We have been safe and sound and resting a bit at home. Sorry I didn't get back sooner to wrap this up. Amtrak wasn't quite the breeze home that we'd hoped for. Instead of 11pm departure, it was closer to 1am departure. We were exhausted and stressed. The good news is that our bedroom was made up for sleep and we hit it. Clay was on the larger bottom bunk and I was up top on the narrower one. I think we both slept pretty well all things considered, but we were exhausted. Since we were late departing, we wouldn't arrive in Raleigh before late morning instead of 8:39am. I decided that meant a shower was in order for me. It turned out that the private toilet in our tiny bedroom was also our shower stall. It worked out fine. Sorry, no photos! We went to the back our sleeper car to get complimentary ice water, orange juice and coffee. We had it with the last of the snacks we'd taken from the Independence lounge and had breakfast in our little bedroom. It could have been worse as a trip home and it could have been better. All things considered, it was OK.
The sleeper experience did put an end to Clay's proposed cross country by sleeper train trip. I had been arguing against it but not against a multi-segment train trip. I definitely did not want to spend multiple nights in a train bedroom. Clay has now agreed with me. So, there's that. We still might book a sleeper accomodation for daytime travel just for the privacy and peace vs. coach and potential problems. That is if we decide to do it at all.
We have gotten our onboard bill charge by ACL. It was $420 dollars for all our excursions. Still not convince if or when we'll cruise on ACL again. What made this trip was the fact that there were only 43 passengers on a 100 passenger ship. You can't plan on that happening again! We'll see.
Little Bob hits the road
Little Bob hits the road
Monday, November 26, 2018
Saturday, November 17, 2018
Jacksonville, FL
photos
We were docked on the starboard side overnight. We had a river view of the bridge. It was cold, in the 40s F again overnight, but clear and sunny with a predicted high of 66 F. So, nearly perfect weather for a day out.
We were docked on the starboard side overnight. We had a river view of the bridge. It was cold, in the 40s F again overnight, but clear and sunny with a predicted high of 66 F. So, nearly perfect weather for a day out.
We had a last breakfast early and vacated the cabin by 8 am. We vacated the ship by 9 am. We walked down the riverfront about a half block to the Hyatt Regency in front of the ship. We could see the riverfront walks on both sides of the St. Johns River, as well as the Peace Park and Jacksonville Landing. We had thought we'd spend at those but we were wrong. We dropped the luggage at the Hyatt with no questions. We set off for Sweet Pete's. We walked down the river front under the bridge watching the dolphins who live there. We found the Landing to be all restaurants. We got to Sweet Pete's right before 10 am opening to find paper signs taped to the doors, closed for renovations.
The Museum of Contemporary Art did not open til 11 am. We killed time at Hemming Park and the library with a few hundred homeless people. Downtown was dead on a Saturday morning. We found little open. As we bought our art museum tickets, we were told there was to be an artist guided tour and to just follow the group leaving. We had all day to kill, so we did. It was an interesting and easy hour spent with Gideon Mendel. A pleasant surprise. We spent some more time in the rest of the galleries then headed out. We asked the woman who'd steered us to the tour for a lunch suggestion. She gave us 3 within a few blocks and recommended MOSH when she learned we had the day to fill. We walked by each of her lunch suggestions and picked Burrito Gallery. We easily spent another hour there by eating too much. We had walked by Mocha Misk'i earlier and returned for dessert. We had a custom made brownie sushi. Lastly, we walked down to the drawbride to MOSH. It was geared to children and a nightmare. But we'd paid and reserved 5 pm planetarium tickets so we stayed. Plus our train doesn't leave til 11 pm! We crossed back over the bridge as the sun was setting. We were still too full from lunch, so went directly to the Hyatt. Pandemonium! Evidently the Steelers are staying here as well as all their fans. We just took seats in the lobby and enjoyed the team spirit.
We reclaimed our luggage and I typed this up. We should head to the train station wthi an hour.
Friday, November 16, 2018
Fernandina Beach, FL
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Well, the end is in sight! We sailed from Brunswick, GA at 3 am. We crossed the state line sometime around sunrise. We saw the submarine base shortly after we passed it. It was on the starboard side, so we had to be dressed to go outside and it was about 39 F today. We looked for wild horses as advised on our port side as we sailed along Cumberland Island, but no luck. We had early breakfast successfully this am by changing sides of the dining room. While we were eating, we dropped anchor off Fernandina Beach marina. Their big dock was damaged by hurricanes and they have not repaired it yet. It was fine. Not a long ride and smooth, but cold. The good news was the bright sun and cloudless skies for once. Even though I don't think it got over 60 F, it was warm in the sun. We were on the 8:45 am tender ashore on the Amelia Island Seaport Walking Tour. It was $20 each. After the tour when the visitor's center had opened, we went in and they gave us a booklet titled Historic Fernandina Beach Tour that described every building we'd stopped to look at from the outside. It was about a 90 minute tour, no entry to anything. The waterfront street is Front St. The main street through the business district is Centre St. We started at Front & Centre and ended about 5 blocks up Centre so we could shop our way back to the tender dock. We stopped first for a hot chocolate to warm up and use the restrooms. Then we zigzagged back and forth to spend time on the sunny side of the street. We had a really good lunch at The Salty Pelican, which Harold recommended. We took the 2:30 pm tender back to the ship. We packed in the afternoon. At 4:30 pm Harold gave a 40-minute or so trip recap. Cocktail hour, dinner and entertainment followed. They finally offered surf & turf for our final dinner. Someone stuck a stuffed lobster in my open suitcase while we were at dinner as part of turndown service. That reminds me, I don''t remember mentioning it but on arrival we had a gift tote bag on our bed. It is a different style bag than the we got on our previous cruise.
Tomorrow breakfast is 6:30 to 8 am. Out of cabins by 8 am. Luggage out after dinner tonight.
We'll check our luggage at the Hyatt where we dock in Jacksonville, spend the day, have dinner, Amtrak sleeper to Raleigh at 11 pm. Arrive Raleigh 8:39am or so.
I probably won't be back posting before next week since I don't have a keyboard for now.
photos
Well, the end is in sight! We sailed from Brunswick, GA at 3 am. We crossed the state line sometime around sunrise. We saw the submarine base shortly after we passed it. It was on the starboard side, so we had to be dressed to go outside and it was about 39 F today. We looked for wild horses as advised on our port side as we sailed along Cumberland Island, but no luck. We had early breakfast successfully this am by changing sides of the dining room. While we were eating, we dropped anchor off Fernandina Beach marina. Their big dock was damaged by hurricanes and they have not repaired it yet. It was fine. Not a long ride and smooth, but cold. The good news was the bright sun and cloudless skies for once. Even though I don't think it got over 60 F, it was warm in the sun. We were on the 8:45 am tender ashore on the Amelia Island Seaport Walking Tour. It was $20 each. After the tour when the visitor's center had opened, we went in and they gave us a booklet titled Historic Fernandina Beach Tour that described every building we'd stopped to look at from the outside. It was about a 90 minute tour, no entry to anything. The waterfront street is Front St. The main street through the business district is Centre St. We started at Front & Centre and ended about 5 blocks up Centre so we could shop our way back to the tender dock. We stopped first for a hot chocolate to warm up and use the restrooms. Then we zigzagged back and forth to spend time on the sunny side of the street. We had a really good lunch at The Salty Pelican, which Harold recommended. We took the 2:30 pm tender back to the ship. We packed in the afternoon. At 4:30 pm Harold gave a 40-minute or so trip recap. Cocktail hour, dinner and entertainment followed. They finally offered surf & turf for our final dinner. Someone stuck a stuffed lobster in my open suitcase while we were at dinner as part of turndown service. That reminds me, I don''t remember mentioning it but on arrival we had a gift tote bag on our bed. It is a different style bag than the we got on our previous cruise.
Tomorrow breakfast is 6:30 to 8 am. Out of cabins by 8 am. Luggage out after dinner tonight.
We'll check our luggage at the Hyatt where we dock in Jacksonville, spend the day, have dinner, Amtrak sleeper to Raleigh at 11 pm. Arrive Raleigh 8:39am or so.
I probably won't be back posting before next week since I don't have a keyboard for now.
photos
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Brunswick, GA
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It rained again over night as another cold front came through. I don't think the high today exceeded 60F, but at least it didn't rain. They had breakfast a half hour early this morning to accommodate an 8:30 am tour departure. We and the others at our breakfast table were seated and had ordered by 7:05, then we waited until 7:45 am to get our food. The it was only after complaining up the management chain. Sadly, the hotel manager blamed it on our new and inexperienced waitress. Back to the bad old days we remember and what keep us away from ACL. If your employment policy is 90 day training cycles as new hires only, then your managers are responsible for supervision and training. You don't ever get to blame new untrained workers! So, not a good start. It has been a blessing to only have 43 passengers, but you know after 3 days... Anyway, not a good start. Then there was a blowup, a melt down and an equipment failure as we tried to load the bus to St. Simons. We have a mother and son in power chairs and they have not been handled smoothly or even allowed ashore at all ports, so this was important, but people were out of patience this morning. We were on the bus with about a dozen who were not taking the $45 tour but the $15 transfer only. It turned out we need not have been rushed because all of the sleepy little waterfront community did not open before 10 and we were back on the bus to leave at 11:30. We just wandered, saw the waterfront and tried to stay out of the wind. I got to put a pin in St. Simons Island. The people who did the sea turtle & Jekyll Island tour may not have fared much better as their last hour was spent in an open-air trolley. With a high of 51 F or so and a stiff wind, the chill must have been near freezing. Again, at least no precip! After a reasonable lunch, Clay left at 2 pm for the shrimp boat tour at $50. He gave me a downtime assignment of using the Internet or my feet to research finding a place to eat pizza ashore tonight. If it isn't raining this evening, it is Fox's for pizza. It is only about 3 blocks away. We sail from here at 3 am tomorrow, so we have time!
There is a statue, I guess you'd call it, near a historical marker at the town end of the park we are docked along side. There we learned about Brunswick's Liberty Ships. We'd never heard about that before somehow!
Tomorrow at 8 am we anchor off Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Fl. We disembark on Saturday. We had to return our disembarkation forms yesterday. Not looking forward to my birthday in Disney's Animal Kingdom as much as I was 3 weeks ago! If we'd known that we were going to take the fall train trip and this 2-week cruise, we probably wouldn't have booked Disney World. But that was already planned before the other 2 came up. Oh well, you only turn 60 once.
Clay returned from his Lady Jane Shrimp Boat tour very excited. He had run out of battery on his phone, so I guess he took lots of pics. He declared it the best excursion of the trip and maybe one of the best ever. There were only 11 participants. He said he stayed back and never handled any of the catch so he didn't get stinky or dirty. He still didn't think I'd have enjoyed it.
photos
It rained again over night as another cold front came through. I don't think the high today exceeded 60F, but at least it didn't rain. They had breakfast a half hour early this morning to accommodate an 8:30 am tour departure. We and the others at our breakfast table were seated and had ordered by 7:05, then we waited until 7:45 am to get our food. The it was only after complaining up the management chain. Sadly, the hotel manager blamed it on our new and inexperienced waitress. Back to the bad old days we remember and what keep us away from ACL. If your employment policy is 90 day training cycles as new hires only, then your managers are responsible for supervision and training. You don't ever get to blame new untrained workers! So, not a good start. It has been a blessing to only have 43 passengers, but you know after 3 days... Anyway, not a good start. Then there was a blowup, a melt down and an equipment failure as we tried to load the bus to St. Simons. We have a mother and son in power chairs and they have not been handled smoothly or even allowed ashore at all ports, so this was important, but people were out of patience this morning. We were on the bus with about a dozen who were not taking the $45 tour but the $15 transfer only. It turned out we need not have been rushed because all of the sleepy little waterfront community did not open before 10 and we were back on the bus to leave at 11:30. We just wandered, saw the waterfront and tried to stay out of the wind. I got to put a pin in St. Simons Island. The people who did the sea turtle & Jekyll Island tour may not have fared much better as their last hour was spent in an open-air trolley. With a high of 51 F or so and a stiff wind, the chill must have been near freezing. Again, at least no precip! After a reasonable lunch, Clay left at 2 pm for the shrimp boat tour at $50. He gave me a downtime assignment of using the Internet or my feet to research finding a place to eat pizza ashore tonight. If it isn't raining this evening, it is Fox's for pizza. It is only about 3 blocks away. We sail from here at 3 am tomorrow, so we have time!
There is a statue, I guess you'd call it, near a historical marker at the town end of the park we are docked along side. There we learned about Brunswick's Liberty Ships. We'd never heard about that before somehow!
Tomorrow at 8 am we anchor off Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Fl. We disembark on Saturday. We had to return our disembarkation forms yesterday. Not looking forward to my birthday in Disney's Animal Kingdom as much as I was 3 weeks ago! If we'd known that we were going to take the fall train trip and this 2-week cruise, we probably wouldn't have booked Disney World. But that was already planned before the other 2 came up. Oh well, you only turn 60 once.
Clay returned from his Lady Jane Shrimp Boat tour very excited. He had run out of battery on his phone, so I guess he took lots of pics. He declared it the best excursion of the trip and maybe one of the best ever. There were only 11 participants. He said he stayed back and never handled any of the catch so he didn't get stinky or dirty. He still didn't think I'd have enjoyed it.
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Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Sailing the Intracoastal Waterway
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We departed Savannah about 4:30 this morning. We will travel south in the ICW until we reach Brunswick, GA about 6:370 pm. It is an overcast, low cloud day. There is a lot of leftover standing water on outside decks from yesterday's torrents of rain, but it is not raining or even misting today. It is only about 60 F though and windy so not really comfortable outside for sailing. The curves and marshes of the waterway are interesting though. We saw one crabber emptying his traps. We saw a shrimp boat headed somewhere. Lots of birds, docks, homes, boats, yachts, sailboats. We have not seen any dolphins though the Captain announced at breakfast that they were thick.PS. We did finally see a dolphin come out of a winding creek out of the grassy marsh. That was a surprise!
Speaking of breakfast, there were no menus this morning. They were promised so we could place our lunch & dinner orders but they never appeared. The kitchen will have to punt for lunch since they usually have our orders plated & ready to deliver when we sit down. That or everybody is being offered soup, salad & a cold sandwich or entree. We'll see. Last night a fellow passenger went table to table during dinner & asked everyone to order brownies for dessert tonight. I think the kitchen got wind and conspired to thwart her conspiracy.
Yesterday there was some kind of plumbing drainage issue on deck 2. We saw the men coming and going from cabins with a plumbing snake. This morning we had breakfast with a couple who said they packed all their stuff in their suitcases and then crew carried it up to an empty deck 3 cabin for them. They said they moved between 8 & 9 pm. They said 3 cabins moved. There had been 4 empty cabins up here. They said they were told after spending the day snaking and not finding the drain blockage that they'd have to bring in specialist plumbers. Presumably before next cruise since they've told us it is sold out sailing back to Charleston.
Anne has scheduled a scavenger hunt today, it is too social for me to participate. I had expected more of an Easter egg hunt. She had a military honoring event, a future cruise booking event, we got a past passengers' cocktail party invite for 11:30 am. We don't really want cocktails and hors d'oeuvres then so I don't know about that. At 2:30 pm is round 2 of boozy charades, indoors this round. Pass. At 3:30 is another lecture by Harold on leftover topics. I hope we'll Finlay watch the DVD this afternoon. Dinner, 8 pm port overview for Brunswick, I hope , though the Ship to Shore says Savannah. 8:15 music in the lounge.
We did attend the past passengers event. Anne gave away ball caps. She said you could have a travel mug instead, so Clay took a cap & I asked for the mug. She said she'd get me one but not yet. Oh well. We had some delicious fresh brownies and I took some to the women with the write in campaign as well, so still a win. Lunch was as expected without pre-orders. Salad, soup, turkey BLT, patty melt or portobello melt. Berries in champagne or ice cream for dessert. After lunch, we spotted the 2nd bald eagle of the day and a big cluster of dolphins.
We did watch a Bruce Willis movie this afternoon. We hadn't seen it before. The Prince, no idea why the title, but Bruce's role was almost a cameo. It was engaging though violent. We are docked on the port side in Brunswick, Ga at 5:10 pm, so ahead of schedule. It has been misting with lower visibility all afternoon, so we were glad to stay inside. There was a party of porpoises dockside to welcome us to Brunswick. It doesn't look like there is anything of interest in walking distance of our dock.
We are here until 3 am on Friday. Tomorrow we had a choice of a $45 Tour to St. Simons Island, or $15 transportation only, or Sea Turtle Center & Jekyll Island Tour for $50 and a $50 shrimp boat experience. We chose the $15 morning transportation only. Based on tomorrow's hourly morning forecast we'll hope to miss the rain but carry rain gear. Clay is signed up for the shrimp boat. They've been warned to wear dirty clothes! He has high expectations. I expect a quiet afternoon alone with perhaps a nap.
In other news, Flickr sent me an email saying they are deleting the photos from free storage accounts like mine effective sometime in January. I currently have over 3500 photos linked or embedded in my blogs there. I have my work cut out for me over the holidays for sure now!
I'll post this now assuming no surprises.
photos
We departed Savannah about 4:30 this morning. We will travel south in the ICW until we reach Brunswick, GA about 6:370 pm. It is an overcast, low cloud day. There is a lot of leftover standing water on outside decks from yesterday's torrents of rain, but it is not raining or even misting today. It is only about 60 F though and windy so not really comfortable outside for sailing. The curves and marshes of the waterway are interesting though. We saw one crabber emptying his traps. We saw a shrimp boat headed somewhere. Lots of birds, docks, homes, boats, yachts, sailboats. We have not seen any dolphins though the Captain announced at breakfast that they were thick.PS. We did finally see a dolphin come out of a winding creek out of the grassy marsh. That was a surprise!
Speaking of breakfast, there were no menus this morning. They were promised so we could place our lunch & dinner orders but they never appeared. The kitchen will have to punt for lunch since they usually have our orders plated & ready to deliver when we sit down. That or everybody is being offered soup, salad & a cold sandwich or entree. We'll see. Last night a fellow passenger went table to table during dinner & asked everyone to order brownies for dessert tonight. I think the kitchen got wind and conspired to thwart her conspiracy.
Yesterday there was some kind of plumbing drainage issue on deck 2. We saw the men coming and going from cabins with a plumbing snake. This morning we had breakfast with a couple who said they packed all their stuff in their suitcases and then crew carried it up to an empty deck 3 cabin for them. They said they moved between 8 & 9 pm. They said 3 cabins moved. There had been 4 empty cabins up here. They said they were told after spending the day snaking and not finding the drain blockage that they'd have to bring in specialist plumbers. Presumably before next cruise since they've told us it is sold out sailing back to Charleston.
Anne has scheduled a scavenger hunt today, it is too social for me to participate. I had expected more of an Easter egg hunt. She had a military honoring event, a future cruise booking event, we got a past passengers' cocktail party invite for 11:30 am. We don't really want cocktails and hors d'oeuvres then so I don't know about that. At 2:30 pm is round 2 of boozy charades, indoors this round. Pass. At 3:30 is another lecture by Harold on leftover topics. I hope we'll Finlay watch the DVD this afternoon. Dinner, 8 pm port overview for Brunswick, I hope , though the Ship to Shore says Savannah. 8:15 music in the lounge.
We did attend the past passengers event. Anne gave away ball caps. She said you could have a travel mug instead, so Clay took a cap & I asked for the mug. She said she'd get me one but not yet. Oh well. We had some delicious fresh brownies and I took some to the women with the write in campaign as well, so still a win. Lunch was as expected without pre-orders. Salad, soup, turkey BLT, patty melt or portobello melt. Berries in champagne or ice cream for dessert. After lunch, we spotted the 2nd bald eagle of the day and a big cluster of dolphins.
We did watch a Bruce Willis movie this afternoon. We hadn't seen it before. The Prince, no idea why the title, but Bruce's role was almost a cameo. It was engaging though violent. We are docked on the port side in Brunswick, Ga at 5:10 pm, so ahead of schedule. It has been misting with lower visibility all afternoon, so we were glad to stay inside. There was a party of porpoises dockside to welcome us to Brunswick. It doesn't look like there is anything of interest in walking distance of our dock.
We are here until 3 am on Friday. Tomorrow we had a choice of a $45 Tour to St. Simons Island, or $15 transportation only, or Sea Turtle Center & Jekyll Island Tour for $50 and a $50 shrimp boat experience. We chose the $15 morning transportation only. Based on tomorrow's hourly morning forecast we'll hope to miss the rain but carry rain gear. Clay is signed up for the shrimp boat. They've been warned to wear dirty clothes! He has high expectations. I expect a quiet afternoon alone with perhaps a nap.
In other news, Flickr sent me an email saying they are deleting the photos from free storage accounts like mine effective sometime in January. I currently have over 3500 photos linked or embedded in my blogs there. I have my work cut out for me over the holidays for sure now!
I'll post this now assuming no surprises.
photos
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Savannah, GA
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I slept well here in Savannah. It poured rain after dinner. Clay and others complained of ship's horns around 2-3am but I didn't hear anything until trucks backing up about 6:10am. We had a leisurely breakfast and headed out for the Segway tour place about 9am. We ha 45 minutes to find it and got there early. It was much hotter today with a forecast high of 77F and stormy in the afternoon.
We ended up having a private Segway tour. That is always a happy occurrence, especially when we saw the sized groups with the other provider. Good for us but I guess not so good for the provider. We had a good tour. It was a good refresher. I think we glided by or stopped at all but 7 of the 22 squares. We went through the Victorian District. We went inside The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was beautiful. We got a refresher on Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. We heard about the current movie production in town of the new Lady & the Tramp. At the end of the tour we asked for a nearby lunch suggestion and were directed to Crystal Beer Parlor. We went and enjoyed it. When we got inside I remembered it from our first meal on a previous trip to Savannah. Clay asked what we'd had and it was chili. Today he had a fried oyster sandwich and I had BBQ pulled pork nachos. He had a beer and I had a root beer. Sitting in our booth, I followed up on a sign we'd seen while walking for a free DOT circulator bus. We walked a few blocks down Jones Street, past Mrs. Wilkes, to the closest stop. We rode back to within a few blocks. We detoured down the Riverfront for some shopping. When the first wave of this afternoon's storms passed, we deployed umbrellas and got back without getting too wet.
We thought hard about eating out here tonight, but decided to stay aboard. One the rain! Two, tonight is the Captain's pilot house tour, cocktail hour and dinner. I think the only thing special will be opening the bridge. We've already ordered dinner and it is a repeat of a previous menu, but the Captain is making such an effort, we'd hate to stand him up.
I'll post this now, if needed I'll come back.
photos
I slept well here in Savannah. It poured rain after dinner. Clay and others complained of ship's horns around 2-3am but I didn't hear anything until trucks backing up about 6:10am. We had a leisurely breakfast and headed out for the Segway tour place about 9am. We ha 45 minutes to find it and got there early. It was much hotter today with a forecast high of 77F and stormy in the afternoon.
We ended up having a private Segway tour. That is always a happy occurrence, especially when we saw the sized groups with the other provider. Good for us but I guess not so good for the provider. We had a good tour. It was a good refresher. I think we glided by or stopped at all but 7 of the 22 squares. We went through the Victorian District. We went inside The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was beautiful. We got a refresher on Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. We heard about the current movie production in town of the new Lady & the Tramp. At the end of the tour we asked for a nearby lunch suggestion and were directed to Crystal Beer Parlor. We went and enjoyed it. When we got inside I remembered it from our first meal on a previous trip to Savannah. Clay asked what we'd had and it was chili. Today he had a fried oyster sandwich and I had BBQ pulled pork nachos. He had a beer and I had a root beer. Sitting in our booth, I followed up on a sign we'd seen while walking for a free DOT circulator bus. We walked a few blocks down Jones Street, past Mrs. Wilkes, to the closest stop. We rode back to within a few blocks. We detoured down the Riverfront for some shopping. When the first wave of this afternoon's storms passed, we deployed umbrellas and got back without getting too wet.
We thought hard about eating out here tonight, but decided to stay aboard. One the rain! Two, tonight is the Captain's pilot house tour, cocktail hour and dinner. I think the only thing special will be opening the bridge. We've already ordered dinner and it is a repeat of a previous menu, but the Captain is making such an effort, we'd hate to stand him up.
I'll post this now, if needed I'll come back.
photos
Monday, November 12, 2018
Hilton Head, SC
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We slept through the early morning departure from Beaufort and woke up as we neared Hilton Head. The weather prediction was off by a few hours and there was some sun shining as we anchored. We saw a lot of dolphins/porpoises as we sailed in and at anchor. The wildlife winner here though was pelicans. Since it looked good this morning, we counted the morning tour participant lists and came up with near 20. They had told us the open launch tender held 40, so we got in position behind the tour people to get a spot. Just to be able to set foot ashore. As we waited the Captain signaled his intention to leave early by warning everyone tendering at 9 to be back on the 11:15 am return tender because he wanted to have the option to scrub the afternoon here. We are really glad we decided not to carry on with our Segway plans here to wait and see about tendering.
It turns out there wasn't much to see around the Harbour Town Yacht Basin where we tendered ashore. It was a very short tender ride. It was mostly like a small outdoor mall. Most of the stores didn't open until 10 am. Clay bought a sale t-shirt. There was a small fake red and white lighthouse that is supposedly a famous landmark. You can pay to walk up and visit a gift shop, but we didn't as the rain had arrived and there was an unscheduled launch ready to leave. We got onboard in time to ehar the announcement that due to incoming thunderstorms, we'd sail at noon. I hope the afternoon tour boat people aren't too upset.The new Captain is much more informative than the first one. He said this worked out better for tides and the ICW too since we'd catch a daytime passage to Savannah and arrive this afternoon. We were already scheduled for an overnight there, so hopefully they can get our dock space early. We are scheduled to depart Savannah st 4:30 am on 11/14.
Lunch is at 12:30 pm. There is a popcorn movie scheduled in the lounge at 2:45. Clay doesn't want to watch from across the lounge. We picked up a DVD from the 2nd deck midship lounge to watch in the cabin. Clay says he'll go get the popcorn. I smell a nap this afternoon.
Annie started her popcorn movie at about 2:15 instead of 2:45 and I missed out on getting popcorn. It feels warmer and sunnier here in Savannah even though the hourly forecast is showing a 54% chance of storms right now. Clay already ordered a lamb shank for dinner so it is not clear yet if we'll stay onboard or go ashore. We are docked right on River Street, but we haven't figured out what's near by yet, as of 2:40pm. They don't have the gangway out yet.
We are docked on the port side.We are docked near 160 East River St. We went up a parking lot and an old steep flight of stairs to find ourselves in front of Five Guys. We walked another block and a half and checked out the Johnny Mercer statue in Ellis Square. Our destination was in sight. Sorry Charlie's Oyster Bar. $1 Oysters M-F from 4-6 pm + $3 local draft beers. Clay gets his faves and still gets his lamb shank onboard after 6:30pm. I had hot hush puppies in honey butter. It was comfortable ashore and we neve did see rain here. Fingers crossed for weatehr this nice tomorrow for our 90 minute 10 am Segway tour.
The new Captain is named Stokowski. Unlike the previous week's Captain, this one is sociable. He sat with us during cocktail hour as well as spent time with others. He came to dinner and filled the last chair at our table. It has been a nice change. We learned that the ACL Independence was purpose built to sail the Intracoastal Waterway and is the biggest ship that can sail it.
photos
We slept through the early morning departure from Beaufort and woke up as we neared Hilton Head. The weather prediction was off by a few hours and there was some sun shining as we anchored. We saw a lot of dolphins/porpoises as we sailed in and at anchor. The wildlife winner here though was pelicans. Since it looked good this morning, we counted the morning tour participant lists and came up with near 20. They had told us the open launch tender held 40, so we got in position behind the tour people to get a spot. Just to be able to set foot ashore. As we waited the Captain signaled his intention to leave early by warning everyone tendering at 9 to be back on the 11:15 am return tender because he wanted to have the option to scrub the afternoon here. We are really glad we decided not to carry on with our Segway plans here to wait and see about tendering.
It turns out there wasn't much to see around the Harbour Town Yacht Basin where we tendered ashore. It was a very short tender ride. It was mostly like a small outdoor mall. Most of the stores didn't open until 10 am. Clay bought a sale t-shirt. There was a small fake red and white lighthouse that is supposedly a famous landmark. You can pay to walk up and visit a gift shop, but we didn't as the rain had arrived and there was an unscheduled launch ready to leave. We got onboard in time to ehar the announcement that due to incoming thunderstorms, we'd sail at noon. I hope the afternoon tour boat people aren't too upset.The new Captain is much more informative than the first one. He said this worked out better for tides and the ICW too since we'd catch a daytime passage to Savannah and arrive this afternoon. We were already scheduled for an overnight there, so hopefully they can get our dock space early. We are scheduled to depart Savannah st 4:30 am on 11/14.
Lunch is at 12:30 pm. There is a popcorn movie scheduled in the lounge at 2:45. Clay doesn't want to watch from across the lounge. We picked up a DVD from the 2nd deck midship lounge to watch in the cabin. Clay says he'll go get the popcorn. I smell a nap this afternoon.
Annie started her popcorn movie at about 2:15 instead of 2:45 and I missed out on getting popcorn. It feels warmer and sunnier here in Savannah even though the hourly forecast is showing a 54% chance of storms right now. Clay already ordered a lamb shank for dinner so it is not clear yet if we'll stay onboard or go ashore. We are docked right on River Street, but we haven't figured out what's near by yet, as of 2:40pm. They don't have the gangway out yet.
We are docked on the port side.We are docked near 160 East River St. We went up a parking lot and an old steep flight of stairs to find ourselves in front of Five Guys. We walked another block and a half and checked out the Johnny Mercer statue in Ellis Square. Our destination was in sight. Sorry Charlie's Oyster Bar. $1 Oysters M-F from 4-6 pm + $3 local draft beers. Clay gets his faves and still gets his lamb shank onboard after 6:30pm. I had hot hush puppies in honey butter. It was comfortable ashore and we neve did see rain here. Fingers crossed for weatehr this nice tomorrow for our 90 minute 10 am Segway tour.
The new Captain is named Stokowski. Unlike the previous week's Captain, this one is sociable. He sat with us during cocktail hour as well as spent time with others. He came to dinner and filled the last chair at our table. It has been a nice change. We learned that the ACL Independence was purpose built to sail the Intracoastal Waterway and is the biggest ship that can sail it.
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