Exploring SC, GA, and Fl coasts

March 30, 2010

Charlie and I departed again on Blue Horizon to explore the SE coast of US: SC, GA, and FL. We left Charleston area proceeding out the Charleston Channel to the Atlantic heading south. The wind was almost nonexistent so we were motoring most of the morning. In the afternoon it picked up a bit, but we were not making much progress so we had to go into North Edisto River. We anchored for the night in Steamboat Creek just south of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). we enjoyed a beautiful sunset with dinner. It was a beautiful ,starry, but cold night.

March 31, 2010

We continued our journey south via the ICW because there was no

wind again today. Our destination today is Beaufort, SC. Luckily we made the 4 p.m. (1600) opening of the Lady's IS Bridge at Beaufort and docked at the Port Royal Landing just beyond the city Marina of Beaufort. we contacted our dear friend Marianne Mikell who teaches math at one of the high schools and invited her aboard for a steak dinner.

April 1, 2010

We stayed another day at Beaufort, cleaning up the boat, doing minor repairs, visiting West Marine, a local hardware store and a grocery. I attended the Maunday Thursday service at Sea IS. Presbyterian Church with Marianne who was singing in the choir. The youth participated by portraying the last days of Christ. It was very effective. We had dinner after the service.

April 2, 2010

We left Port Royal Landing just after 7a.m. heading out Port Royal Sound heading south. It took us over three hours to get out to the Atlantic! We realized that we could not get all the way to St. Simons IS Inlet so we ended up entering Sapelo Sound and anchoring up Morgan River. It was a very isolated spot amid the marshes. We did not see any other boats. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and dinner on board.

April 3, 2010

We continued out journey south in the Atlantic. Again we had little wind and what wind there was , was directly in front of us so we motored to the St. Simons inlet. We ended up at the Golden Isles Marina which is just across the water from St. Simons IS adjacent to the Torres Causeway to St. Simons IS. We had to pass the St. Simons IS Lighthouse on the was to the marina. We arrived late afternoon.

April 4, 2010

Happy Easter! We did not find a service to attend as we have in past years. the Marina staff did not open up until after 1200 so we could not borrow the courtesy car and Charlie was feeling under the weather anyway. We did explore St. Simons IS later in the afternoon,visiting the Lighthouse ( not open) and the old Christ Church where both Charles and John Wesley served in the 1700's! S

ince my family has a Methodist heritage, these men are important to our heritage

. It was a beautiful old church with huge grounds and many tombstones!. We were just starting to tour the Fredricksburg Fort when the Marina called that the courtesy car was needed.

When we returned to the marina, we also had a call from Charlie's family to tell us that we needed to get to Chattanooga as soon as possible. His mother had fallen during the week and was in the hospital and she was not looking good. We were fortunate in that when we called Avis we actually got a person who was on her way to the local airport to rent a car to someone else and she could pick Charlie up on the way and rent a car to us as well. The good Lord was watching over us! All this on a late Easter Sunday! We had tried to rent a car from Enterprise on Saturday afternoon before docking but they were closed and we only got an answering machine then.

April 5, 2010

Our sailing cruise had to be postponed for a family emergency! We left a little after 7a.m. to drive to Chattanooga, TN. We arrived about 4;30 p.m. and were able to see Charlie's mom. She was looking a bit better by then because they had reduced her pain medication. She was scheduled for back surgery the next morning. Charlie's mom would be 95 on Thursday.

April 6-8, 2010

The back surgery went well. The Dr. was pleased with it, but his mom was still in pain, which the family hoped was due to the surgery not the fall. Her pain did continue to slowly decrease and by Thursday, she was able to move to Siskin Rehab Hospital. She had spent her birthday the year before at Siskin recovering from a broken elbow which occurred when she had fallen while visiting a friend living in an Assisted Living establishment. The Siskin staff sang Happy Birthday to her when they came to move her from the hospital to Siskin. They also had a birthday decoration on her door! We celebrated her 95th birthday with cake after lunch. Her friends from Curves, which she attends twice a week, planned to visit her on Friday at Siskin also for a Birthday celebration!

April 9, 2010

We drove from Chattanooga, TN to St. Simons IS area arriving around 5:30p.m. There are many pine forests in Ga as well as many beautiful Pecan Orchards with acres of ehe elegant pecan trees with green grass and blooming yellow mustard plants underneath them. We also saw some large peanut farms.

We plan to continue our journey tomorrow.