before our dink was high & dry. Since the timing of today's tide made it difficult to thoroughly see the town we remained at anchor another day and returned to Frederica and her fascinating history.

The museum had a great variety of displays
including a basket of period clothing to try on. (Not my size!- I tried)

We watched a short fascinating movie on the history of Frederica and took this with us as we toured the town reading the markers and marveling at what had once been.

Near the entrance was the remains of the old cemetery

If you notice the pictures are a little dark. Just as we got ashore it began to sprinkle so Bob returned to the boat for our rain gear. Of course once he returned with it the rain stopped. That was ok by us but it did make just a little dreary.

This was an example of the town's garden.

This marker showed the layout of Frederica. The fort is in the top section along the river.

According to the information given us: James Oglethorpe was responsible for the development of this settlement. In 1736 he brough 44 men, 72 women & children and laid out a military town on the bluff overlooking a sharp bend on the inland passage up the coast of Georgia. Oglethorpe staked out 84 lots, most of them measuring 60 x 80 feet. Each family received a lot for building and 50 acres in the country for crops.

Initially many of the early settlers built this type of palmetto hut to live in as they constructed their homes.

In 1739 war broke out between Britain and Spain ranging from the Caribbean to the Georgia coast and Frederica. Expecting a Spanish attach, Oglethorpe enclosed the town within an earthen wall and a palisaded moat, 10' wide fed by the river.

Notice the contour of the land in many locations indicating a moat was once here.

In the 1740's Frederica might have passed for a village in the English midlands. The population reached about 500, and the town took on an air of permanency. Tradespeople and skilled workers prospered. Farmers grew crops in the surrounding fields, doing the work themselves, for slavery was banned in the colony.

We learned that the early excavation of the Hawking-Davison Houses assisted greatly in determining the layout of the town. From this site they were able to locate other dwellings and reconstruct the town.

At each site we stopped to read the history of the area or building
and viewed some artifacts that had been uncovered during the excavation of the town.

Remnant of barracks that housed most of the hundreds of soldiers.

Some lived in palmetto-thatched huts.

Oglethorpe sailed from Frederica to England for the last time in 1743. The regiment was disbanded in 1749 and without the money brought by the several hundred soldiers the town could hardly prosper. Born of war, Frederica expired with the coming of peace and fell into ruin.

Lost to time and a wandering river, Frederica today barely resembles the extensive military town that once flourished here. With the guide in hand we browsed through the town site and left feeling as though we had visited the settlement of the military town of Frederica.

A crabber hard at work in the river.

Red winged black birds were sitting on the tall grass as we sailed by
as the marsh seems to go on forever.
There was a lot of display going on especially with the larger herons.

We re-enter the ICW at the MacKay River.

This turns out to be the day we see the most dolphins
who are also putting on quite a display for us.

Notice the little one snuggled in at the top.

The dolphins leave us.

We anchor in the Dublin River and get our awning up just in time.
The rain drops are huge and a river is soon running down our decks.
But we're staying dry and contemplating the course we'll take tomorrow.