Is It Supposed To Be This Cold?

SHIP'S LOG:

I couldn't believe it. I got up this morning and hopped around hissing blue breaths. I'm in South Carolina and I am freezing. Somethings wrong here! The farther south you go, the warmer it is supposed to get.

Now it wasn't cold COLD, but cold enough for that I was eventually attired in the "layered look." When I thought to check the temp, it was reading a brisk 47, but the wind was also blowing a good 20 knots and the sun wasn't up yet. Any way you slice it, it was cold! Eventually it did warm up, up to a high around 66 but it dropped just as fast as the the sun. According to the NOAA weather report, and you know they'll get this one right, there is a frost warning down here and the temp is supposed to dip into the 30's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is not what I had planned for nor is it anything I want. I want sun. I want Heat. I want high humidity.

Actually not a bad day sailing though the different currents and tides play havoc with one's speed. The Savannah River isn't all that wide, but it has a great flow rate and a lot of eddies along the banks especially where the ICW crosses. It doesn't help matters that big container ships are plying up and down the river like semi on I95. One must almost make a made dash across the river to get by, like trying to run across five or six lanes of traffic on foot. Actually, it wasn't that bad, close but not that bad.

South along the ICW from Atlanta is Thunderbolt, Georgia. From the river/ICW it doesn't look a big place but they Thunderbolt Marina, which is HUGE and Hinkley Yacht Services has a yard in Thunderbolt. This really caught my eye. For those of you unfamiliar with Hinkley, automotively think in terms of Ferrari. Hinkley in Thunderbolt is like Ferrari having a dealership in Resume Speed, Oklahoma. It just didn't fit . . . that is until two miles down from Thunderbolt, I passed the Savannah Yacht Club. It is bigger than most of the marinas I have seen on this trip! The has a boat hauling facility most marinas would give their eye teeth for and it is grand in every conceivable way. I would love to have reciprocating privileges with that spot.

Considering the next available diesel was 90 miles down the ICW, I stopped at Isle of Hope Marina in lovely Isle of Hope, Georgia and decided to spend the night. The fact that it is going down into the 30's means trouble in the morning, if you don't have a heated toilet seat on your yacht. Sadly, it is one of the things on my projects list that I just never quite got around to taking care of before the start of the trip. Who knew it would be needed. But this way, I get a warm backside and a shower to boot. As I was talking with Kim the Dock Master(Mistress?) as I was docking, I was informed that the tides here have a range of 8.5 to 9 feet, and that this is common on the ICW. It is going to make for some very interesting anchoring in the days ahead.