On Sunday, March 13th we left Amelia Island and headed for Hilton Head, SC where all of our kids & grandkids were meeting us. We crossed the Florida-Georgia line, waving good bye to Florida via the boat for the first time in 3 years! The eastern shores of many of the islands in Georgia are very steep, as we could see here crossing the Cumberland Sound.
Unlike the heavily populated shorelines of Florida, when travelling through Georgia, you are usually "out in the middle of nowhere". The ICW twists & turns through miles & miles of uninhabited, beautiful marshland, where you occasionally see a lone house.
What's also so amazing about Georgia is the huge tide change, where the water level drops as much as 8 feet at low tide. At low tide, you can see exposed crab pots....
... & sandbars that the birds use to gather and feed.
There are very few marinas along the ICW in Georgia, so we anchored most of the time. We did pass Thunderbolt Marina where we saw the largest ever "stretch wrap job" on a boat!
On Wednesday, March 16th we pulled into the famous Harbour Town Yacht Basin on Hilton Head Island for a one night stay.
At the club house of the Harbour Town Links course, they were already setting up the gallery stands for The Heritage Golf Tournament, which will be played there the week of April 11th.
When Stephen & Kendall joined us the following week, we walked the famous 18th hole overlooking the Calibogue Sound.
On St. Patrick's Day, we arrived at Skull Creek Marina, which is located on the north end of Hilton Head. At the fall AGLCA Rendezvous we attended in Alabama in October, I won 2 free weeks dockage at this marina, which worked out perfect for the kids to come visit us. We took the dingy to Hudson's for a fun happy hour.
The next day we walked to the site of Fort Mitchel, where replicas of the cannons used in the Civil War were displayed. It is so interesting learning the history of towns we are visiting. Most of them are filled with Civil War history.
Stephen was the first to arrive on Friday (Kendall had her sister's baby shower, but returned with Stephen the following weekend), for a short visit for the weekend. We took in some golf waiting for the others to arrive.
The alligators made for an interesting round of golf!
The following day, Steve(Beave), Heather, Max, Leah, Mike, Jamie, Sophie, Jude & Jonah arrived. Obviously there wasn't enough room on the boat, so we all stayed at a house on Sea Pines Plantation. It was so great to see everyone!!! We celebrated Leah's 1st birthday, which was on March 13th.
Dave took the opportunity to remind the boys why he is the "grill master"!
Everyone enjoyed experiencing our "salt life".
And we very much enjoyed some "land life" with everyone, like putt putt . . .
the beach . . . .
Harbour Town . . . .
great waterfront restaurants. . . .
chilly pool time. . . .
and fun & games, like this password standoff (which Max won, of course!).
After a great time with our sons, daughter-in-laws & grandkids (we are so blessed!!!) & one last Hilton Head sunset, it was off the Beaufort.
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