Tall Ships Leaving Savannah

Tall ships made a visit to Savannah over the weekend.  We didn't make it to board the ships, but we decided to watch them leave on Monday.   Megan, Pam, and I hopped in the Thunderbird and drove to Fort Pulaski, which is right on the Savannah River.  Many other people had the same idea and the parking lot was packed. 

We'd never been to Fort Pulaski, but a quick check of the brochure showed a gun emplacement on the river, so that's where we went.    It's very pretty at Fort Pulaski.

There was a stone pier there that was packed, so we hiked along a trail that more or less followed the river.   Passing this spot, I started thinking about alligators and water moccasins.  In Georgia, you don't just hop into a pond to catch frogs.

We found a nice place with a good view and parked ourselves to wait.  And wait.  And wait.

I can't sit still with a camera.  I started taking photos of everything the least bit interesting, and the longer I sat, the more interesting mundane things became, like this diving pelican.  I love pelicans. 

Pam must have gotten bored too because she started looking for shells.  She was joined by a Jack Russell Terrier who wanted to see what she was doing.

It was breezy and threatening rain.  The natives were getting restless.

I took an interest in a brightly dressed pretty little girl and whom I am assuming is her grandma, equally photogenic.   They made a great pair and a fun subject to photograph.

Grandma was showing grandaughter how to make a sand castle.  She didn't seem too interested at first.

A fine sand castle, built to withstand whatever nature throws at it, except waves and a rising tide.

Where are those tall ships anyway?   Hey look, a stork!   Apparently on his way back from a delivery.

A mother and son made a fine subject next.

Where are those stupid tall ships?   Pam was expanding her exploration territory.

At this point, I even resorted to stalking a tiny fiddler crab, who had the unique ability to run away from me while turning his eyeball stalks backwards to watch me.

And then there they were!   Here came the first one!    It was the US Coast Guards Eagle.   And believe it or not, if you look closely, you will see an eagle flying just to the left of it.  OK, it's really a seagull, but how cool would it be if it was an eagle?

Without further rambling on from me, I present the tall ships...

And then they were gone...

I uploaded 48 photos to my Flickr account.  If you're interested in seeing the complete collection, click here.

Blog teaser for tomorrow- Pamela has crabs.

Cat Fight!!

Dogs belong to people.   Cats belong to places.

This marina is fairly large with room for about 100 boats.   All of it is the territory of Tipper, a long haired Siamese kind of cat.   Tipper is very friendly to everyone except dogs and, particularly, cats.

I've posted before about Tipper and Gertie mixing it up.  Gertie likes to explore and Tipper will have none of that.  Tipper is queen and this marina is her kingdom and Gertie had better stay on our boat.  They've been in skirmishes before and little Gertie always comes out on the losing end.  Until yesterday.

I was sitting at the saloon table on the laptop (as Pam says I do 95% of my waking moments) when I heard the unmistakable yowl of a cat fight.    A long yeeeeeeeeooooooooooooooowwww!   RAEEEEER!  yeeeeeeoooooooowwww!    I grabbed my camera to see Tipper backing Gertie up towards our boat.

Gertie backed up more and more until she was right next to Drift Away and had nowhere to go.   She turned her back.   Tipper saw her chance and lunged at Gertie.  Gertie leapt straight up and onto Drift Away (she's very agile and quite athletic for such a small cat).   Tipper grabbed nothing but air and went off the dock and into the water!  Luckily, Rick and Brian were right there and quickly scooped Tipper out.   Tipper sulked away.

Oh, the indignity of it all.

Don't laugh, Jingles.  Don't even look.

As long as I had my camera, I took a pic of all the marsh grass clogging up the marina.  With the extraordinarily high tides we've been getting, The grass is being lifted out of the marshes and out into the river.

When the tide goes out, the grass goes out with it, but then returns six hours later when the tide comes back in.   Since more water goes out than comes in, I suppose that eventually it will all wash out to sea.

Tomorrow's blog teaser- tall ships.

190 Miles on a Jetski?

Today's blog will be short, but interesting.  As I was walking up the dock yesterday morning, I passed this fella sitting on his jetski. 

We don't usually see jetskis at the marina.   There were a  few other jetskis there as well, and the others were strapping big gas tanks on the back of each.   I had to ask.   They arrived at Isle of Hope from Augusta, a trip of 190 miles.  It took them six hours. That's an average of 32 MPH.

A little later, this Coast Guard helicopter passed overhead.

Hopefully, the two weren't related.

The Scottish Games

Cead mile fàilte!  (a hundred-thousand welcomes!)

Yep, not a too boating related post today.   Consider, though, that when cruising one often does touristy stuff and this was the 36th annual Scottish games in Savannah.  Gibsons were originally from Scotland, part of Clan Buchanan.  We got kicked out of there and moved to Ireland.  They didn't want us either so we immigrated to the US.  It's only a matter of time...

It was only a couple of miles away so off we went in the T-bird.  Well, almost off.    We uncovered the Thunderbird and piled in and then I realized that I had forgotten the camera.  When I got back to the car, I had to extricate Ben.

We arrived at the parking lot, a big cow pasture.  The parking attendant said he would park our car for us and to give him the keys.  What a kidder.

The place was crowded.  There is a history of Scots who moved to the Savannah area and they're proud of their heritage here.  This had all the makings of a fun day.  Where else would you get a chance to see something like this, a big man in a skirt throwing a big heavy thing.

Just to set the record straight about kilts; I think a tee shirt I saw said it best- "This is a kilt. If it was a skirt, I'd be wearing something under it". These athletes were wearing something under their kilts though. They were doing a lot of spinning and their kilts were twirling straight out.

The Scottish games originated in 1057 by King Malcolm Ceanmore as a way to keep his military in shape.  The weight this fella is throwing weighs 56 pounds.

The contestants might be plumbers or construction workers, but they're every bit the athletes at these competitions. 

One of the events was tossing a sheave, a bundle of hay, with a pitchfork. The idea is to see who can throw it the highest. 

These guys were just practicing.  During the actual event, they throw over a bar that gets raised as the competition progresses.

Besides the athletic events, there were booths set up for each clan represented at the games, food booths, and merchandise booths.

It was 96 degrees with 99% humidity, and that brain freezing slushy was go-oood.

The competitions weren't just about big burly men.  It was also open to big burly women.

There's also highland dance competition.

Highland dancing is a serious competition.  Not only is it athletic, but these girls are wearing all wool clothing.  96 degrees.  99% humidity.  In front of judges.

Now, look at the next photo closely.  Click on it to enlarge it.

This gentleman has just tossed a caber, a 90 to 120 pound log that is 16 to 20 feet long.  The competitor holds the narrow end of the log in his hands, picks it up balancing it on his shoulder, runs forward and tosses it high into the air.  The idea is to spin it 180 degrees so that the large end hits the ground and the log lands at the 12 o'clock position. 

He nailed it.

There was also a demonstration of working border collies.  They herded both sheep and... ducks!

The Scottish games would be nothing without bagpipes and drums.

Or cute kids.

Or distinguished old gents.

I love a marching band that actually marches in step.

It was time for the marching of the clans.



Tug of war time!  Men versus women!  Best of three!

The women won the first one easily.  More men were recruited from the audience.   One was the guy in black.

The announcer was dumbfounded when he trotted onto the field, referring to him as Arnold Swartzenegger.   He's an Army Ranger.  "God created Army Rangers so that Navy Seals could have heroes too", the announcer quipped.  The men won the next two rounds.

We had a lot of fun, but it was back to the boat to sit in the shade and to enjoy the coolness of the water

Friends from the Norwalk dog park, Ben and Ensign, arrived on Relemar.  They're headed north back to Norwalk.

Ensign is a border terrier.  He's a real cutie.

Finally, last night's super moon.  It's caused super high and super low tides.  High tides are not a problem, but the low tides caused the water on the ICW to be two feet lower than normal, resulting in many boats going aground yesterday.  If you're boating, watch the tides.

A Black and White Day

Naw.   Sometimes color is better.

Doing touristy stuff today.  Taking the T-bird to the Scottish games.  More tomorrow.