Cruisin' the Skidaway and Wilmington Rivers

Gene, one of Isle of Hope's liveaboards, wanted to run his boat.  It's not good to just let them sit, unused.  He invited Pam, Megan, Sammy, and me to join him.  It was a great day, mostly sunny and very warm.   A great day to be on the water.  The plan was to head north up the Skidaway River, hang a right on the Wilmington and head out into the ocean.   From there we'd head north around Tybee Island and then up the Savannah River to Savannah to check out the tall ships.  

I brought my camera along, of course.  If I didn't, we'd see Elvis playing with the marina mink or something.  Besides, I enjoy photographing stuff.  It makes me more observant.

Check out all the oysters on the river bank behind the Egret.

For some reason, I always think of the Air Force as having our military's airplanes.  Not so, of course.  Here is a Navy jet landing at the Army's airfield.

Big houses aren't limited to Connecticut.

We saw many dolphins.

Many snowbirds are still on the move. 

I think this Ericson was local and just out for a daysail on the Wilmington.

An ex-resort, now condominiums.

All that's left of a fort built during the Spanish American war to protect the Wilmington River.

Wassaw Island.  Nice beaches, right on the ocean.  We'll have to come back with the dogs.

The inlet is very shallow, only four feet in spots at low tide.  We arrived about an hour after low tide.  You can see the ocean waves breaking on the other side of the sand bar in the pic above. 

You can see standing waves breaking on the shoals.  No thanks.  With one of the boat's engines running hotter than it should, we decided that discretion was the better part of valor. We turned around and headed back up the Wilmington.

C'mon, you have to admit that this looks like fun.   For ten or fifteen minutes anyway.

This boat looks... top heavy.   I wonder if all the guys were up there to check out the bikini babe on the bow.

Laser fun on the Skidaway River.

Megan learning the liveaboard/cruising lifestyle.  I think she's thinking that this hardly sucks at all.

Gene nails a horsefly, and Sammy photographs this momentous occasion.

We often see these boats taking kids out on the river.  I'm thinking they're from the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. 

Some Osprey are still nesting.

Not Eagles though.  This nest was empty.

The lady on the right has a fish on the line.

Pretty boat anchored on the Skidaway.

Zoom Zoom.

Another Osprey nest, properly built in its designated box.

Egret.

Egret landing.

We had a great time.  Thanks for inviting us, Gene.  Thanks too to Sammy for being our tour guide.

Pot Luck

Good morning from Isle of Hope, Georgia.  Yet another picture perfect day.

In mink hunting news, I've been toting the camera with me to photograph the marina's mink.  All I got was a footprint, but at least I know they're still around.,

Hmmm.... maybe that's a Jingles the dog footprint.  I'm not seeing the fifth toe.  Nuts.

Last night was our now weekly pot luck dinner.  There was a pavilion conflict with our planned Thursday pot luck so we moved it to Wednesday.   As usual, the food was fantastic, and plenty of it to boot.

We invited transients to dinner and several joined in, along with Lucy.

Lucy made herself right at home and fit right in.

Hey Chris look!  You're on TV!

Chevy tried to hypnotize Rick into dropping his plate on the floor.  Didn't work.

Tom brought along his TV and DVD player.   Pam and I provided Captain Ron, the funniest movie ever made (if you're a boater), filmed in 1992.   Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and movies are funnier when watched with others since laughter is contagious.

If you haven't seen it, here are a few gems for you...

Benjamin Harvey: [Overhearing his parents] Wow. We're getting a boat? Too cool.
Katherine Harvey: Ben, remember our discussion about eavesdropping?
Benjamin Harvey: Okay. But we're getting a boat?
Katherine Harvey: Your father and I have to talk about it.
Benjamin Harvey: Alright. We're getting a boat.


Katherine Harvey: We'll be spontaneous when we have time.


Captain Ron: [telling how he lost his eye] Yeah, it happened when I went down off the coast of Australia.
Katherine Harvey: Your boat sank?
Captain Ron: No, no, no, no. Not my boat. My boss's boat. Yeah, we hit this reef. Huge son-of-a-bitch. Ran the whole coast.
Katherine Harvey: Wait. The Great Barrier Reef?
Captain Ron: You've heard of it, huh? Smart lady.

 
Captain Ron: Yeah, incentives are important. I learned that in rehab.

Captain Ron: We should be okay. 'Cause I know we're near land.
Martin Harvey: Great, Cap. Great. Ya hear that? We're almost there. Explain to the kids how you know that, Captain Ron. Someone translate for General Armando.
Captain Ron: Alright, now stay with me: When we left, we had just enough fuel to make it to San Juan. And now... we are out of fuel!

Caroline Harvey: Captain Ron, I was wondering. Are we going to be going to any more "human" type places?
Captain Ron: Well, you heard of St. Croix?
Caroline Harvey: Yeah.
Captain Ron: We're going to the island just to the left of it.
Caroline Harvey: What's it called?
Captain Ron: Ted's.

Martin Harvey: Slow down! There's boats all over the place!
Captain Ron: Don't worry. They'll get out of the way. I learned that driving the Saratoga.

Shooting Mink

I've been toting my camera with me all around the marina looking for that cute little mink that I met the other day when I didn't have my camera.   As I was getting off the boat with the dogs, this Cheoy Lee was fueling up at the marina.  I waited for him to leave so I could get a halfway decent pic of his boat, Black Swan.

Pretty, isn't it?  And unusual.  There's a small cockpit with windshield up on the bow which you can just barely make out in this photo.

Up in the yard with the dogs, I looked in vain for the mink.  He must have seen me coming with the camera because he was nowhere to be found.  Nonetheless, I like taking photos of, well, everything, so I did.

Lance-leaved Coreopsis

Indian Blanket

Spanish Moss

Saw Palmetto

Pineapple Palm Tree

Sadly, no mink. 

In transient news, the traffic is slowing down.  Most folks are up in North Carolina by this time, but not everyone.   John arrived in this brand new Seaward 26.

He's checking off a line item on his bucket list and singlehanding it from Florida, where he picked it up, to Maine.  He'll then trailer it to his home base in California.

I stopped to chat with Ben who was servicing all of Whirlwind's winches.  A couple of them are huge.

Ben seems to be very methodical.  He has all his roller bearings lined up nicely.

Ruby wanted a snack while I was talking to Ben and pulled an oyster off a piling.

Later, R/V Anna pulled in.

Not "recreational vehicle".  In marine lingo, it means "research vessel", and Anna is part of the Department of Natural Resources' fleet.

The dogs loved Anna.

A dog's sense of smell is 400 times better than a human's.  I imagine there were all kinds of smells on Anna.

Shrimping has been banned since January in Georgia's waters because of a decline in the population of market sized food shrimp. Anna was sampling the four types of wild Georgia shrimp (white, brown, royal red, and pink) to determine the current population, and it looks like DNR may soon reopen the shrimp season. More sampling needs to be done though.

Wild Georgia shrimp are fished in their natural environment, not farms. According to the Montery Bay Aquarium, in southeast Asia "shrimp are cultivated intensively, pollutants and disease organisms build up in the muck beneath each pond. After a few years, the pond can no longer support healthy shrimp."

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, thousands of U.S. shrimp industry jobs have been lost to shrimp imports and thousands more are threatened. From now on, when in a restaurant I'm going to ask if they offer wild Georgia shrimp or shrimp from a yucky Asian pond.

Always Always Always Always Always Bring the Camera

First, my morning sunrise photo.

Pam went to pick up Gertie at the vet's.   Gertie went there on Friday and was scoped on Saturday.  The vet can find absolutely nothing wrong, yet she continues to have breathing problems.  I guess it's just the way it is.

Gertie soon discovered our latest addition to the critter crew- Sebastion the fish.  She was fascinated by it, and did everything she could to figure out how to get him.  Gertie watched him for hours.  I guess it's like NatGeo TV for cats.

As I was getting off the boat, I noticed yet another addition to our critter crew.  His spidey sense was tingling.

Isn't he cute?  Look at those big eyes.  He looks surprised to see me.

I took the dogs up to the yard to play, bringing my camera as I usually do. Not much to photograph.

Just a stupid old mockingbird.  The dogs played a bit and I brought them back to the boat.  Pam and I made a run to Barnes and Noble where we bought an Audubon Field Guide to Wildflowers and a Birds of Georgia field guide.  Now, when I take a pic of a flower or bird for you, I should be able to correctly identify it.

Later in the afternoon, it was time to take the dogs up to the yard again.  I left the camera on the boat.  It seems silly to lug it around just to take a photo of a dumb mockingbird or something.   I was tossing a tennis ball for the dogs.  They both run after it, a contest to see who can get it first.  One dog gets it and runs, and the other tries to take it away.  Great fun if you're a dog.

On one throw, the ball rolled under a boat trailer and they couldn't get to it.   As they both tried to squeeze under, who comes hopping out of the bushes to get it?  A mink.  He ran towards the tennis ball, but then the dogs popped out from under the trailer and were running around it to get the ball.   The mink bounded into the bushes.   The dogs didn't see the mink and the mink was safe.   Wow, how cool is that?  Pretty cool, you're thinking, but that's not the end of it. 

I tossed the ball in the other direction and the dogs ran off,  and I stood on the bank overlooking the river.  The shore is protected from erosion by big chunks of old sidewalk that were dumped along it.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move.   It was the mink, darting over and under the chunks and coming my way.   He was small and a light brown color, maybe a youngster.  I stood there motionless, watching.   His head popped up and he saw me.   We looked at each other.   He slowly climbed out and walked towards me.  When he got just a few feet away, I started backing up.  Maybe he wondered what kind of creature I was, maybe he was going to nibble on my toes, I dunno.  Why didn't I bring my camera?  Finally, something very cool to photograph and I am sans-camera!

The dogs saw the mink and came running.   The mink ran over the bank and I grabbed both dogs.  I don't think they'd hurt the mink but I didn't want to find out.

Back at the boat, we relaxed with a glass of wine, watching the boat traffic coming and going.  A big cruise boat came by.

Can you imagine this coming towards you in a narrow section of the ICW?

Look at the kid steering, the one in the red shirt.  He's like what, 14 or 15?

I thought he'd have a hard time with the 120 degree hairpin turn, but managed nicely with his thrusters.

And away he went.

We liveaboards often help transients who come in after hours when the dock hands are gone.  Sometimes the current flows at a pretty good clip and it's nice to have someone to throw a line too.   Such was the case last night when we helped a couple of sailboats in.   And then this arrived, an 85' 1935 Trumpy yacht named Enticer.

Isn't she beautiful?   She's one of three Trumpys owned by McMillen Yachts, Inc.  She is in bristol condition, absolutely perfect.

Their guests certainly have a beautiful yacht to enjoy.  Sorry that the pic below is a little out of focus.  I snuck taking their pic and thought it would be rude if I used a flash, and I don't have a tripod aboard.

They left this morning on their way north.

So what will today bring?  I don't know, but I'm bringing my camera.