We Are In Hilton Head South Carolina

We left Beaufort SC early Monday morning in the cold morning. The mornings are cool and damp, it was about 10c. We wanted to get to Windmill Harbor in Hilton Head early so we could get warm. We arrived around 1pm just as the sun came out and the temperature got up to 25c. When we arrived in the channel we called into the yacht club to wait our turn to come into the lock. Yes this club has it's own lock! This club is very upscale and is surrounded by million dollar homes.

 

 Sweat Pea coming into the lock

 

This is a very unique marina. The reason they have a lock is because they didn't want to build a marina out into the channel. So they have to have a lock to hold the water in during low tide. We were lucky and left Beaufort early and arrived just before the tide was to low to approach the channel to the lock. Some of the bigger boats that have tall mast had to leave Beaufort later in the day close to low tide so the could fit under the 65 foot fixed bridges. This meant they arrived at windmill Harbor at low tide. These boats had to anchor for about 3 hours and wait until the tide came up so they could approach the channel.



This is the view of the marina as you get in.

 Mauna Kea

 

This is the Yacht Club

 Our friends boat Valentine

As the day warmed up we walked around the marina area. Wow this place is something to see.



Then we walked around the gated community

 There is a lot of damage from the hurricane still on the ground

 Lots of Spanish Moss

The first night we were there Ted opened up his home and invited us all over for free pizza. Ted is a volunteer around the marina. The people here are so friendly and the are showing us there southern hospitality.

 Ted has a great view out his back yard.

Then second day was a beautiful day so we used the warm weather to clean the boat. The salt water is pitting the chrome so Laurie cleaned the inside and I polished a lot of the chrome. Tuesday night was Happy Hour night so we had to go for that!. The group met up for happy hour for cheap drinks and free appetizer's. Wow what a great place.

During the Happy Hour I did a Yacht Club burgee exchange with Ted. So now we have reciprocal privileges with the South Carolina Yacht Club in Windmill Harbor.

Ted and I exchanging burgees

 Laurie with the burgee

After the happy hour everyone decided to stay for a buffet dinner $13.00 each and it was great. We also had to say good bye to Bobby on the power boat "Going Places". Bobby is a very special person and we all got very close to him. We will miss him a lot but we will see him in Miami when he comes to say goodbye to use as we all finish our rally.

Miss you Bobby have a safe journey

Today we went exploring in to Savanah Georgia for the day. There are so many ways to see the city and we thought a trolley car would be the best. Savanah is a old and very beautiful city. Here's a few pictures.

Old Cemetery 

 

 These are old Georgia Oak trees with Spanish Moss

 Savanah River

Savanah has a lot of squares in the middle of the city. These squares have monuments and statues  to some of there founders.

I didn't know that the city was aware I was coming. But I guess they named a square after me!

Here's a very unique square.

You may or may not recognize this bench. There was a young man named Forrest Gump told an older woman his life story on this bench. Remember "Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates" Yes this is where they filmed a lot of the movie.

Tomorrow we will leave for two anchorages before we get to Jekyll Island Georgia. When we leave Windmill Marina we will have the experience of going through the locks at High tide. This doesn't happen very often. When the tide is high and the water levels are the same on either side of the lock  we will a half hour to do this. Fifteen minutes on either side of high tide. This is what they call opening a double lock, so will be able to drive through both locks that are open.

 

So it time again for "So Here's Interesting Tidbit's" SHIT for short.

 

There's a lot of port towns and cities that have cobble stone roads and you may wonder why. We have seen this everywhere in big and small towns. Years ago when the old sailing ships were all wood and they would need weight in the bottom of the boat. Back then they didn't have keels so they used rocks for weight. After they picked up there cargo they would have to unload some of the rocks because they had to much weight. The towns didn't know what to do with the rocks and they were getting to be big mounds of them. So they decided to use these to make cobblestone streets. These are the rocks you see in the streets and a lot of them are the original rocks.

 

More SHIT!

Late at night when we are just getting into bed we can here this clicking noise. To me it sounds like a burning piece of pine. A lot of snapping and popping.  Some people say it say it sound like Rice Krispies  Snap, Crackle, Pop so I googled it and this is what I found.

 

The snapping shrimp (Alpheus heterochaelis) produces a loud snapping sound by an extremely rapid closure of its snapper claw. One of the effects of the snapping is to stun or kill prey animals. During the rapid snapper claw closure, a high-velocity water jet is emitted from the claw with a speed exceeding cavitation conditions. Hydrophone measurements in conjunction with time-controlled high-speed imaging of the claw closure demonstrate that the sound is emitted at the cavitation bubble collapse and not on claw closure. A model for the bubble dynamics based on a Rayleigh-Plesset–type equation quantitatively accounts for the time dependence of the bubble radius and for the emitted sound.

 

 

I'm not sure if this explains it but most people will tell you it is Pistol Shrimp eating off the bottom of you boat. 

Now that's some strange SHIT!