Tuesday - May 22
After 3 weeks in the Brunswick marina, it's finally time to cast off the dock lines and head s/v Maja north towards Savannah! After a week of nice/hot weather for boat projects, a storm center moved in over the weekend which delayed our departure by one day and forced us to break the trip into two passages since thunderstorms are predicted overnight (nixing the idea of an overnight passage straight into Savannah).
 |
| Passing under the Brunswick bridge, entering the St Simon's channel. |
We were underway by 7:15am, riding the tide out to the ocean. It took us about 3 hrs to motor to the far outer buoy of the channel in order to be in deep water to head north -- and by "deep water", I mean like 25ft under the keel! This could be the Bahamas ...
if only the water didn't look so dark ... and green.
We had light winds, sun and passing clouds overhead all day. We were able to motor sail with all 4 sails up with a nice SE 10knot wind that kept us cool. As the clouds gathered throughout the afternoon, the winds also increased which gave us a nice boost as we continued to run Mr.Westerbeke at 1800 rpms!
 |
| wheeeeeee .... 8 knots! |
The skies began to darken quickly as we made the turn into St Catherine's Sound where we'd anchor for the night. Again, getting in/out of the channels really adds time to going in/out to the ocean, as it took us about 2.5 hrs to clear the channel and motor up a river to a safe anchorage. But, who cares, because the anchor was down and we had finished our rum drinks long before the lightening and thunder and rain squalls started.
Rain clouds to left and right, but clear skies straight ahead!
Wednesday - May 23
Up at 6:30am to listen to Chris Parker's marine weather forecast, even though we'd decided to finish the trip to Savannah on the ICW. It's actually shorter/quicker to get to Thunderbolt Marina via the ICW considering the time lost entering/exiting the channels. The run up to Thunderbolt Marina is only ~20miles (should take about 4 hrs).
It ended up being an really pleasant ICW passage. The river is wide and deep (25-30ft), and the waterway is lined with beautiful homes and pristine wetlands.
We arrived at Thunderbolt at 11:00 a.m., happy with our decision to leave the boat in a marina instead of at the public pier in Savannah.. Forget the fact that we are safely tied to an inside floating face dock, and securely inside a gated marina ... no, the real catch of this marina is the newspaper and Krispy Kreme donuts they bring to your boat every morning!!
Ahhhhhh, even though we were only out one night, nothing beats a long, hot shower when reaching your destination! All sidewalks in town lead to Tubby's, so that's where we spent Happy Hour! Yummy mahi tacos. Back to the boat for the night.
Thursday - May 24
Today's the day the wedding festivities start to ramp up. Michelle and Craig drive in from Columbus GA (in the Prius that we will share over the weekend and then drive back to MN) to their rental apt in the historic district. Sheila lands at the airport at 6:00pm, so we'll make our first trip over to the Marshall House and the historic side of Savannah.
 |
| Drinks with Sheila at the Marshall House |
Considering how overwhelming the whole wedding weekend ended up being, it was nice to be able to start small. We visited with Craig and Michelle at their loft and then had drinks with Sheila at the Marshall House before meeting up with C/M for dinner. Probably the last meal we'd have over the weekend where I was able to finish an entire conversation with one person!
Back on the boat for the night. Our last until after the wedding festivities are over.
Friday - May 25
Let the fun begin! Thanks to the great people at 109 West Liberty Street, we were able to check into our rental mansion early in the morning.
Savannah Villa.
The Radey family was the first to arrive, with Jimmy/Julie/Owen pulling into the parking lot with their rented 4x4 monster pickup truck (only rental left in the lot!). Michelle and I had our last mother-daughter bonding experience at the Aveda salon where I got my hair cut (for the first time in 10 months!), and then the afternoon was a crazy blur of familiar faces arriving at the Liberty Street house..... Dan/Renee/Collette Devereaux arrived by van; Laury/Bob/Steven/Marie arrived by truck; James/Robert/Jim arrived by Mustang convertible; Paula arrived by cab; and finally, Sarah/Ian showed up by taxi at 10:30pm. Oh my!
It was way too crazy for taking pictures -- but just imagine that there is drinking and conversation going on in every room!
 |
| Dan in the dining room |
 |
| Robert and Dan ... champagne anyone? |
 |
| My brother, Jimmy (aka Jim) |
In total, there were 15 people staying at the Liberty Street house, which put us within walking distance of all things neat in the historic district. 9 people slept in the main house; 4 people in the Garden Suite; 2 people in the Carriage House. And as long as we were hanging out on 'our estate', moving from the kitchen to the back deck to the living room to the front balcony we were OK .... but getting 15 people to move in the same direction towards a single goal was akin to herding cats! I think it took us 2.5 hours to decide to call out for pizza for dinner!
But we were a complete party unto ourselves! At about midnight, we heard that Michelle and Craig were over at the Social Club in City Market with the rest of the wedding party, so off we went. I think it is one of the only times I've been in a bar where I've known everyone there!
3:00 a.m. Seriously, am I still up, sitting on the balcony, sipping champagne with friends?
Saturday - May 26
Saturday was Tourist Day in Savannah for all our first-time visitors. One group loaded Devereaux's van and went to the beach at Tybee Island. One group took a walking tour of the historic district and Savannah's famous squares. James and Jim Garfunkel took the Mustang out for a drive and found a Nascar race track that was good for a few rounds (good enough for a return trip tomorrow with my brother and 14-yr old nephew!!!).
 |
| Wedding Party at the salon .... |
But the real fun started around 3pm when the Nelson women came over to start cooking for the Open House that Craig's parents are hosting this evening for all the wedding guests. The Liberty Street house was a great rental for our family/friends, and it also provided us with a fabulous venue for a Saturday night get-together. Patricia Nelson (Craig's mom) and her sisters Marilyn/Sheila cooked up a storm in the Garden Suite apartment and provided us with a dining room table loaded with Italian goodies to munch on as we drank wine/beer and chatted and chatted and chatted-- three types of brochette (artichoke, mozz/basil, shrimp), meatballs, antipasti salad, fresh vegies, brownies and ice cream! Yummy ..... we partied late into the evening, even though there was a wedding looming ahead on Sunday.
Pat Nelson - Craig's mom and party hostess
Good food in every room
Laury and Bob
 |
| Mikel and Paula |
Our extended family
Singing + champagne = late night
Family
 |
| sisters! |
 |
| Knowlands! |
Last night as 4 Knowlands
3:00 a.m. Seriously, am I still up, sitting on the balcony, sipping champagne with friends?
Sunday, May 27
Tropical Storm Beryl finally made it's presence felt with rain in the morning, which graciously cleared out by the time we started moving over to Massie School where the ceremony was held. In fact, the rain stayed out of our way thru the ceremony, the trolley ride and didn't enter the scene until the end of the reception.
I'm sure every MOB says it, but my daughter was a very beautiful bride! Her hair, her dress, her flowers, her shoes were all perfect!
And all the boys looked quite spiffy in their grey/white seersucker suits! Southern style ....
There were about 100 people at the wedding, which made the Massie School a great spot for the ceremony. The classroom desks, benches and some extra chairs held us all w/o over-crowding.
Favorite son
The trolley ride following the ceremony made sure that every guest picked up some useful trivia facts about Savannah. The sun was shining; the heat was mild; and the ride ended at Vics Restaurant where the reception was held -- and where we were met by trays of their signature cocktail, the "Savannah Peach" and one of Craig's favorite bands, "Tradewinds".
 |
| Julie and Paula |
 |
| Devereaux family |
 |
| my boys -- they flew to Atlanta and rented a Mustang Convertible! |
 |
| Marie ... our lovely niece who took over 1400 pictures for us. xxxooo |
 |
| Proud FOB ... giving a toast about sea beans! |
 |
| family .... |
 |
| family .... |
 |
| family ... |
 |
| family |
 |
| from California to Minnesota to New York |
 |
| America's White Table.... google it. |
 |
| men and their ties |
 |
| best friends |
MOB
 |
| dancing |
 |
| and more dancing |
 |
| Sparklers! |
The night ended all too soon ... and just as we were lining up to light our sparklers to send off the newlyweds as they got on their Pedicab, the rain arrived. Two drops were followed in rapid succession by buckets of down-pouring rain -- and the only thing that didn't happen in Michelle's plan was the sparkler send off! Even though the newlyweds and wedding party returned to the Social Club for more drinking and dancing, we stayed up until 3am at the Liberty St House, enjoying our last night in this fabulous mansion.
Seriously, 3:00 am and I still up, drinking champagne on the porch with friends!
Monday - May 28
I swear, I never spent more than 4 hours at one stretch in our wonderful bed ... and last night was no exception. Lots to do today so the alarm started buzzing at 7am. Started. We finally started nudging each other into action closer to 8am! Check out is a 11:00 am and lots to be done before then ... not the least of which is getting our tribe of 15 to move in a organized fashion!
Actually, our only responsibility was the garbage and moving furniture back that we had changed. We had a lot of both ... but many hands make for light work. We were easily ready for check-out and brunch with the wedding bride/groom, wedding party, family, guests at noon. After that, we had time to take Schalaus and Radeys and Knowlands and Yule out to the marina to visit our home, s/v Maja.
By 3pm, the Schalaus had moved over to Tybee Island for the night; the Radeys were at the airport; the Knowlands were on the road home to Wesley Chapel FL; and Sheila surprised us with a room at the Marshall House where she was staying for one more night. It was a great way to wind down from all the excitement, and have one more night in Savannah b/f returning to the boat.
Tuesday, May 29
OK, the party's officially over as Sheila catches a cab to the airport. We had planned to spend today walking around Savannah, seeing the squares one more time, and certainly an ice cream cone from Leopold's, but alas, it pouring rain so we opted to head back to the marina early. and sleep.
Wednesday, May 30
Yahoo, TS Beryl has moved on, leaving us with a pleasant day to begin our transit back to Brunswick. We'll retrace our steps back to St Catherine's Inlet via the ICW and then go offshore into Brunswick.
Thursday, May 31
Arrived back at BLM around 6:30pm. It was a pleasant, uneventful motor-sail, so no complaints from us except that we didn't have enough time to have Sea Stitch look at our canvas while we were in Thunderbolt (we'd planning a redo of our dodger/bimini).
It's nice to have friends in the marina; Ann (s/v Sea Tramp) was there to catch our lines. Good to be home.
Friday, June 1
Ann, s/v Sea Tramp, is also our good friend with a car! She drove us to Hinesville, GA (about half-way to Savannah) to meet Craig and Michelle, who were on their way to Baltimore and ultimately Germany on June 4th. We are taking Michelle's Prius back to MN to sell, and C/M rented a car for their drive up to MD. It was also Craig's 30th birthday, so we went for drinks and dinner at Chilis.
Yah ... we'll have a car for awhile :)
Sad ... my baby girl is moving so far away :(
Next Steps:
June:
We're back on Maja with the usual list of cosmetic and mechanical projects to complete. Since we are postponing the installation of the new watermaker until the fall, we hope to be done by mid-June. As the weather is a mix of hot/humid/bugs and stormy, our progress on things like varnish has been slow.
Dan's mom lives in Tarpon Springs, and we'll visit her a couple of times before we leave for MN.
July: We'll be in Minnesota helping our son, James, install a new kitchen in the home he recently purchased. No big road trips planned this year beyond Webster, WI and Rochester, MN.
August: We'll be in Minnesota helping our son, James, install a new bathroom and bedroom in the lower level of the home he purchased this year (you get the general theme of our time off the the boat this year!) Fortunately, we think it will be fun ... it's been a few years since Dan's had a home improvement project.
September: We'll be in Minnesota enjoying the new bedroom, bath and kitchen at our son's house!
October: Do you think the weather is cool enough to return to GA to finish boat projects? We hope to be back at Brunswick Marina by the first of the month.
November: How soon can we be ready to cross to the Bahamas?
December: Christmas with James in the Bahamas.
