to Osprey Marina

We spent one extra day in Charleston because of the winds and a morning of rain. Our slip at the Charleston Maritime Center Marina was open to Charleston Harbor so the winds, currents, and passing boats made for a rocky stay with much squeaking of dock lines and fenders. Although we loved Charleston, we were glad to untie from that dock. We anchored out for one night and then stopped for a night at Georgetown, SC. Lots of boats in the harbor as we came in.
This is the view down the main business street of this small historical town....

... and the backside of the buildings open up onto the boardwalk along the waterfront.

We picked up some shrimp at the local fish market and had a shrimp dinner on our boat with Jack and Nan. Although we've done much of the Loop by ourselves, we are enjoying traveling with them. We really enjoy their company and have lots of laughs together. We all like to do the same kinds of things on our shore excursions and we are working off similar budgets. The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast out, then took our bikes for a tour around the town which has its share of historical homes on beautiful tree lined streets.

We left about noon for a short cruise to our next anchorage and immediately noticed that more trees began to appear along the shore line. This was the entrance to Thoroughfare Creek.

After anchoring the boat we took the dinghy to explore a small "canal neighborhood" that was shown on the navigational charts. There was a central canal cut, here's the view looking into the central canal from the Creek.

... and then about 5 branches of canals off in both directions. The banks were mud and there were only one or two houses with docks in each canal.

The houses were quite rustic, we were beginning to wonder what this "development" was all about.

We took the dinghy over to the small sand hill directly across from our anchored boat. This was beginning to remind us alot of the Upper Mississippi River.

Nice sand, we climbed the hill and found this path among the trees. We hadn't had a favorite anchorage for a while, but Thoroughfare Creek is definitely in our top ten.

On the other side of the hill, we found ourselves overlooking the dead end of one of the canals we were just exploring.

Later in the day, Jack and Nan met some locals on the sand hill who told them that a developer had cut the canals without getting any permits, so the project was never finished. They also said the folks who built there were squatters. Interesting story.

The water was flat calm and perfectly quiet that night. Steve put out a stern anchor to keep us from swinging because we get more consistent TV reception when we don't move. With just rabbit ears and a digital TV we get an average of 10 channels even in the most remote anchorages. Today's cruise brought us through the most beautiful section of the ICW that we've seen. Thick trees right up to the bank. Lots of cypress trees with their cypress knees.

We arrived at Osprey Marina by noon, this time getting a push from the incoming tide. Osprey is well known on the ICW for its dockage rates (only $1/foot, we haven't seen that since we left the rivers) and fuel prices ($2.66/gal with BOATUS discount). When we got to the turn off, boats were waiting in the channel to get to the fuel docks. We found lots to like here including a welcome bag that included crackers and cheese among other goodies. Great homemade burgers and potato salad, friendly folks, and a great layout with everything close. It's tucked into the woods just off the ICW and the only drawback is that there's nothing nearby to see or do, so it was a great place to do a major boat cleaning (Steve) and a huge load of laundry (Liz). We had a couple of windy and cool days (upper 60's), but it's back to sunny, calm and warm so we'll be moving on up the coast tomorrow.

Charleston Update

We had a lazy morning today for the first time since we left the Keys. In the afternoon we took our bikes to tour Charleston. Gotta say it again, what a great town, so much to see and do we can't possibly cover it all in this short visit and I can't possibly convey how fabulous it is with a few photos, but here's a bit of what we saw today. This is a fountain at the city park that is along the waterway.

The historical part of the city is the tip of a peninsula that was laid out as a city in the 1700's Many of the streets are quite narrow.

At the southern end of the peninsula is the "battery", so named because it was originally set up as a line of defense against the constantly invading French and Spanish. The homes built in the battery in the 1800's overlook the water and are among the finest in the city.

This is the sidewalk we rode on to see these lovely homes.

Each home is unique and beautifully restored. The flowers are all in bloom and the landscaping is meticulous. Many of the homes have elaborate formal gardens in the back, but they cannot be seen from the street. Notice the vines covering the archway. This is commonly seen with vines sometimes covering the entire foundation.

The wrought iron work on this one was spectacular.

There's been wedding receptions on the patio of the marina for the past two nights. We were relieved to know that the Chicken Dance and the Macareena are played at weddings in SC, just as they are in MN. There are also tour boats, schooners, party boats and the water taxi all running out of this marina. Just a few blocks away is Harris Teeters, a nice upscale grocery store, another reason to love this location. It was cloudy today and there is a bit of a storm front coming this way, so our departure tomorrow is tentative at this time. We've had calm and sunny days since we left the Keys and have become almost complacent about checking the weather, but will be keeping a close watch tonight and tomorrow.

Charleston, SC

We are still in the land of 7 to 9 foot tides, twice daily. The heavy duty concrete floating docks at all the marinas move up and down on huge concrete spud poles that are covered with barnacles and become exposed when the tide goes down. The tides also make for some strong currents, sometimes pushing you along and sometimes slowing our boat to a snail's pace. We are used to anchoring in strong currents, but the currents here change direction while you sleep !!! Here's a spud pole covered with barnacles.

When we left the Isle of Hope Marina, we passed this mega yacht boatyard. These are just a couple of the huge boats we saw there.

As we entered the Savannah River (the ICW crosses pretty much straight across it), we saw this huge container ship coming up the river. Captain Steve decided (wisely) not to try to cross in front of him, so we turned to our starboard and opted for a port to port pass.

We were very close .... it was quite thrilling ...

... and then we turned to port, over his wake, and were on our merry way.

On the way to Charleston, we anchored out twice and had a "day stop" at Beaufort, SC. Pronounced BEW ford, there is a courtesy dock where you can stay all day, but not overnight. Here are Shingebiss and Eschaton at the dock. We unloaded the bikes and toured this charming and beautiful small historic town.

The road along the river is lined with southern style homes.

... and beautiful old live oaks drapped in Spanish moss.

We had a great gumbo and muffaletta lunch in the downtown, walked along the new riverwalk park, then returned to the boats to continue on to the next anchorage. We're seeing more homes along the waterway and they all have extrememly long piers leading out to their floating docks.

The scenery is beautiful as we wind our way through the rivers, inlets, and manmade cuts that connect them all to form the ICW. There's not nearly as much traffic on the ICW as we expected, especially this time of year as all the boating snowbirds and Loopers head north. Some days we hardly see another boat until we get to the anchorage or marina.

We arrived at Charleston and are at the Charleston Maritime Center Marina. Last evening we strolled through a historical residential area right near the marina and into the restaurant and market area. Very, very cool city. Today we took the water taxi across the harbor to Patriots Point where the aircraft carrier Yorktown and the submarine Clamadore are on display. The Yorktown served from WWII to the Vietnam War and has been at Charleston since 1975. Even though it's an older carrier, having never been on one before, we thought it was quite impressive.

We went up on the flight deck and saw the fighter jets on display.

Down in the engine room there were endless dials and controls.

The Yorktown is set up as a museum and as a tribute to those who have served our country, telling their stories with memorabilia and pictures.

This is the control room of the submarine.

This was the last diesel powered submarine, so again was an older model, but still very interesting. We spent the entire day at Patriots Point, there was so much to see. Tonight we are relaxing on the boat, listening to the Minnesota Twins beat the KC Royals on XM radio, our new entertainment option. Tomorrow we plan to bike around Charleston and see more of this great city.

Savannah, GA

We had read that some cruisers don't care for the coastal landscape of Georgia, but we have found it to be quite enjoyable. Alot of small rivers and creeks flow into the ICW and many of them provide fine places to anchor for the night. Much of the scenery looks like this, with the salt marshes coming right down to the edge of the water and the trees in the background.

The marshes look like this up close.

We left Jekyll Island and met up with Jack and Nan on Eschaton. You might remember them from back on the Florida panhandle and yes, they are still cruising the Loop in their Gibson houseboat and doing fine. Here they are coming over to our boat for dinner at one of the two anchorages we shared on our cruise to Savannah.

As we move further north, the trees are starting to increase slightly, here's the view we had leaving our second anchorage.

We're getting into a bit of a rhythm of anchoring for a couple of days followed by a marina stay in order to tour the historic cities. When we got to Isle of Hope Marina, we took the bikes for a ride through this small peaceful town near Savannah. This is the road that runs right by the marina and we found every street looked like this with huge live oak trees and lush foliage. Spring has come to this part of the country.

We biked out to the historic site called Wormsloe, where we pedaled down a 1.5 mile "oak alley". At the end of the road is the ruins of a house within a small fort built by Georgia's first settlers.

The next day we took a city bus into Savannah. We hopped on the Old Town Trolley to get an overview of this remarkable city. The city is jam packed with beautifully preserved historic homes. I took pictures of some of them out the trolley window as the driver narrated stories of how their builders and originals owners fit into Georgia's history. No two are alike.

The historic district is up on a bluff high above the Savannah River a few miles off the ICW. It was laid out in squares with 24 of the squares made into parks. The parks are full of ancient live oaks draped in spanish moss and are absolutely beautiful. Every two blocks another park appears with the houses built all around them. On the trolley tour, you can get off to walk around, and then jump back on the next trolley as they come by every 15 minutes. We loved walking through these amazing landscapes.

Each park square has a historically significant monument or a fountain in its center. This one had a beautiful fountain.

Then back on the trolley for more house and more history.

We lunched at the Pirate House Restaurant, where I had to have a picture of this Jack Sparrow wannabe. He actually looked quite like him.

The final part of the Trolley Tour took us down the hill to River Street. This part of Savannah is the most recent part of town to be renovated. All the old warehouses, many of which had been abandoned for years, have been revitalized and turned into shoppes and eateries.

The weather continues to be warm and sunny, the seas have been smooth, and we've really enjoyed cruising and site seeing with Jack and Nan.

Jekyll Island

After a couple of nights of anchoring, we arrived at beautiful Jekyll Island. This is the office at Jekyll Harbor Marina, but don't be fooled by the down home appearance. This is a friendly and well run marina with great WiFi and cable TV. The floating concrete docks are designed to accomodate the 7-9 foot twice daily tides.

This is the walkway up to the restaurant, the azaleas are in full bloom all over the island.

Jekyll Island is only 7 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. There are 22 miles of bike paths winding through the old forest, along the beaches, and to the historical village that makes this island so unique.

In the late 1800's a group of famous and wealthy families bought the island for their winter retreat. They built a clubhouse, put up individual "cottages" for their families, and outfitted the island with tennis courts, a golf course and a marina for their yachts. After a good run of about 50 years, the club disbanded and the island was purchased by the state of Georgia. The original clubhouse is now the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. The bike trail led us to the hotel.

The marina is right on the ICW and is a favorite stop for Loopers and ICW Snowbirds. This morning we returned to the hotel with Loopers Richard and Laura (boat: Laura Lee) for breakfast. This is the view down the hallway to the dining room.

Here are Steve, Laura, and Richard in the courtyard.

We biked to the beach on the Atlantic side. The water is brown tinged from the all the sand that is being stirred up from the north winds that have been blowing much of the winter.

We finally saw our first alligators (in the wild) in this pond on the bike path.

Jekyll Island is a wonderful stop and we really enjoyed our time here. Tonight we spent some time with Greg and Judy (boat: Majic II) who have a Mainship just one year newer than ours. It was fun to see their "sister ship", in excellent condition, but a completely different interior than ours. All the Loopers and Snowbirds, who were spread out all over Florida and the Bahamas for the winter, are now now heading north on the ICW. Next stop will be Savannah, GA.