The End

Well we made it! Six hundred and thirty six miles from Urbanna, VA to Savannah, GA and 80.1 hours of travel time. 

We are in Savannah now seeing the last of the sights. Tomorrow, time to get back to reality. Today we prepare to leave, clean the boat, decide what to take back with us, straighten things out and prepare for having the boat pulled in the morning. 

Our stay in Beaufort, SC was great. Another town with rich history of the south and the Civil War. Beaufort and Savannah have been used for scenes in many movies over the years. We visited the Mercer House which was used and the actual place of a murder which was highlited in the movie of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" . Plenty of shopping and walking along the waterfront and small squares throughout the city. We were fortunate to be here during a large celebration throughout the city. Many of the squares had a ton of activity taking place from cookouts to music, book sales and artists displaying their works. We passed by Bobby Deen who was promoting one of his books. No thank you Mr. Deen, I wasn't impressed with you food the last time I was here. 

So now after I finish this we take a small hiatus and enjoy family and friends up north for the holidays, go back on diets drink less wine and prepare for winter in Florida. 

See you on the next trip!

Mike & Jess

Water tower on site at Paris Island

A sailboat at the docks we were staying at in Beaufort, SC

The lighthouse at Hunting Island 

The lighthouse at Harbortown on Hilton Head Island

One of the many shops in Savannah. Here, for a mere $140.00, you can buy a Wizard of Oz doll.

Cooking barbecue on the square. These egg barbecues are very expensive, but I am told they last forever. They were on sale for an event special for $1,200. 

Jess, Patti and I enjoying lunch at Six Pence Pub. Another movie sight for the filming of " Something to Talk About" with Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid. Patti is our "go to girl" while in Savannah. Can't beat her Southern Hospitality! She even made us a low country boil. Now that's hospitality.

And finally, Dun and Becky our traveling companions for a whole month. See all that money hanging on the walls? That's how we afford these trips. When no one is looking we pick them right off the walls. Not!

The end is almost near

Since Georgetown we have gone to Charleston, SC and we are now in Beaufort, SC. Charleston, SC is one of the best places to visit. They absolutely cater to tourists. We had a free trolley from our marina to the city and when you get there, there is a free trolley to take you anywhere you want to go. We spent three nights there and didn't see it all. A definite place to visit again. As we traveled down to Beaufort, SC we saw wonderful picturesque settings and tons of dolphins swimming by our boat. We stayed at one anchorage that was spectacular, Upper Rock Creek. It was our little piece of heaven on earth. Below are some highlights of our stay in Charleston and our anchorage. 

The trip is winding down and we anticipate arriving in Savannah, GA on November 14th. after a few days there we will be pulling the boat and leaving it there for our return after Christmas.

Where's Waldo? You can just about see our boat with the green hull  behind the submarine. This was our marina in Mt. Pleasant, which is right over the bridge from Charleston.

This is the aircraft carrier Yortown. A great exhibit of planes and life on a carrier during WW II. We also got to tour the USS Laffey, " The Ship that wouldn't die". It was attacked by 22 kamikaze planes in a horrific battle. To learn more and see videos of the attack go to www.laffey.org

We also visited Ft. Sumter. This Fort was where the Civil War started. The Union troopes stationed here were  bombarded by the the south destroying much of the fort. You can see in this photo one of the shells fired that landed and embedded in the wall.

We also visited the Citidel know as one of the premiere military schools of the south. Here are Jess & Becky standing in front of their stadium.

After a day of cruising you go a bit crazy when you set the anchor. Here is Dun and I on top of his boat taking in the view.

Panoramic view at anchor. Just love it!

Southward bound continues

Haven't made too many entries, yet we have covered some distance after Beaufort. We hit a couple of anchorages as well as Southport, NC and then Myrtle Beach and we are now in Georgetown, SC. Each stop had something different to offer. Southport was a quaint fishing town with a nice main street and lots to do and see. We rented a car and drove up to Williamsport to do a tour of the battleship North Carolina. When you get on those ships you realize how small you are. It is a city unto itself. They have everything on board to sustain their existence while out to sea. They even had a barber shop along with dentist, doctor and a full operating room. Their machine shop was magnificent. It was amazing to see how they loaded the cannons with shells and powder. The ship was decommissioned and was going to be scrapped, but local politicians and some citizens made an effort to have it saved and rest in Williamsport as a museum. This was definitely a great tour. 

After 2 days in Southport our next stop on land was Myrtle Beach. The marina, Barefoot Landing, was great, but this was not one of my favorite stops for things to see or do. We did have dinner in the House of Blues and if you enjoy golfing this is the place to be. So we relaxed, got some provisions and moved on later the next day to a wonderful anchorage off the Waccamaw River. This river, as well as the Pee Dee, Santee and Black River,  had a great impact on the rice industry in this area. Georgetown, SC was our stop after anchoring out and this is a lovely town. The people are welcoming and the town has significant history. Their biggest crop before the Revelutionary War was indigo. They grew it and made blue dye from it and shipped it to Britain for use to dye the material for their navy uniforms. Unfortunately the start of the Revolutionary War ended the industry since Britain would no longer purchase their product. They then resorted to growing rice. This area was the premier supplier of "Carolina Gold" rice around the world. The Civil War ended that and the local land owners abandoned rice production because it was very labor intensive requiring inexpensive slave labor and once the slaves were freed, they couldn't afford to pay them. Eighty-five percent of the population were black slaves who worked on the plantations. Interestingly none of the blacks were affected by malaria because most of them had sickle cell anemia. I have not found out yet why this happens. At that time people did not know malaria was caused by mosquitos. They thought it was brought on by the heat in the summer, so the plantation owners would move out to the shore in the summer where it was cooler. What they didn't know was that the mosquitos stayed in the swamps and did not venture to the cool ocean air and that is why they were not inflicted.

Most of us who travel south on I-95 have passed this area many times, but we are in such a hurry to get to our destination we fail to stop and take in the tremendous amount of history in this region. I could go on forever here, but I don't want to spoil you visit. 

On the deck of the USS North Carolina

Halloween in Southport, NC

Self explanatory 

They should do a little paint job on this one,