Georgia - April 2006
We crossed the boarder into Georgia on April 7. Our last stop in Florida was to Florida Petroleum in Fernandino Beach, Florida to pick up some diesel. It's the cheapest place in the area at $2.25 a gallon. Our first big fuel bill of the trip. Sad to say, it may well be the lowest one we'll see in awhile - and so it begins.......
We had hooked up with another trawler - 'Namaste' - a few days before while in Palatka, Florida. The following is a shot of them following us into Georgia on the Intracoastal Waterway. We stayed together up to Cumberland Island in Georgia (they recommended we stop by). They headed off to spend a few weeks in Brunswick - while we headed north for Fort Frederica.
Namaste following along behind Tardis on the Intracoastal Waterway.
Besides the human crew of Gordon and Bobbie, they had 2 dogs and 2 birds on board. Here's Ellie and Addy heading for shore leave on Cumberland Island.
Cumberland Island is a beautiful island that is now part of the National Parks as a National Monument. At one time, the island (or at least a large part of it) was owned by the Carnegies. There are lots of wild critters on the island, including several wild ponies - some of which are shown below.
We had a wonderful walk across the island to a lovely long beach on the eastern shore.
The picture to the left is Jeremy and Bobbie heading down a path on Cumberland Island that leads to the beach.
The pictures below are of the Namaste crew enjoying the beach.
Jeremy located some cars on the island. Some of them look to be interesting old cars - but they do seem to 'need a little work'.
Fort Frederica is also a National Monument. The fort was built by the British General Oglethorpe to protect Georgia from the Spanish.
Not sure what Jeremy's planning with the cannon below - he's trying the 'mark one innocent - "what me want to fire off a cannon?" expression in the other photo.
The cannons were positioned to ward off any intruders - surely they couldn't mean the innocent little Tardis and our sailboat neighbor??
Who's that boat?? It looks like Tardis - but it's Mer Sea - another American Tug 34 who can flying past us as we crossed Sapelo Sound. Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but it was a little snotty out in the sound. Nothing a couple of little tugs couldn't easily handle, though.
When anchored out in a creek one evening in the marshes in Georgia, we spotted a cruise ship coming by - A CRUISE SHIP ??!!??
We saw it again a couple of times over the next few days - docked on the riverfront in Savannah, and then coming down the intracoastal past our marina in Isle of Hope. I'm glad I wasn't the one trying to pilot that big bad boy through these narrow channels at night!!
We took a bus from the Isle of Hope into the big city of Savannah. Very beautify city - and very busy river. We saw LOTS of big commercial traffic coming and going on the river.
Savannah River traffic. There are a few bridges with this design in this area. We saw one like it in Jacksonville, Fl and also in Brunswick Georgia.
This is one of the most famous statues in Savannah on the waterfront. It's the waving girl with her dog. She's waving goodbye to the sailors as they go off to sea - and hello when they come home. The statue is of an actual girl - Florence Martus. She always waived her handkerchief at all all passing ships in the hope that her departed sailor-lover would be on board one of them. (Jeremy is giving antlers to the poor little doggie - not at all sure that Florence would approve of this!)
The torch statue to the right is a bit farther along on the waterfront. It was added in 1996 in honor of the yachting competition that was hosted in Savannah as part of the Olympic Games that year. The cauldron was lit from the original Olympic flame from Olympia Greece during the opening ceremony in Savannah. The cauldron is supported by five columns representing the five Olympic rings. The sails surrounding the caldron represent the sailing events. The copper 'flames' replaced the real flames when the torch was extinguished after the games.
Jeremy found this anchor in a park. I think he's sizing it up to see if it would fit on our boat....
A neat old police car from 1953 we found by the Police Barracks.
Savannah has lots of beautiful gardens and parks. We found this one behind the maritime museum.
The architecture in Savannah reminded us both a lot of New Orleans - lots of lovely shaded streets, pretty old houses, and ornate iron work.
Spotted this horse-drawn carriage coming down one of the tree-line streets.
We wandered into the old city cemetery in the center of town. Savannah had a sever outbreak of yellow fever in the early 1800s. We saw several sad tombstones from that time that showed an adult followed by one or more small children that all died within days of each other.
This is one of the most famous fountains in Savannah - the Forsyth Park fountain. Forsyth was the first large park created in Savannah. General Oglethorpe (the same man who established Fort Frederica in Georgia) designed the city to include lots of smaller park squares as well as this large park in the city.
Last updated April 14, 2006.