Put a trip to Savannah on your bucket list

My oh my, where to begin? First of all we woke to rain lots of it, according to the locals it's been raining like this for a week! No matter we decided to do the Historic Savannah Trolley Tour anyway. By stop number 4 the sun had come out so we got off the Trolley for a look around, we were at Forsyth Park.

Historic Savannah has twenty two squares........

actually they started with twenty four. Surrounded by historical buildings thanks in large to a group of seven enterprising women who raised funds to stop the otherwise destruction of this entire site. Its amazing would be an understatement!

Remember this guy (Forest Gump) he popped on our Trolley looking for some Colonel guy talked about buying a Shrimp Boat from some guy called Craig!

This fountain in Forsyth Park was ordered from an 1800 and something catalog. We were able to hop on and off the Trolley when we wanted and get back on to resume the tour. On one of our walkabouts we discovered one of the Savannah College of Art and Design - SCAD - buildings. They renovate a historic building for use by the College, here's that word again, amazing.

 

If you come to Savannah you have to check out some of these buildings, they have an incredible knack of smoothly combining the old with the new. Must be great to be a student here is all I can say, oh and by the way there are 8000 students attending SCAD - impressive yes! Next door they had a store, Sue and I could have spent the Lotto Max and then some.

This is one of those historical homes I was mentioning - check out the iron work. O.K. so then it was lunch time - that would be stop #6 The Pirate House, you have to have lunch here - we'd recommend the buffet!

Look, you have to come here - I'm not going to spoil it by posting a lot of beautiful pictures, I could have filled the entire card in the camera, every time we turned around - wow! O.K. just a few....

How about those downspouts - rumor has it if you stoke one its good luck! Lotto Max!

This is River Street and I think we found Ron & Sue's new boat - Hyperion!

Next stop - Baltimore, tomorrow. It's a long drive and we'll be taking a break somewhere maybe Ashville North Carolina, the waiter at the Pirate House recommended we do.

We have spent the last week enjoying the finer points of Florida - sun, sun and more sun and we visited our good friends Lynn and Dave in West Palm Beach! We're now on our way home by way of Savannah, Georgia then Annapolis, Maryland and home.

On Sunday we went for a final sail as they say outside, meaning the Atlantic John R was with us. It was great, winds of 5-10 knots from the SW. We're pretty sure we made it as far as the Gulf Stream about 6 nautical miles off shore. I saw a few flying fish........

funny, when you're this close to the water they are a lot bigger than they look from the deck of Sun Princess! The color of the ocean is amazing can't reproduce it on film. I spent too much time on deck and improved my tan a little.

Here in Savannah it's 20-30 degrees colder than Palm Beach and raining - tomorrow in spite of the weather we're going for a Trolley tour of this city which is famous for a lot of reasons but maybe the most recent is the movie 'Forrest Gump'.

We'll take our own pictures tomorrow but I grabbed these pictures off the web in case the weather is so bad tomorrow we get washed out - till then TTFN.

You can't make this up!

For those of you that checked our position you'll have realised we are back in Old Port Cove. We are pleased to report Ann is much better and well rested. It could be worse - we hear it snowed in Charleston! Its going to get chilly here over the next couple of days but no snow in the forecast.

Before we left Miami we decided to do a spot of sailing in Biscayne Bay - what a day, winds of 18 knots SE and fine sunny weather. Seems each time we come here we have a great day of sailing, hate to leave but we are not complete without Ann.

After 20+miles of having fun we point the boat back towards Miami and another familiar anchorage in Marine Stadium 025 44.7906N 080 10.2958W. We were visited by a pair of dolphin here, always a pleasure to watch them. Temperatures today hit a record high of 89°, now that's hot!

Next morning we were up early, so early in fact that we had to wait until it was light enough. At the sound of rowers exercising their skills we figured it was time, actually it was still only 6:45 a.m. So as the sun rose we said goodbye to Miami until the next time.

As we entered Port Everglades at Fort Lauderdale it started to rain and the sky turned kind of dark but we made it to Las Olas Bridge and took a ball before taking a stroll along the beach front. 026 07.1335N 080 06.5769W.

It's always thrilling to look at the larger boats docked here at Fort Lauderdale opposite the big cruise ships at 17th Street Bridge. Check out the toy room below decks on this boat!

It was a long rainy day of motoring up to Old Port Cove and a lot of bridges - boy its tough to get the timing right. We had a half hour wait at a few of them but were here in time for Pizza in the comfort of John R's condo. So what's next? Well you guessed it we're making it up as we go along! Stay tuned.

Back to 3 in a boat

We thought it was Jeff that was really sick but it turns out Ann was in need of serious attention. We made our way to Mercy Hospital on Monday morning. After three hours Jeff emerged to tell us they were going to admit Ann because her heart rate was too high. Today we learnt she had been told to rest and so to that end John R, Jeff's dad, came down from Old Port Cove to drive her back there for some R&R.

So its back to '3 in a boat' Jeff who is feeling much better, Sue who is still not sick and myself who I'm pleased to report is almost back to normal - whatever that is?

We were stroking Manatee yesterday and today Sue and I took a stroll down to the Bear Cut Nature Reserve. It was hot the water lovely and we had a great day relaxing waiting for John R to arrive to pick up Ann. By now she will be safely back in Old Port Cove. Our plans tomorrow - who knows, we're still making it up as we go along!

Manatee abound

The local reptiles

Village of Key Biscayne in the distance

Looking North to Miami

Where in the world is Renrod

Truth of the matter is that 2/3 of the crew has been sick including the Captain, Sue is the only well member! We left early on the morning of 6th February and headed to Crandon Marina 025 43.5232N 080 09.3725W. Once settled in we went looking for local knowledge which we found enjoying happy hour on their 40' Morris and they confirmed our plan to stay inside. Next day we sailed down to Boca Chita winds from NE at 7 knots a truly great day and of course a great sunset.

Next day the state of the crew sent us beating a retreat back up Biscayne Bay to Dinner Key 025 43.2049N 080 13.7349W to re-stock the drugs cabinet in an attempt to remedy what ails us. Jeff and I slept a good deal but still not much improvement so today we are back in Crandon Marina and plan to see a doctor tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures we missed from Fort Lauderdale to here! Hopefully we can resume our plans to sail south to explore the Keys.

The beach at Fort Lauderdale

Anchored in Lake Sylvia

Our anchorage in Miami near San Marco Island

Downtown Miami

On the Ball at Dinner Key

Florida 2013 day05

Good run to Miami anchored off Watson Island figuring out the next few days.

Florida 2013 Day 03

Leaving Lake Boca Raton we spied our daughter's boat tied up at the Pink Hotel on the west bank of the lake, it's a very nice boat fit for a princess! As we get closer to Fort Lauderdale it gets busier on the ICW or maybe it’s the sun, certainly is a lot warmer once the sun is up.

After a cooked breakfast at 9:50am we got under way. There are eight bridges in this leg to Lake Sylvia. At the fifth (Commercial Blvd. Bridge) there is a sign on the bridge that says we are now entering the ‘Yachting Capital of the World’. You better believe it!

So many beautiful homes, sometimes it’s difficult to see where one ends and another begins.

Once settled in Lake Sylvia about 1:00 p.m. Jeff and I rowed the dingy to get some gas. The first marina we got to didn’t have gas and told us we’d have to cross the ICW to one that did, so taking our collective lives in our hands we went for it. One guy shouted how much we must need a drink and another wondered where our sun-brella was. No offers of a tow though!

How about those Ravens! What a game and we watched it in the comfort of our own salon. We intend to stay for a day here in Fort Lauderdale, it’s a great spot.

Florida 2013 Day 02

JR (Jeffs’ Dad) and Sandy came to see us off so after checking the oil batteries and bilge we set off for Lake Boca Raton, it was 9:20 a.m. There are twelve bridges in this leg although one was AWOL because it was being rebuilt.

The weather was cool but sunny a few clouds definitely warmer than yesterday. By Peanut Island at Lake Worth Inlet we saw what we think is Steve Jobs boat Venus, it certainly didn't look like any boat we'd ever seen before!

If anyone can confirm this we’d be grateful. There are a lot of really nice boats here, the one with the black speed boat (tender) in front of it for instance. Word has it that the tender is worth a million dollars!

As the day progressed it got busier traffic wise and warmer to the point of sun block application.

The better looking of the team is behind the camera but we are all enjoying familiar waters and sights along the ICW. I really have to suck it up and bring Solent Breeze down here. The excitement for the day was when the Goodyear Blimp flew over – not sure what the occasion was. Anybody?

Another successful day cruising and at 3:00 we anchored as planned in Lake Boca Raton in eight feet of lovely warm (I know because I went for a dip) water. Later this evening Jeff spotted a Manatee off the stern of the boat, I was tempted to jump in again and go play.