3/14/18 Brunswick to Delegal (Savannah) to Beaufort, SC

Featured image is of HUNNY! (For no other reason than that she’s so cute).

Although we’ve only traveled about 150 miles or so since St Augustine, it’s taken us over a week to do so–obviously we are not breaking any speed records. Brian (my brother) left by car right after we did from Brunswick, and took the video below as we pulled away.

He drove to our next stop, Delegal, that same afternoon, but left 2 days later to look for warmer weather. I don’t blame him—it was 37 degrees last night. After he left, we stayed huddled in our snug cabin most of the day (yesterday) while the wind howled and gusted to 35 knots or so. As we researched predicted weather and wind, we realized that today would afford us a pretty narrow window for traveling comfortably and safely, so we hightailed it out of there this morning (if leaving at 9:15 AM after sleeping in and eating a leisurely breakfast counts as hightailing). Today is gorgeous–clear skies, not much wind, but still cool (about 60 at noon).

The weather has been less than ideal–we keep saying we should be traveling with some friends of ours, the Shumans. Have you ever known people for whom EVERYTHING seems to work out? No matter how crappy the weather has been, and for how long, when they appear, the sun comes out and stays. Even if they get caught in a hurricane, of course it will turn out it’s only the tail end of one that just misses the spot where they are, and the whole episode develops into the most a fascinating experience ever, rather than the debacle we would no doubt encounter (or die from). Whenever we run into a spate of bad weather, we always slap our heads and tell ourselves, “we should’ve brought the Shumans!”.

The Delegal marina on Skidaway Island was a marvelous place to stay for a couple of days. It was the most serene moorage we’ve enjoyed so far–I think we were the only “transients” around, so we generally didn’t see a soul except occasionally the dock master busy cleaning bird poop off the docks, and one family that took their speedboat out for a spin for a couple of hours. Most of the time, there were no sounds but calls from multitudes of birds from the rookery on Green Island about 200 feet across the water from us (sorry, no bird names known except for “pelicans”) and slapping waves. The marina itself is located in “The Landings”, an obviously very posh development enveloping Delagal. To drive to the marina itself, one must first pass through a gate manned by security guards 24 hours/day. They are serious, too– wouldn’t even let Brian enter when he first arrived because his name wasn’t on the list of residents or visitors. After passing through the gate, the road winds past imposing million dollar homes and golf courses, until it ends at the marina in a mile or so where the riff-raff (us) moor. We found it to be a development that, while well tended and quite elegant, literally oozed the smell of money and felt rather sterile. However, whatever its drawbacks, we appreciated that the community respects the concept of “dark skies”. Gazing at the carpet of brilliant stars while listening to bird calls (yes, even at night!) as one strolled the boardwalks on the way to the restrooms was simply amazing. Boating into the marina itself was an adventure. We were instructed in no uncertain terms to ignore the charts and trust local knowledge completely. The dock master sent us detailed instructions, as well as a drawing of exactly how to proceed along the narrow, winding, occasionally shallow passageway. We mentally closed our eyes as we watched the track of our boat proceed over what appeared to be land on our charts–I should’ve taken a photo because it showed us literally boating over an island to get there. We had been told that docking might be a bit difficult because the wind was fairly high and the current was strong in the opposite direction However, the wind/currents were not nearly as bad as we’d been expecting, and we were soon safely and securely moored without mishap. We immediately gave thanks to the gods, and toddled below to enjoy a well-deserved adult refreshment.

We had selected Delegal because thanks to Brian we had access to a car, and it was a fairly short drive to Savannah, yet not exposed to noise from traffic and party-goers (Savannah apparently has a large Irish population, and starts celebrating St Patrick’s Day early and hard). On Sunday, the day after we arrived into Delegal, David and I used Brian’s car (actually our Sprinter van, which he kindly agreed to drive back to Seattle for us) to enjoy Savannah for the day. We thoroughly enjoyed our short visit–it’s a walkable city with lots (22) of squares to relax and enjoy the (then) mild weather. We strolled along the riverfront, the market square, and Forsythe Park. David and I are not much for city sightseeing, but if the wind hadn’t been predicted to come up and stay strong for days, we would’ve been happy to stay for a bit longer to explore more. Shopping? We contributed to the local economy by buying some Georgia peanuts–there was a whole store full, and since they’re one of our staple foods, we couldn’t resist. Here are a few random photos taken during our stroll…

Great way to dispose of pet waste–into the ground:

Beautiful drain spouts:

One of the squares (notice it is definitely spring here):

And finally, the Captain: