[Rhodes22-list] Savannah Trip

[Bob Keller]

There are two photos attached, and will send the other three mentioned in 
separate emails.

Savannah Trip

Decided to go to Savannah, GA three days before a scheduled business 
meeting, and bring the boat to cruise around and see the area by water.  
Trailered the Yankee Clipper ('95) from Lake Hartwell to Savannah, which 
turned out to be 320 miles.  The boat trailered great behind my V6 Toyota 4 
Runner.  I read a cruising guide (Claiborne Young's), called several 
marinas, and called a friend who lives on Skidaway Island before making my 
plans.  I did want to sail to Hilton Head since I had been there many times 
before by land.  I decided that the town of Thunderbolt was the most 
convenient launching point since it is on the ICW and there are numerous 
marinas to choose from, and I met a fellow sailor there (Gary) on a Sunday 
afternoon.

Savannah is actually 18 miles from the ocean, with the Savannah River and 
ICW basically connecting the city to the ocean.  We drove over the big 
Thunderbolt Bridge into Thunderbolt and launched at the public ramp under 
the bridge and then used the marina next to the ramp for a slip - Savannah 
Bend Marina. (Picture 476 is the bridge shot from our slip). It's a Sea Ray 
dealership and the people (Mary) are very nice and helpful.  The marinas all 
charge about $1/foot for transient slips and we even found one (Sail Harbor 
Marina) that charges 75 cents/foot (with Boat US membership) - incredible.

Monday morning we left the marina and began motoring north up the ICW.  It 
was a windy, blustery morning with small craft advisories and seas at 4-8 
feet just offshore, although completely flat on the ICW.  It was also pretty 
chilly (in the 50's) and we had about four layers of clothes and gloves on.  
Unfortunately, the winds were out of the NE, directly at us, so we motored 
for 1.5 hours through the ICW to the Savannah River.  There we decided to 
head toward the mouth of the river and sail for a while; we just wanted to 
see what the ocean really looked like since the river was flat and calm.  It 
was a great sail in 15-16 knot winds; initially a close reach and then close 
hauled as we approached the mouth. (Picture 486 is reaching on the Savannah 
River).  By the time we reached the mouth of the river, the wind picked up 
to 18 knots and the seas really began to change and they were in the range 
of 2-4 feet at the mouth.  We remained dry but were struggling with the 
inability to point close enough to the wind to avoid weeds and shallows on 
the starboard side and a fishing boat dead ahead that was making no movement 
to avoid us.  I decided early to wait until the fishing boat passed before 
tacking, but the fishing boat was moving very slowly, not showing any signs 
that they had seen us and were going to move, and then we began to struggle 
with boat speed because we were trying to point higher to stay out of the 
shallows. I finally decided to tack in front of the boat, but by then we did 
not have enough speed to get through the tack so were hung up with the wind 
pushing us toward the weeds and shallows.  Then I decided to start the motor 
to get us through the tack, but of course I had trouble getting it fired up 
right away.  Meanwhile, the fishing boat finally turned to our port side to 
pass us-right where we were going to tack.  The motor started, we let the 
boat pass, and then tacked to port and sailed back up the river.  A bit 
exciting, but I want to comment on the pointing (in)ability of the R-22.  
That is the only sailing aspect that has disappointed me, but I am having 
inner genoa tracks installed to help.  It so happens that I had one track 
installed before this trip (port side) but ran out of screws so did not have 
the other installed yet.  This gave me the unique opportunity to test 
pointing ability with and without the inner track on the same day and the 
same boat.  The track makes a significant difference in improving sail shape 
when you furl the genoa and lead the sheets inside the upper shrouds.  
Pretty amazing difference and it seemed to gain us a few degrees.  While we 
were heading out of the river we were unfortunately on a port tack and did 
not have use of the inner track.  It would have helped, I am sure.  (Of 
course there was more than enough operator error to go around...)  In 
hindsight, I should have tacked sooner in front of the fishing boat, or 
maybe tried to raise them on the VHF, or even blasted the air horn.  Anyway, 
no harm done and another lesson learned.

Sailed back upriver, but soon realized that we were going against the 
current, and progress was painfully slow.  We were sailing 4-5 knots and the 
current can range from 2-5 knots.  Finally cranked the motor up and motor 
sailed back to the ICW where we continued our trek by motor to Hilton Head.  
On the way a dolphin surfaced five feet from our hull and surprised me and 
then went back under and was not seen again.   We arrived at Harbour Town 
Yacht Club marina at Hilton Head (picture 492 is the approach to Harbour 
Town) and enjoyed the incredible service there - the guy greeted us, helped 
us dock, presented us with a bottle of wine, handled the whole sign-up and 
payment process right there, and then even brought us three bags of ice!  
Amazing service, but the price is not $1/foot; it is $1.75 per foot, with a 
30 foot minimum - more than twice the cost of Thunderbolt area but worth it 
for a night.  (picture 496 is the YC at rest at Harbour Town). We climbed to 
the top of the famous lighthouse and watched the sun set and took some 
pictures (picture 502 is sunset from the top of the lighthouse with the YC 
docked on the left).  Then we headed to the outdoor bar with the steel drum 
band playing island music.  Then my buddy (Gary) and I went back to the boat 
and had some pasta and a couple bottles of red wine in the cockpit for 
dinner.  We headed back to the bar afterward where a different band was 
playing (really good) and we had a great time even though it was a small 
crowd.

We left about 10AM the next morning and there was about 10 knots of wind as 
we reached across Calibogue Sound.  It was a beautiful day without a cloud 
and the temps reached the mid 70's, so we were in shorts and T-shirts. Not 
bad for November sailing!  We had to decide whether to take the ICW or head 
south (downwind) through the sound into the ocean to the Savannah River.  We 
decided to play it safe and take the ICW because the weather band was saying 
that the seas were still 4-6 feet just offshore.  We later regretted that 
decision because the wind soon died in the ICW and we had to motor against 
the current for 4.5 hours to get back to Thunderbolt.  We didn't stop in 
Thunderbolt, but continued south on the ICW into the Wilmington River.  As 
we went south the river got wider and prettier the further we went, and 
there were many houses with docks along the river; something that is absent 
along the ICW that we traveled earlier.  We continued motoring and as we got 
closer to where the Wilmington River empties into the Wassau Sound, about 
3:30PM, the wind started to increase.  As we rounded the last turn to the 
east in the wide river, we found ourselves with a close reach to the Sound 
in 10-12 knots.  There was a J-27sailing with us in the area and when we got 
into the Sound we were able to beam reach in 12-14 knots and we were flying. 
  It was some of the best sailing I have ever done and there were two or 
three dolphins swimming in our wake.  Wide open sailing with steady winds 
and we had the pop-top down, the boom in the lower position and carrying the 
full main and full 175 genoa reaching at 5.0-5.5 knots.  Not bad!  We sailed 
until about 4:30 and decided to head back, so we headed back up the river 
sailing wing-and-wing with the full genoa poled out and the centerboard up 
we hit 4.5 knots in 10-12 knots of wind.  As we followed the bend in the 
river we ended up on a beam reach again sailing north as the sun was setting 
across our port side.  It was beautiful.  The wind gradually died and so we 
motored back in the dark the last hour to Thunderbolt and arrived back at 
the same marina at about 6:30PM.  Not a bad day on the water.

For dinner we returned to Desposito's Restaurant which is actually right 
next to the boat ramp.  Great food in a little hole-in-the-wall kind of 
place, but we liked it so much we ate there twice.  Great oysters, shrimp, 
chili, cold beer and great prices.

The next day we pulled the boat and it took us two hours to retrieve, de-rig 
and prepare for trailering.  (Rummy and I rigged and launched in an hour 
when I returned to Lake Hartwell).

It was a great trip and the only thing I wished was that it was more than 
two days of sailing.  I will definitely return and I would want to sail more 
of Wassau Sound, sail on the ocean and probably return to Hilton Head again 
because Harbour Town is just a fun destination.  In the busy season (Spring, 
Summer) it is usually much more crowded, so I would think that reservations 
ahead of time would be critical.  We made no reservations this trip - we 
just called on cell phone and VHF an hour or two ahead of time.  We 
discussed that a great round trip would be Thunderbolt north to Hilton Head, 
then sail south past Tybee Island on the ocean, past the Savannah River to 
Wassau Sound and then back to Thunderbolt.  Might try Sail Harbor Marina 
next time because it is about 45 minutes south (by boat) of Thunderbolt off 
the Wilmington River, it has mostly sailboats, and it is only 75 cents per 
foot.  It is also closer to Wassau Sound and the great sailing that affords.

Bob Keller
s/v Yankee Clipper
11/17/03

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