Month: September 2019

We arrived at the Downtown Marina in Beaufort SC on Saturday, August 31. I wanted to walk around because we were in the historic district. We found so many cute shops and restaurants and old homes. John spotted a gelato shop but I convinced him that we needed to eat first…..there’s a story here. We ate a fine meal and walked through the huge home neighborhood. The houses are on the right but this shows the tree lined river road with the marshland.

We saw a large church surrounded by a seven foot brick wall that looked very old. The first church building was built in 1713 and later became St. Helena’s Anglican Church. Being very impressed with such an old church and that was used in the Revolutionary War by the British to hold horses and in the Civil War as a hospital, we were even MORE impressed when we saw an open gate into the cemetery. The sun was starting to go down and the grounds were beautiful. British soldiers were buried next to American patriots.

I took so many pictures but the one that reminded us of home was a tombstone of a Confederate officer who was wounded on Santa Rosa Island, FL. He survived the injury and returned to Beaufort after the war. We got a chuckle out of his nickname.

The next morning, John asked me where I wanted to go to church. I immediately said, St. Helena because I want to see the inside of that church! (Maybe not the best rationale for choosing where to worship God). I remember there was a service at 9:15 so we walked to the church and saw people leaving. I was wrong about the service time. A priest, Father Todd introduced himself and invited us across the street to hear some of their missionaries to China then later to join the church service. Upon entering, several people introduced themselves and when one lady found out we were in a boat, offered to help find us a marina to haul out the boat for Dorian. We also met the grounds keeper and I was asking him about the officer who was wounded on Santa Rosa Island. He said that when General Anderson returned from the war,his profitable business failed and he died penniless with no headstone to mark his grave. A Union officer who knew that he was a good man actually purchased the headstone.

The inside of the church was beautiful with a surround balcony and huge pipe organ. It was full of people young and old. Everyone, even teenagers, shook our hand, looked us in the eye and sincerely welcomed us. It was the friendliest church I’ve ever been in for sure. The sweet lady who said she’d help us find a haul out texted 3 places to call and invited us to lunch the next day. Wow, so blessed to find such a church that really shows love.

Meanwhile, back at the boat, the AC started to fail us. On Monday, we had checked into several haul out places but based on our proximity to the hurricane projection, we decided to leave Happy Ours in the marina. Now our neighbors decided to ride out the storm. This girl is never going to do that on purpose so a broken AC was a great reason to go to a hotel on Monday.

Here’s a picture of John after he tied up the boat.

There was a 93 year old man living on his boat. When the dock master said they were cutting power on Tuesday, he exclaimed, “No, please because my boat leaks and I need the sup pumps.” The marina guys boarded his boat, found that it was an internal leak, cut off his water and found him a place to stay during the storm. Now I was worried about all his stuff flying off so I took a before and after pictures.

Here are the after pictures……I could hardly believe it.

The only thing I see different is that the lamp is knocked over. Crazy huh? Well I took all my valuables from the INSIDE of the boat to the hotel. That included my instruments, Vitamix and my pressure cooker! I certainly enjoyed my guitar and ukulele at the hotel and learned a new appropriate song, In the Eye of the Storm.

In the eye of the storm, You remain in control
And in the middle of the war, You guard my soul
You alone are the anchor, when my sails are torn
Your love surrounds me in the eye of the storm
When the solid ground is falling out from underneath my feet
Between the black skies, and my red eyes, I can barely see
When I realize I’ve been sold out by my friends and my family
I can feel the rain reminding me

In the eye of the storm, You remain in control
In the middle of the war, You guard my soul
You alone are the anchor, when my sails are torn
Your love surrounds me in the eye of the storm
Mmm, when my hopes and dreams are far from me, and I’m runnin’ out of faith
I see the future I picture slowly fade away
And when the tears of pain and heartache are pouring down my face
I find my peace in Jesus’ name

In the eye of the storm (yeah, yeah)
You remain in control (yes you do, Lord)
In the middle of the war, You guard my soul
You alone are the anchor, when my sails are torn
Your love surrounds me (Your love surrounds me)
In the eye of the storm (in the eye of the storm)

When the test comes in and the doctor says I’ve only got a few months left
It’s like a bitter pill I’m swallowing; I can barely take a breath
And when addiction steals my baby girl, and there’s nothing I can do
My only hope is to trust You
I trust You, Lord

In the eye of the storm (yeah, yeah) You remain in control
In the middle of the war (middle of the war), You guard my soul (yeah!)
You alone are the anchor (ooh), when my sails are torn
Your love surrounds me In the eye of the storm.

~~~~~~~~

While waiting on this storm, we drove around and decided to eat at the Fish Camp. Notice it was low tide and how high the docks are around the shrimp boats. Remember the tide change 9 ft two times a day!

I took pictures of the inside of the boat, just in case, for insurance purposes. People ask me how I cook and where do we put extra people. So here’s some interior pictures. The couch is a sleeper sofa along with a small second berth that pulls out to a full bed although we use it for storage. Happy Ours is a good home away from home.

The galley and the 2nd berth.

The bathroom and the master bedroom.

Do you see the antique telephone? My dad decorated it for me and my sister’s room when we were teenagers. We had a 15 minute limit for phone calls. When the boat is underway, it sometimes continues to ring….no joke. The first time it happened I thought God was telling me that my dad needed me so maybe you think it’s crazy but I picked up the receiver and said, “Hello.” Now when it rings from the vibrations of the engines I figure it’s good to just talk to God a bit.

Well Hurricane Dorian came though and we only had about 50 mph winds in Beaufort. The boat was fine. Tomorrow when businesses reopen, John will look for parts to fix the AC and we will leave for Charleston if the marinas made it through Dorian. Beaufort was a wonderful place for us as it was inland a bit. Many places were hit so much harder and as I write this, Dorian is hitting North Carolina. My heart goes out to the Bahamas. Thank you for checking on us!

I proofed this and realized that I forgot the gelato story. We’ve been several times after the initial “wait until after dinner,” but with no luck; once it was too crowded, once we walked in and they asked us to leave because it was after closing the they forgot to lock the doors, then twice because it was boarded up. So hopefully John will get lucky tomorrow.

We drove back to Brunswick from Savannah and decided to head north on Happy Ours. I thought it was interesting to include a picture of this bridge from the drivers viewpoint as opposed to the pictures that I have cruising underneath.

Our intention was to get to Isle of Hope which is still below Savannah. Hmmmm, a hour and fifteen minute drive and a 6-7 hour cruise on Happy Ours. Yep, we only go about 8 miles per hour. We were surprised that almost all day, we were working our way through marshes with twists and turns and nothing but nature to behold. I mean that almost the whole day, we did not see houses or businesses! It’s really good to experience raw nature but it makes me think about what would I do if……way too much! I’m sure those thoughts never cross John’s mind. We did not make it to Isle of Hope because this trip was long but decided to anchor out at Red Bird Creek. Our Navionics app indicated that it was a good anchoring site with good mud to hold the boat. It’s funny how these anchoring sights in the wild have reviews on Navionics that are written so that you can see what others experienced. The creek was a very fast moving water but our anchor held us well! I cooked dinner and we ate outside and watched a beautiful sunset. The stars were plentiful and the Milky Way was cream filled. Perhaps the most marvelous thing is that there were no mosquitos or biting insects. We were surrounded by marsh but perhaps the water was moving too fast….. the blue dot indicates our position at Red Bird Creek.

This last picture is a panoramic intending to show no civilization around but I moved too fast so its a little skewed!

The next morning, we headed to Hilton Head SC! Also a surprise to me that the Georgia coast is so short! We had to get though Hell’s Gate at high tide. It’s a narrow passage between rivers on the Intracoastal. The depth indicator showed 8 feet as we went through Hell’s Gate at high tide. This shale bottom is dangerous to boats who don’t wait for high tide and I haven’t mentioned that the visibility of these rivers is almost zero so one cannot tell how deep the water is by the color like we do at home.

The Hilton Head marina told us that we could park on the fuel dock. John was in deep water and I was getting the lines ready when I heard him rev the engines and black mud come up from behind the boat. We had gotten stuck in the mud. Now this area has nine foot tides twice a day so despite his efforts to get off, we knew the rising tide would eventually carry us off. Lucky for us, a Sea Tow guy offered to pull us off in a jiffy with no damage to the boat.

We left the next day for Beaufort SC and that’s going to be a story all of its own!

Since we had the Jeep and boating into Savannah is farther than you might think off of the Intracoastal, we decided to drive. I’ve always wanted to stay at a bed and breakfast in Savannah and the Justine Inn gave us a room for $106 a night! We were blown away that this room had essentially 3 bathtubs, included a daily wine and cheese serving and a full breakfast. It was in the historic district and was a wonderful place to stay. The room we stayed in was the Versailles Room.

We have been to Savannah before so we decided to get tickets again to the Old Trolley to take us around town and listen to the marvelous stories. We ate at the Wilkes House and dinner is served family style with a table of 8-12 people. There were 22 different dishes on the table. I though I was going to lose my patience with a man who served himself and then failed to pass the dishes around. After about 12 bowls were sitting idly and he was enjoying his food, I whispered to his wife that we would like to try some of those dishes. He belligerently shoved the food past his wife and at that point we decided to kill him with kindness. It kind of worked but when he did start talking it was all about how frustrating people are as he was in a thankless job of association president for his community. Maybe that creamy corn and butter beans softened him up a bit! I regret that I didn’t take a picture of our table with all the southern dishes.

Down on the river, as we were eating, we were shocked by a HUGE container ship that cruised by. I didn’t realize that Savannah is in the top three busiest ports in the US….that was another good reason to drive in rather than subject Happy Hours to playing chicken with giants.

Those containers are each the size of what a semi truck pulls. I could not get a picture of the entire ship due to its size.

The steeple is from the movie Forrest Gump. Remember the beginning of the movie when a feather floated down from this steeple? The bench he was sitting on is in some museum. Forrest Gump is one of the best movies ever!

I love the architecture and the importance to details. We also visited several museums and ate some fabulous food. The Pink House was some of the best food we’ve had on our trip. John ordered chicken livers…..seriously…..they were even delicious! We ate in the basement tavern while listening to the fabulous piano player.

We spent a lovely evening at Forsyth Park, people watching and meeting their dogs! I think every resident owns a dog here. Later we wanted something to eat but didn’t want to walk so far. We reasoned that the Mansion at Forsyth park might have a casual bar where we could get a light supper. Otherwise we were not dressed to eat in a fancy mansion. It turns out it was a Marriott property and we had such fun talk into the young people. We met one smart young man from Hattiesburg MS who was at a cyber security convention who was having his dinner at the bar. Since the group was talking about football, he asked me who was my team. I explained that I’m a Bama fan by marriage but I attended a small Baptist college called William Carey. Wouldn’t you know it, his wife was also a Carey graduate. He has since emailed us.

We drove our Jeep back to Brunswick from Destin and will rent a car to return to it when we head back home late September. This gave us such an advantage in seeing the area. St. Simons has a WWII Homefront Museum dedicated to the people who stayed home to support the war. John took his turn at the radar training station.

Next we drove to Darien GA and saw a sign to the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation on the Altamaha River. It was a rice plantation because of the marshes that was only owned by one family with five generations. The last surviving woman died in 1973 and left the estate to the state of Georgia. So all of the furnishings and books were left intact making it very personal. Speaking of personal. The docent asked us where we were from and John had to add Florala, Alabama. Seems she went to high school with John and was a freshman when he was a senior! Wow! I would have taken a picture of them together but we were in a large group and then she talked so much that she had to excuse herself and run to the front door where the next group awaited. Anyway, she was quite knowledgeable but John insists she was not an old girlfriend. Now back to the plantation history….I learned that life was much harder for the slaves producing rice rather than cotton because of the wet conditions that they worked in coupled with mosquitos and diseases. In fact, the plantation owners never spent the night in the house during the summer until around 1930 when the owner put screens on the windows and fireplaces. He was a screen pioneer after researching the cause of malaria.

Here are some pictures from the interior of the house. We should have one of these toilet cabinets on the boat! Much better than a coffee can when the old toilet broke. Haha

I’m writing this during Hurricane Dorian. Yes, I’m way behind on my posts but I procrastinate writing because…..there are so many other things that I prefer to do….like even cleaning. Oh well, if I don’t do this I know that I will forget so much of this adventure. Last night I wrote quite a bit but because of so many people in the hotel waiting out the storm, I suppose the internet was compromised and everything I wrote did NOT save…..arghhhhhhhh…

The dishes above were not expensive in their day. In fact, they were so inexpensive that they were used on ships in crates as ballasts for balance. Don’t you love the meat platter? It is one inch lower on one side so that the au jus can collect for some good biscuit sopping! And several of these serving dishes are hollow so that hot water can be inserted to keep the food warm. I want some of those dishes! Don’t tell John because he thinks I’m obsessed with dishes.

John enjoyed all the farm equipment. As a young man, he used to use a sickle mower just like this one! It requires four mules to pull it. And the large metal bowl is not a syrup maker as I thought but for hog killing day. The pig would be thrown into this boiling water to help loosen all the hair. So why did they go to that trouble? Because the fat was cut off to the skin to reduce to lard for frying and the skin was cut up in pieces to make cracklings and pork rinds. If a hair was left on the skin, John and his brother would be in a world of trouble! I don’t know if you’ve ever had crackling corn bread but it’s marvelous.

So the last generation to live in this house was two sisters and their brother…..all spinsters. The last sister outlived them both by 20 years and the day before she died she took her car to the grocery store. We were told that it still runs!

There were two magnificent oaks, one on each side of the home that were verified to be over 800 years old. They were named after the two sisters, Miriam and Ophelia Dent. Nothing is more magnificent than a tree! These two sisters saved the plantation from bankruptcy when rice was no longer a viable crop due to not being able to find workers. They started a dairy and used the proceeds to pay off all debts before they closed it.

After the plantation we rode into Darien which is also home to Fort King George State Historic site built in 1721 as the southernmost outpost of the British Empire in the Americas at that time. Great Britain, France and Spain were all competing to control the southeast. Many of the soldiers died at Fort King George but none from battle. They suffered from river flooding, starvation, alcoholism and desertion. Interesting, Oglethorpe later brought Scottish settlers over who were successful making a life who many of the towns, counties and roads are named for today.

This barrack housed 100 soldiers so either they slept several to a bed or they were on shifts.

It’s time to leave Florida so Pat and Danny came to Jacksonville and we took one vehicle to Brunswick, our termination point and left one in Jacksonville. It was so very good to see friends. By the way, we would love for you to come join us a couple of days on this 3-4 year adventure!

Our first stop was Amelia Island at Fernandina Beach. This little town was full of great shops and live music and the oldest saloon in Florida! Adolphus Bush, founder of Anheuser-Bush assisted in the design of the Palace Saloon.

We ate at a seafood restaurant that was fabulous and a fried shrimp platter, running over with the freshest Georgia Atlantic shrimp, was only $14.99! We had so much fun that evening visiting shops and live music venues that I’m tempted to say that I wish I could go back…..but I won’t!

Next stop was to anchor out at Cumberland Island National Seashore. As soon as we arrived we saw a horse and her twin foals playing on the beach. It was very peaceful to spend the night here while seeing only a couple of boats. There are no bridges to this Island but a ferry comes several times a day to bring tourists. One can rent a bike, or take a van tour that lasts over half a day. Most people walk the 4 mile tour circle.

We were blessed again because the 100 heat index pattern was broken that day and the temperature dropped to the low 80s! The four of us took the dinghy into shore and we walked through the most beautiful thick oaks twisting and intertwining above our heads to come out on the other side and walk on the Atlantic Ocean beach. These tree are magnificent! The branches twist because of the ocean breezes affecting their growth.

Now mostly uninhabited, Cumberland Island, the largest of the Sea islands has a rich history and has had populations of Indians, Spanish, English, Freed Slaves and Several Carnegie homes. John F Kennedy Jr. was married in the First African Baptist Church.

People do tent camp but the wildlife is plentiful with the most obvious being mosquitoes! We met one upset girl who was crying that raccoons tore open her tent to eat her makeup! With over 150 horse inhabitants, it’s not unusual for a horse to cross your path!

Jekyll Island was a vast change with highly manicured greens and beautiful historic buildings. The marina had bicycles and Pat and I rode all over the Island.

I noticed a very nice looking young man picking up a delivery on our dock with a shirt emblem of My Seanna. He offered to carry a boy who was walking barefoot on the hot dock. His Australian accent jogged my memory….My Seanna is one of the yachts on the TV series, Below Deck. I wanted to tell him that he was better looking in person but I did not and only asked if he was on the TV series. He said no it was another Aussie but he is indeed a crew member. Why didn’t I ask for a picture? We later passed My Seanna on our trip to Brunswick. It is a charter yacht and you can rent it for 12 people for only 350K per week PLUS expenses! And it wasn’t in the Caribbean or Greek Islands but enjoying the Georgia Golden Isles!

We passed some huge ships and later we learned the rich history of ship building in Brunswick and contributions to WWII.

After arriving in Brunswick we left the boat to come home for awhile and see grandchildren and to see family. John also had to work some and it was good to help pay for the new freezer and refrigerator! This picture is not enhanced! No place like home!