GO BULLDOGS! (since we are in GA)

We had one more stop in South Carolina before we moved on to Georgia.  Our friends, Chuck and Claria, live in Beaufort SC and generously let us stay at their dock for a visit.  Claria served a wonderful dinner and we reminisced and traded war stories about our adventures.  The next day we contacted other boating friends Oliver and Sally who also live in Beaufort and the 3 couples spent time at a local harvest festival and shared more stories over cocktails.  We met both couples while on our Great Loop adventure in 2007-2008.  The boating lifestyle is really more about people and friendships than it is about the actual boating.

Mary, Chuck, Claria, Sally, Scott & Oliver

With the Carolinas in our wake, it was on to Georgia where the water is shallow and the current is swift.  We timed our departure to coincide with the rising tide to ensure safe passage through some of the many shoal areas.  Georgia has tides averaging 8’ which is comparable to the North Shore of MA.  This comes in quite handy when the waterway at low tide is only about 3-4’ deep in places.  Too much tide height is not always a good thing either.  Our first stop in Georgia was Delegal Marina on Skidaway Island.  The evening tide was exceptionally high at 10’ caused by astronomically high tides (full moon etc.) as well as strong onshore winds which pile up water in the small creeks.  As the tide went out, our dock became hung up on the piling.  Had we not noticed this condition, the results would have been very bad.  A little persuasion with a battering ram did the trick and the dock dropped about 20” under my feet!  Other than the near disastrous mishap, the marina was great.  Dockmaster Billy could not have been any nicer to us.  The island is a wonderful place with 6 golf courses and beautiful homes on streets lined with palm trees and live oaks dripping with Spanish moss.  Just by staying at the marina, you are granted visitor privileges at the local country club restaurants.  We drove a golf cart (at night!) to one of them and had a wonderful dinner.  

1-Scott noticed something didn't look quite right here.

2-With the battering ram used to knock it down.

3-Problem averted - back to normal

Other stops in Georgia included Sunbury and Darien, neither had we visited before.  Both had funky restaurants and local color and both were recommendations from boating friends.  Word of mouth is the best travel guide.  We will likely visit them again some other time.  As I write this we are at Morningstar Marina at St. Simons Island and the dock parties are in full swing.  This is the big weekend of the Georgia / Florida football game and people from all over the state descend on this area.  St. Simons Island is ground zero.  Go Bulldogs!

Bucket of clustered oysters - oh my!