4/2/18: Yes -the heading is correct! Today we needed to go through Hell Gate. That is the main reason we travelled so far yesterday, so that we would be close – within about 10 miles – of Hell Gate to traverse it on a rising/near high tide. We had a very peaceful night in the anchorage at Big Tom Creek. We woke up around 7:00, and I looked outside. I could not see the ICW from our position…. FOG again! Dangit! It was really thick. Dangit! I went back to bed. The radar was acting up yesterday afternoon, and I wasn’t sure Kenny got it back in dependable operation. But- we either have to get up and go, or we don’t go until tomorrow. We don’t want to take chances with Hell Gate with less than half tide. Other people would, but it’s not what we want to do. So – let’s get ready and go. I go back up to the salon and look out, and it is way better out there! I can even see the sun coming out! And the trawler that was sitting back at the end of the creek was coming out. Her name was Serenity.
The anchor goddess went up on the bow to bring up the anchor, with weiner dog hose & squirter in hand. Based on the mud that we saw on the banks of the creek, I figured I would have a big ol’ mess. But no! The chain came up very clean. We had to coax the anchor to unset itself. We had swung around on it with the tidal current, and it held great! I finally got it up, and the anchor scoop was piled with thick schmutz. It looked like coquina – remember that shell/sand combo the early settlers made forts out of? Captain put Island Girl in gear, and I just let the anchor swim for a little while, because my squirter didn’t seem to have enough thermonuclear jet pressure for this material. Swimming got most of the cement off, then I was able to scrape it off with the dock grabber pole and clean it with the squirter.
We already watched Serenity head out, then we saw Next Act go by. We pulled out into the ICW and went past a sailboat. It joined the parade behind us. And soon there was another big trawler behind him, and a smaller one behind him. We were all going to the same place looking at Hell Gate and the tide with the same idea.
We got to Hell Gate, and it looked completely different than either of us had pictured. We thought it would be a narrow cut between two pieces of land. But instead, it was a lot of water, with a narrow unseen channel to wind our way through. The big trawler from behind us had caught up and we let him go first. He (Aslan) had a keel that would hit before his props, so it seemed like a good idea to let the big boat go first. No problems for either of us- I love our new Navionics sonar app! It showed the deepest water, and was right on the money with what we saw on the depth finder. Aslan and Captain both gave the sailboat behind us an update on the radio to help him through. We’re all on the same team here!
Another 10 miles or so, and we were at our destination for the day – before 11:00!! Isle of Hope marina, near Savannah Georgia. It is just a small suburb town to Savannah, with some really nice older southern homes.
We hopped on our bikes (yep – Captain too), and rode about a mile to another little area called Sandfly. What a name! And we had lunch at the Sandfly BBQ. It was great! On the way back, we stopped for a couple of pictures at Wormsloe Historic Site. This used to be a huge plantation with a 1.5 miles driveway, canopied by over 400 live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss. It is now a park, with a $10 per person admission fee. We just took pictures at the entrance, then headed back to the boat. It was beautiful.
Surprisingly, the estate included a fortified house that was part of a network of defensive structures established by James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, and early Georgia colonists to protect Savannah from a potential Spanish invasion. (Those darn Floridians again.)
Back at the boat, we let lunch settle a bit with some relaxation. The marina has a courtesy car with a two hour limit, but we wanted to be gone longer than that. So we ordered up an UBER to take us into old town Savannah. It was $15/each way, but we had all day, and I love walking along the waterfront in Savannah. We have been there a couple of times in the last year, so I don’t have a lot new to add here. (You can search our blog to find our previous exploits there.) Our UBER driver was a hoot! She was such a fun southern gal, who’s full time job is driving a cement truck! She had the best stories about raising kids and how her momma fusses at her for working too much. I love listening to southern gals get all wound up talking fast with all their southernisms in their own slang language and drawl. She had us both laughing the whole 15 minute ride. Definitely worth the price of the Uber ride!
We had her drop us off at Moon River Brewing Company. This is a micro brewery set up in an old historic Bank of America building. They had a nice little courtyard for the bar and restaurant. Captain tried a couple of beers, which tasted good. It was actually around 80 degrees today! YAY for some warmness!
Then we walked down to the waterfront. The buildings down there are so cool! Some of the entryways into bars & restaurants just look like they still belong in the 1700’s with pirates and scallywags comin and goin.
While we were down on the waterfront, we saw a couple of boats docked, so we went over to see. Hey! It’s Serenity – the boat that was in the same creek with us last night! They were sitting out on their upper deck, (which was still quite a bit lower than where we were standing.) We were invited on board, and we visited with them for a couple of hours. They are from Rhode Island, and heading back north. We have been in the same marina with them several times, but just hadn’t connected with them yet. They were staying here at the dock on the river in Old Town. It is a noisy, busy river, but kind of cool to be right there. They said that they got to their anchorage spot on Big Tom Creek at high tide, which was about 6 hours before us. They had dolphins swimming around their boat, they saw wild pigs on shore, and some kind of swimming muskrat critter, but it was not an otter. All we saw was some birds and bugs. Bummer dude! We left our new friends around 7:00 and grabbed an UBER ride back to the marina. It was a little spendy to get to town and back, but we ate dinner at home which saved some bucks. And our ride into town was worth the price of admission. We didn’t see any other loopers at our marina, but the staff here was very nice. Tomorrow we move north to South Carolina!
