Savannah to Cumber land Island, November 13 to 18

Savannah to Cumberland Island - November 13 to 18, 2009

We were glad to have sunshine once again as we made our way towards Savannah. Both boats and wildlife were on the move after being holed up waiting for the weather to improve. Just after we crossed the Savannah River three small deer swam across the Elba Island Cut in front of us on their way to Bird Island while a huge OOCL container ship leaving Savannah passed behind us. The railroaders in the audience will know what OOCL stands for.

Deer crossing.

Note the 32 ft sailboat on the left that was put in a holding pattern as the ship went by. When you are that big you always have the right of way.

As we neared Savannah we passed the Bonaventure Cemetery which was made famous by the book and movie ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ , a story built around several murder trials and based on real life events that took place in Savannah in the 1980’s.

Our first night in the Savannah area was spent anchored in the Herb River, just past Thunderbolt on the Wilmington River. In the morning we moved to Hogan’s Marina on Turner Creek on the other side or the Wilmington River. The facilities there are pretty basic (one shower for both the men and the women but only accessible from the ladies washroom) but the Publix grocery store is next door and the stop for the public bus is just across the street. The nice man on the bus pointed us in the direction of the City Market area for a good place for Laurie’s birthday lunch.

Lunch with Marilyn. Happy Birthday Laurie!

Roses made from Palmetto fronds are a common street craft in the South.

Cobblestoned River Street is a popular place to browse, window shop, eat, drink and watch the action on the Savannah River. There is a free dock where you can tie up your boat if you can find space.

The wrought iron balconies do not look very safe.

Every city has its own Happy Hour rules. You might get $1.00 Miller Draft on Sunday, Half price margaritas on Wednesday and Thursday or 2 for 1 martini’s on Saturday. In Savannah, the rule is buy one, get one for $1.00. Of course you’re not going to have just one drink, even if you know that the last bus home leaves in 10 minutes and you have 7 blocks to walk to the bus stop. No problem. In downtown Savannah, you don’t need to finish your drink in the establishment where you bought it. They will give you travelling cups. You don’t even need to ask. And you can take them on the bus.

The Velvet Elvis gave us our first travelling cups.

The gang on the bus ride home to Hogan’s. Mo still has her traveling cup.

Taking the groceries home.

Our next stop in the Savannah area was at the luxurious (comparatively speaking) Isle of Hope Marina with two showers plus laundry facilities and two courtesy vehicles that you can reserve for two hour periods. If you book the last two hour slot in the day you can stay out late and the courtesy van does not turn into a pumpkin.

Here we are at Isle of Hope. Polar Pacer is the little one on the right with the shortest mast.

Isle of Hope mailbox.

Mandarin oranges in the front yard.

We liked downtown Savannah so much we took the courtesy van back there to see if we could find some good blues music. Well, things were pretty quiet at the Mercury Lounge on a Sunday night so we took our cups and went traveling back down to River Street. If you walk past the open door of another drinking establishment while carrying your traveling cups they might encourage you to come in and liven the place up a little. And if you make a musical request that the one man band does not know the words to, he might send one of the bartenders out into the darkness to get a copy of the lyrics so he can sing it for you.

Savannah is full of artists and art galleries. Even the window displays in the retail stores are works of art.

We said goodbye in Isle of Hope to our friends on Kismet and Passages. We need to have the boat hauled to get some work done and need to pick up the pace a little.

In Georgia, the Intracoastal Waterway mostly runs through the swamp marshes, winding its way back and forth and following the deeper channels. In some places the water is not very deep and many boats get stranded waiting for the tide to come back in so they can pass through. The tide can change the water level by as much as nine feet. We only need a little more than three feet of water but places like Jekyll Creek made us nervous when the depth gauge showed four and a half feet. There are many places to anchor along the ICW in Georgia in the small creeks and rivers. There are not a lot of trees so none of them are protected from the wind. They are narrow enough that there is little chance of getting big waves.

These gulls thought we were a fishing boat and followed Polar Pacer hoping to pick up the ones that got away. I’m afraid they will go hungry trying to mooch off of us.

A crab pot at low tide in the Creighton Narrows.

Mud flat in Old Teakettle Creek at low tide.

There are many military bases on the US Eastern coast and when we travel near them it is necessary to monitor the radio channel that they use to advise you that the area is closed if they are going to be doing exercises in the area. We have not encountered any closures but have heard warnings to another boat that was either not on the radio or was not following instructions. They were basically advised to remove themselves from the area or ‘the vessel will be disabled by firing at its stern” Georgia has a submarine base located close to its border with Florida. We were listening carefully.

A submarine parking spot?

Cumberland Island was our last stop in Georgia. It is a popular place for cruisers and we met up again with a number of boats that we had not seen for a while; Brilliant (Stephanie and Pete), Luff Affair (Mary and Don) and Chris Pam Mel (Lois and Howard). The anchorage is quite shallow in spots and there is not much wind protection except from the east.

We took our dinghy in to shore at the Sea Camp station and walked across the island to the beautiful white sand beach on the Atlantic Ocean.

The trail through the live oaks to the beach.

Sand dunes on the Atlantic side of the island.

The island is mostly unpopulated by humans and is reported to be abundant with wildlife. We had seen some of the feral horses on the shore near the northern end of the island when we passed by on the water. On foot, we hoped to see wild turkeys, vultures, armadillos or even wild pigs. There were lots of unidentifiable animal tracks and horse poop in the sand dunes and along the trails but no warm bodies. The single horse that we saw was near the sea camp and so accustomed to people that he couldn’t even be bothered to look at us when we walked by.

One of the feral horses.

Beach combing was productive. There were so many shells it was hard to decide which ones were keepers. There is only so much room to carry them on the boat. It did not take long for Tom to find a sea bean buried in the debris left behind by the tide.

The dark brown one is the sea bean, often used to make jewelry.

A molted Horseshoe crab shell wider than Tom’s size 10 shoe.

Next Stop – Florida!