Bonnie

Hi All,

Ok so we’re getting slack about posting- mostly it’s because we’re not doing exciting stuff like we were in the Bahamas, but we’re having fun picking our way up the east coast on the ICW.  

After we left Fernandina, we took the very short hop up to Cumberland Island and had a terrific day biking and exploring there with Z-Raye.  Lots of horses and, of course, lots of bugs.

After Cumberland we braved Jekyll creek (at HIGH tide only- we saw areas that were less than 4 feet at low tide. Yikes!) and anchored near Jekyll Island. The bikes went ashore, but we would have been alright without them.  We saw all the charming historical district and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center which is fascinating.  Whoever thought of rescuing sea turtles?

From there we went to Brunswick and into a marina for several days.  We met up with Kent and Heather from Miss Adventure.  They are leaving their boat for several months while they spend 3 months on their OTHER boat- a canal boat in France.  What a rotten life they have.  Oh yeah, and they spend the ski season in Beaver Creek.  It just gets worse and worse, doesn’t it?  We had a great time seeing them for a few days.  They even had a car and were kind enough to run us around to do some errands.  It was wonderful to see them since it will be a while before we get to party with them again. 

We left Brunswick headed for St. Simon’s, but were waylaid by a huge thunderstorm which forced us to pull over to the side of the ICW and anchor for the night.  There were an incredible number of lightning strikes all around, but, fortunately, none that hit Good Morning Vietnam.  The weather forecasts were calling for tornadoes so, all in all, we felt pretty lucky to just get wet!

The next morning we were up and ready to go at 6:30 so we could get on to St. Simons and tour Ft Fredrica. Though the storms were gone it was 8:45 before we could see well enough to move due to a thick fog. Once at St Simons we had to brave a mud flat to get to the National Park Service dock.  That stuff is so sticky- somebody should tell NASA.  And let’s not even talk about the deer flies.  It was about 8:00 and nearing dusk when we biked back to our dinghy and I thought we were going to be eaten alive before we could get away.  It was incredible.

On our way up to Savannah, we encountered a wonderful sight.  There were 7 or 8 dolphins with what appeared to be newly-born calves.  All the younguns were swimming right next to their Mommas.  It was terrific to watch them circle and play.  Daddy was making large, protective circles at the periphery.  What a morning.  We eventually had to press on and anchored that night in the middle of NOWHERE.  A place called Big Tom Creek.  Bright and early the next morning we left for Savannah and have been here, at anchor in Herb River for 4 days.  We took a walking tour with Savannah Dan which was really informative and entertaining, hit a few bars on River Street, and did a lot of walking around. 

Right now we’er just sitting here waiting for this tropical storm Bonnie to move through so we can continue northward.  

Oh yeah, we also spent an afternoon at Camping World looking at travel trailers.  You may guess at the next adventure we have planned………

Susan (with a few edits from Brian)