Shark!

After a 10 hour cruise, we landed at Port Royal Landing Marina just outside Beaufort SC.  We wanted to be at the Beaufort Marina, but they're full!  Must have jinxed it by mentioning in the previous blog that we're having no problem finding dockage because everyone has left the south for more temperate climes.  Guess everyone is out on the water here for the weekend. 

Vicki saw a shark today.  She was piloting and a gray fin (she says "ominous" gray fin) came swimming toward Tide Hiker and around to the side of the boat where Vicki could clearly see about a 5-6 foot shark which reinforced her desire to never again swim in anything but a pool.

Where are the Flies?

Today's cruise was about 8 hours from Golden Isles Marina on St.Simons Island to Kilkenny Marina south of Savannah.  Lovely day until we were about 30 minutes out from our destination where we ran into a t-storm.  Fortunatlely, it was quite a tame storm - some lightening, moderate rain for a short time, but no wind.  We were afraid that the Georgia biting flies would be swarming, but so far there have only been a few.  Of course, those few managed to bite both of us! 

Kilkenny Marina is truly "Deliverance" country in the Georgia marshes.  The docks are as rickety as some of the finger piers on Dock B and we said a prayer when Norm plugged into exposed electric outlet.  Still, the people are very nice as they are pretty much anywhere.  It's a great country and we're happy to once again be seeing a beautiful slice of it as we travel north.

No Problem Finding Dockage

Well, we're having no problem finding dockage because everyone leaves Florida in the summer...  and we've discovered why -- it'a stinking hot with temps in the 90s and humidity at 80%.  Anchoring would be a prescription for no sleep, so we're tied to land every night.  After Titusville, we spent a night at Pete and Lil Satterlee's dock in New Smyrna Beach.  They were in the Bahamas, but had given us the go-ahead to use their dock.  We taxied to the movie theater to see Prince of Persia which was a fun action romp.  Tuesday night was the St. Augustine City Dock.  Yesterday at Fernandina Beach Municipal Marina we celebrated Norm's birthday at Luigi's with linguini and clams in white sauce (Norm) and lasagna (Vicki).  Both meals were excellent and we dined al fresco which was delightful.  We arrived about noon today at Golden Isles Marina near Brunswick GA, used the courtesy car for a run to the grocery store, then Vicki spent a couple hours doing laundry at the marina laundry facility.  She decided not to do laundry onboard thinking that it's not a good idea to operate our washer and dryer in the 100-degree heat in the engine room -- they're really not designed to operate in that heat, and replacing them would be a major, major headache. 

We're getting back into the swing of using the blog after sitting still in Tampa for the winter -- we'll try to update every few days.

Finally Heading North

We left Stuart two days ago.  Norm finished all the maintenance.  Vicki Jazzercized and Publixed and Best Buyed.  We're happy to finally be moving north.  Last night was Vero Beach where we walked about 1.5 miles to the beach and had cocktails in Adirondack chairs overlooking the ocean.  Tonight we're in Titusville - arrived just before the storms.