Saturday, October 30, 2010 – Blackbeard Creek at Blackbeard Island

 
We spent some time cleaning and straightening the boat up during the morning hours in anticipation of our friends’ arrival at the anchorage later in the day. Life’s 2 Short came in around noon. Todd and Brenda had brought along their friends, Steve and Lisa, who were joining them for a few days of cruising. A couple of hours later, September Song, Sea Pearl and Tide Hiker filed through Blackbeard Creek and into the anchorage where they surrounded Blue Heron as though the wagons were circling around to protect her. All of these boats were 40 to 50 foot trawlers, and everyone was heading to Florida. From there, some had plans to head to the Bahamas after the winter cold fronts quit coming through from the north.

 

After everyone had settled in, several took their dinghies out in search of firewood for tonight’s weenie roast on the beach. Before sunset, everyone gathered on the southern point of the island for drinks, hot dogs, snacks and a lot of fun. We met Norm and Vicky of Tide Hiker, Joe and Julia of Sea Pearl, Bob and Stephanie of September Song and Todd and Brenda’s friends, Steve and Lisa. It was a perfect night for a bonfire! 
 
 
 

Friday, October 29, 2010 – Blackbeard Creek at Blackbeard Island

What a beautiful anchorage! And what an amazing thing the tide is! In Georgia, the tide is typically around 8 feet or more and there are two highs and two lows each day. It was fun to be anchored in one spot and watch the ebb and flow of the tide and the resulting change in the landscape.

Gale did some fishing during the day but only had a couple of nibbles and couldn’t boat anything. He spoke with various fishermen coming through and none of them were catching anything either. They told him the water was a good deal muddier than usual due to yesterday’s storm and that probably had something to do with it.

Early in the afternoon, we were on the boat enjoying the day, when we looked up to see what looked like a balloon in the distance. It turned out to be the Goodyear Blimp!! And we thought we were in a very remote location. It must have been traveling to a big football game. . .

 

Later in the afternoon, we decided to cross over the sand dunes and check out the beach on the Atlantic side. With the tide going out, all we could see was miles of deserted beach with lovely sand that felt like finely granulated sugar. It was fairly flat, easy to walk on and had very little debris from the ocean. There were hundreds of sand dollars, dozens of dead horseshoe crabs and along the tide line we found many cat’s eye shells and a few olive shells without looking very hard.
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The evening was peaceful with a light breeze blowing. The sunset was stunning and when the stars came out, we were in awe!
 

Thursday, October 28, 2010 – Blackbeard Creek at Blackbeard Island near ICW mile 635

 
 
 
 We left Isle of Hope at 7:20 in order to make the 8 am opening at Skidaway Narrows Bridge, three miles down the way. The current was in our favor, so it took less than twenty minutes to get to the bridge. It was a very pleasant traveling day with temperatures in the mid-70’s to mid-80’s, a light southerly wind and partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies. We covered the forty miles to Sapello Sound and the mouth of Blackbeard Creek in good time and then slowed down for the last eight miles as we snaked around the many bends in the creek to our anchorage at the southern tip of Blackbeard Island.

As we were deciding exactly where we would anchor, we could see there was a storm quickly approaching from the north. The clouds were dark and building rapidly. A check on the weather radio indicated that the wind was going to be from the southwest for the time being then switch to the northwest and blow 25 to 30 mph sometime after midnight. We set two bow anchors at about 45-degrees to each other, attached the bridle for a smoother ride and less tangling, wound up and tied down the burgees so they wouldn’t get as beat up in the wind, closed and latched the hatches and made sure everything else was secure. We were grateful to have had the time to settle in and ready for the storm before it hit around 4:30 pm.

After dinner, Gale hoisted the antenna up the mast a short distance and was able to get a few television stations. In honor of Halloween, we watched ‘Amityville II’.

 

Wednesday, October 27, 2010 – Isle of Hope – at anchor next to marina

Much of the morning was spent on the computers. Gale also switched out the anchors and exchanged the Danforth, which we had been using as our main anchor in the Chesapeake Bay, for the heavier Delta anchor, which will serve us better in Florida. We had to vacate the slip before 1 pm to allow for the new cruisers arriving but before going out to anchor, we stopped at the fuel dock for diesel and gasoline. After fueling up, we traveled only a few hundred feet before dropping the hook for the night where we could still use the marina’s WiFi signal and be out of the channel and in good position to leave early in the morning.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010 – Isle of Hope Marina near Savannah, GA

 
We had signed up to use the loaner car from 9 to 11 am to make a run to Walmart. Before leaving, Gale took the power cord up to the marina office to have it looked at and tested, if possible. The young man who had been on the dock last night told Gale he had seen the lightning strike the mast but was not aware of the power cord problem. About two feet of the yellow plastic outside insulation had been sliced or torn open but the electrical wires inside the cord were all intact and the current was flowing properly. It just needed to be taped up and could still be used. Before the trip to Walmart (in case we needed to pick up anything for repairs), we checked all of the electrical loads on the boat and found no damage. Hooray!

 
 
 
We used the car to have a propane tank filled, to return some items to West Marine, to pick up other needed items at Walmart and a quick stop at the Post Office before returning to the marina at 11:45 am. At 1 pm, we walked to the nearby bus stop and took the shuttle into the city. Our first stop was the Visitors Center where we watched a short film on the history of Savannah and signed up for a 90-minute trolley tour. We got off at the last stop of the tour and walked along the riverfront where we browsed in a few shops, sampled some fresh pecan candy and boiled peanuts, and then stepped into One-Eyed Lizzy’s for dinner. Afterwards, we called a taxi who delivered us back to the marina before the sun went down.


 
 

Monday, October 25, 2010 – Isle of Hope Marina near Savannah, GA

Surprisingly, we did not experience any thunderstorms last night. We had put out two bow anchors yesterday and had some difficulty getting them up with the strong current, the wind and the location of the anchors. All of these things were working against our ability to retrieve them easily so we ended up tying a float to the line of the second anchor, letting it go and then returning to fish it out after the main anchor was brought aboard.

We were on our way shortly after 9 am and arrived at the Isle of Hope Marina an hour later where we took a slip. Life’s 2 Short was still on the dock, but they were preparing to leave within the hour and head to their friends’ dock about 50 miles further south. After we were secure in our slip, we gave Todd and Brenda a hand as they maneuvered out of theirs. The boats were packed in pretty tightly and it took an experienced captain and some help on the dock to overcome the current and get away safely.

After we were checked in, we borrowed one of the marina’s loaner cars to do our provisioning. While Maureen was at the grocery store, Gale drove to West Marine to pick up several items, not the least of which was a spare water pump that we believed will need to be installed soon. Our current pump has been sounding “funny” so it probably won’t last much longer.

We were back at the marina by 3 pm and took some time to stow things away. After that, Maureen gathered up the laundry to use the marina’s washer and dryer and Gale continued on with boat chores. We finished our tasks around sunset and just before a severe thunderstorm hit. During a big surge of water, our shore power cord was yanked out of the connection to the boat and the breaker on the dock’s power pedestal was tripped. This proved to be quite fortuitous since almost immediately following the surge, the boat was struck by lightning. We were not aware of the lightning strike at the time – we only knew we were without power – but there had been a dockhand out in the storm assisting a boat into the slip next to us and witnessed the strike on our mast which arced out from the spreader bars and sideways to the boat that had just arrived.

Sunday, October 24, 2010 – Turner Creek, GA (ICW mile 585.5)

 
 
 
The primary concern for the evening anchorage was to be able to get an NBC television station so we could watch Sunday Night Football, the Vikings vs. the Packers. We pulled out of Bull Creek at 8:30 am and headed out to Turner Creek where we planned to anchor near Hogan’s Marina. Hogan’s is located adjacent to a Publix grocery store and we were in need of some provisions. Todd and Brenda were bound for Isle of Hope Marina, about five miles further down the way, and were going to stay one night there. We told them we’d probably see them next at the Blackbeard anchorage next weekend.

On our way, we passed the famous cemetery in Savannah where some scenes in the movie, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” were filmed. About that time, the skies were beginning to look very dark inland and we thought we might get caught in a thunderstorm.

We avoided the storms and arrived at Turner Creek shortly after noon to find good holding near Hogan’s Marina. The only problem was we were swarmed by no-seeums. We could tell that it was not going to be fun at all, so we pulled up anchor and left the creek to anchor out in the wider Wilmington River where we were in a much more open area. We even had a bit of a breeze which helped to keep the pests away. The skies were still looking a bit “iffy,” so we chose to forget about provisioning for another day and just relaxed on the boat.

Our team didn’t win the game. We were counting on Brett Favre to take the Vikings through to another victory against their Packer rivals, but it wasn’t to be. The Vikings lost, 24-28.