Upon awakening from a good nights sleep at the hotel (hopefully the last one before we would be back aboard!) we grabbed a few breakfast bars and yogurts from the hotels breakfast bar and headed to Winn Dixie to do a small amount of provisioning for what will likely be our last few days traveling on Aquaholic before delivering her to her new owner. We arrived back at Two Way Fish Camp a little after 8am and loaded all of our stuff back onto the boat and straightened things up a bit in preparation for launch number two of the trip.
David, the yard mechanic and travel lift operator, was there before 8:30 and got right on maneuvering the lift around to us. Since he was the only person in at the boat yard Erik helped out with strapping up the boat to prepare it for the lift and short move to the water. The boat was in the water and systems checked out by 9:30am. We settled up the finances with David making this by far the most costly week on the water we have had since our adventures began five years ago. Oh well....most people know the acronym for B.O.A.T.... Bust Out Another Thousand (or a couple!).
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| Aquaholic with her nice new STRAIGHT shaft and shiny tuned props |
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| headed back to the water...Yay! |
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| back over the water ready to get lowered in |
At this point we had a decision to make; the weather forecast was calling for potentially strong storms to come in by early afternoon. We both were pretty much done with Two Way Fish Camp and certainly wanted to move north to a Savannah marina but the trip today would be pretty long (about 75-80 miles) through a lot more of the Georgia low country marshland. The other consideration for us was that Renee is scheduled to take a proctored mid-term exam tomorrow morning at 8:30am. The WiFi and phone signals at Two Way have been sketchy at best which did not speak well to her taking the exam there. After further consideration of options and more looking at the weather maps/hour by hour forecast we decided we would make a go for it. Erik quickly drove our 'loaner truck' back to our new friends (whom we still have not actually met!) home which was only about 15 miles away and had his mother (Nancy) give him a ride back to the marina. Nancy greeted Erik at their home with a bag containing a pound or so of fresh cleaned Georgia shrimp (yum!) as well as multiple ziplock baggies of an assortment of herbs freshly picked from her garden. Tom and Nancy may be native to Pittsburgh but they sure have let the age old southern hospitality seep into their blood. Thanks again Tom and Nancy for all you've done to assist us! Meanwhile, Renee called ahead to Isle of Hope Marina in Savannah to attempt to secure us a slip there for the night. Unfortunately, they had nothing at all available :-( She made another call to option 'B', Thunderbolt Marina which was 6 miles further north up the ICW than Isle of Hope. Unfortunately, she got no answer there at Thunderbolt. She was able to submit a request for a slip on Dockwa (an online reservation service that many marinas now utilize),but, that did not ensure us a slip until we receive a confirmation back from them. We departed the marina anyhow at 10:30 am with fingers crossed that the reservation would be confirmed shortly. We really did NOT want to have to anchor out in thunderstorms later.
Back on the water and cruising the repairs to the shaft and props had Aquaholic purring along and running as smooth as ever :-). The first 30-40 miles of the trip had us winding through the channels of the marshes, fortunately at high tide, with the occasional passing of inlets out the open Atlantic. A little greater than half way through the days trip the landscape started to change some to where there was now much more solid land in site with more and more homes popping up to be seen. It is crazy to see how long the piers out to peoples boat docks are in this area; some have to be a quarte mile long or more! The closer we got to Savanna the more frequent, larger and MUCH more expensive the homes got. The skies continued to cloud over and at several points we could see the rain on the horizon as we continued to wind toward our destination. Twice, it started raining and we would move down to the lower (inside) helm to avoid getting too wet. Fortunately though we arrived at Thunderbolt Marina and were able to get tied up, checked in and let Riva off to do her business JUST before the thunderstorms with dark clouds and strong winds set in on us.....whew! Shortly after we got settled in an 80' yacht 'Laid Back' came in directly behind us. We helped catch their lines and secure them to the dock. It was apparent that at least two of the people on Laid Back were crew only and this had us wondering if we should hire a crew....lol.
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| Stately looking home with columns quintessential Georgia |
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| The house got larger and more frequent as we neared Savannah |
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| beautiful classic boat at a marina a few miles from our destination for the day |
Some of the storms and rain moved through so Erik prepared shish kabobs with delicious veges, chicken and the fresh shrimp given to us by Nancy earlier. Cooking the food on the aft deck proved to be quite the adventure in and of itself because more storms with rain driven by strong winds moved back in shortly after the grill was lit. Erik stood on the deck by the grill with an umbrella shielding it from the wind and rain to keep it from blowing out. The shrimp was as good and tasty as Erik had hoped it would be and WELL worth the trouble of cooking it in a storm.
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| Ready for the Grill :-) |
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| making up some fresh guac to go with dinner We had not cilantro which would be typical but for a new twist added some fresh lemon basil and parsley from Nancy's garden |
It had been a long, hot day and we were all three very tired; Riva had already crawled into her doggie bed and was crashed HARD. We showered up and had some coffee while writing on the blog for the last couple of days which we had neglected. We finished off the evening with Klondike bars before turning in for a good nights sleep.
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| Thunderbolt Marine services some BIG and spectacular boats this sail boat is one of the more impressive and majestic ones we've seen |
It is starting to sink in and is becoming bitter sweet as we realize that it is very likely we will be spending our last few days and nights aboard our beloved Aquaholic. She has been awfully good to us as a vehicle to MANY life long memories! Until tomorrow......sweet dreams!
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| Settled into her slip for the night after the storms rolled through |
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| Rest well! |
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