Savannah, GA

After sailing past the Savannah River year after year, we finally decided to stop here and explore the city (leaving in a few minutes so this will be short). In Delray Beach, we celebrated my dad's 91st with my sister Jan and Ron (her significant other). This past Monday we left up the ICW to Vero Beach. Nice marina and mooring field. We walked around the ocean side shops and Shirley did not spend one cent (must have been tired). Early to bed. Tuesday we went a short distance to Melbourne in order to meet with Rebecca & Murphy Moore and Tom and Rue Nance (who moved to Melbourne in the late 90's from VA Beach). We very much enjoyed cocktails and dinner. Seeing good friends is a good way to start easing back into "being home". Wednesday we motor sailed up the ICW again to a little anchorage we are familiar with behind Ponce Inlet. Again, it did not disappoint. On Thursday. we left Ponce at 0630 to make the restricted bridge in Daytona Beach. Our goal was St. Augustine where we planned to take on fuel before heading out in the ocean for an overnight sail to the Savannah River. We left the St. Augustine inlet at 1600 on Thursday as planned and arrived at the Ossabaw Sound (about 15 mile South of the Savannah River) at 0900 on Friday AM. The sail up was rough with mostly 20+ Kts from the SE and following seas of 5-7 feet. The boat wallows from side to side even with full sail and going 8 Kts. It constantly reminds us of the power of the ocean. Shirley doesn't like midnight watches when there are no stars and no moon to see by. But, to her surprise the clouds lifted and the stars came out during her midnight watch (no moon, but you can't have it all). The ride up to Thunderbolt (where we are docked) took hours as the current and tides are unbelievable. The rivers and creeks have up to 9 foot tides and currents running up to 3 Kts. At one point we were going over the ground at 8 Kts and turned a corner in a creek and then were only making 4.9 Kts over the ground. It reminds us of Maine (where the tides are 18+ feet. Early to bed last night and we slept to almost 0800 this morning. Now to Savannah to e tourists for a few days.