Isle of Hope to Savannah in a Powerboat

One nice part of cruising is the people you meet, especially if you stay in one place for a bit.  We met Gene, who is living aboard his Chris Craft powerboat, and Bill and Patti, who are cruising on their Pearson 40 sailboat, shortly after arriving at Isle of Hope Marina.

Gene is fairly new to boating, having done so for only a few years and that being on Lake Michigan.  He's living aboard here to be close to his son (who is a ranger in the army) and daughter-in-law and grandkids.  He got the bug to cast off his dock lines yesterday and asked Bill and Patti and Pam and I if we'd accompany him on a short cruise to Savannah for lunch.  Since we're going nuts here waiting for an electrician to look at our windlass, we eagarly took him up on his offer.

Drift Away is a trawler, a type of boat called a displacement hull.  We move through the water displacing it as we pass through it.  Our top speed is about ten miles per hour.  Gene's boat, Light 'n Up, is a planing hull, meaning that his boat has the hull form and enough power to actually skip on top of the water and plane right over it.  His boat can do thirty miles per hour.  Fun! 

I had mentioned before about being fascinated by the wide variety of boats there are.  Looking back at yesterday's photos really drove this point home.  Here is our trip, in pictures.

First off, Gene's boat can plane.  It has enough power to get up out of the water, push it aside, and scoot over its surface.  To this old sailor, this is impressive.

Gene took a short detour into Thunderbolt Marina where we saw this passenger ferry...

a big yacht...

more big yachts...

and a really really big yacht that I couldn't fit in all in the photo (it's comforting to know that the fabulously wealthy are getting through the recession OK.  I was worried about them)...

And then we saw some fishing trawlers...

a tug and barge...

a freighter...

and this is Gene's boat...

All those boats were in the short hop from Isle of Hope to Savannah, a two hour trip. 

We tied up at the River Street Marketplace dock and walked down River Street towards an Irish pub that Gene wanted to eat at.  Along the way, Gene received a text that said to go to the Bayou Cafe.  He didn't know who it was from.  Since we were all cruisers and therefore adventurous, we did exactly that.  We weren't disappointed either.  It was excellent, and a good time was had by all.

Don't you hate it when you're reading a blog and the writer posts a pic of people and doesn't tell you who is who?

So we left the Bayou Cafe... what?   Oh.  That's me (Dave) on the left, with my honey Pam holding up a bottle of homemade Bayou Cafe hot sauce that we purchased, then Bill (c'mon Bill, smile!), his lovely wife Patti, and captain Gene.

We left Savannah to head back to Isle of Hope Marina where an electrician would be arriving to work on Bill and Patti's hot water heater, which wasn't making hot water, and our windlass, which wasn't windlassing.  Gene was doing a great job as designated driver...

On the ride back, passing Thunderbolt Marina, we saw Big Yacht Number One hauled out of the water.

Can you imagine what it must take to lift a behemouth like that?

Along the way, we were entertained by dolphins...

Really, these things are getting annoying.   Look at me, look at me, I'm a dolphin!  Yeah, whatever.

We arrived back at the marina and the electrician working on Bill and Patti's boat and Drift Away took our lines.  We had locked the dogs in the main saloon with the A/C on so he could get on the boat without being attacked by our vicious pit bulls.  Mike the Electrician waved our windlass's reset button at us, saying it was toast and he had to order a new one.  He also had a verdict for Bill and Patti's hot water heater, but I didn't pay attention to that one.

This is the life of a liveaboard cruiser.  While you poor saps were slaving away in your cubicles, we were all outside playing.

Sorry.  Come join us!

Side note.  It's now 4:15 AM and I'm writing this at the table in the main saloon.  I was about to hit the "publish post" button and Ruby, who is sleeping on the sofa, began to howl like a wolf.  I don't know what she was dreaming about, but it's kind of freaky.