Day 34-40 / 606 Statutory Miles: Isle of Hope (Savannah)

Left St.Simon at the crack of dawn - day looked clear, right until we ran into a solid bank of fog.  this lasted for over an hour with near 0 visibility.  When it would clear for a half hour, just to make you think you were done with it, it was back again.  In and out of the fog until almost noon. Thank god for radar and a great captain.  At one point, Den thought he saw something on the radar (the blips swapped places), a few minutes later out of the fog, comes a silent sailboat.  It was unnerving to say the least.

Once the fog cleared, the rest of the ride was uneventful, including passing through Little Mud River, which we needed to hit on a rising tide to have enough water.

Planning paid off! 

Total ride took just over 7 hours, by the time we pulled into Isle of Hope Marina.  This is the same marina that we stayed at when commissioning the Gypsy Soul in Feb 2012.  Still a great place, with very helpful & professional staff and very picturesque.  This leg of the trip crossed Altamah Sound, Doboy River/Sound Sapello Sound & St. Catherine Sound which was kind of cool with the "rollers" and currents.  So different from the day before which was all very small creeks, rivers and narrow channels.

After giving GS a bath, both inside & out and took advantage of the courtesy car from the marina to get our fluids refilled, we spent the better part of Friday walking through Isle of Hope, which is just one of the cutest places we've been - very old & nautical style homes.

On Saturday, we treated ourselves to a couples massage before meeting up with Beth & Rome to celebrate St. Patricks day in Savannah.  Talk about living under a rock - we had no idea that St. Patricks day celebration in Savannah was so renown.  The place was rockin.  We were introduced to Ken & Sue from Annapolis, who had lived in Savannah for several years who showed us around Tybee Island on Sunday where we shared an amazing meal at the Crab Shack.

City Market (outside of Wildwings)

The Crab Shack - Tybee Island

Monday was spent chillin and getting the GS ready to head to Hilton Head Island - dinner was a T-bone on the grill, just enjoying the perfect spring evening.  Light breeze, sky full of stars and dead calm water.  Except for the no-seeums it was spot on.  During our stay at IOH, we witnessed how much of a working body of water the intercoastal waterway is, daily, barges, tugs, river cruise boats passed by along with the everyday cruisers/boaters & fishermen.  Monday night, we were up close and personal to the biggest thing I've seen move on the water - no kidding.  We watched the spot lights head our way for at least 45 minutes before 2 barges with 5 tugs passed by.  The first barge was close to 300 yards (yep 2.5 - 3 football fields in length, not a typo) It looked like there was city on this thing.  This was only to be followed by one that was even longer - we are estimating ~ 400 yards.  It took the corner so much wider that as the front corner started to make the turn, it was about 100ft from the back of our boat.  The tugs pulling & pushing these things were so much fun to watch, there was a small little tender/tug, who's job was to go here and push and go there & push, to keep the vessel from running aground and to keep it making the corner.  There is a video of the first barge at the bottom of this post, it's kind of long as it took a good 5-7 minutes to make the corner where we were.

Mobil link to Pictures  Isle of Hope