Well, the Cottonwood crew, Lynn, Les and Howard, weighed anchor in Daytona and started up the ICW and headed for Georgia. We anchored off St Augustine, still in Florida, a lovely town with many historic sites including Flagler College (once a hotel, with stunning Tiffany glass windows and red brick towers), the oldest wooden schoolhouse, and the old Spanish fort Matanzas, made of blocks composed of oyster and other shells and sand, complete with cannons and a moat. We took one of the little tour trains again to see all the sights. The Lion bridge over the river was very pretty, too, with brick towers and American flags spanning the arc.

Our next stop was into Georgia, at Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, one of the many islands making up the Intra-coastal. Again, very pretty with old Victorian style houses and historically significant architecture. Here we encountered a two day rain storm including lightening, thunder, and torrential down pours. we really enjoyed it, very beautiful to watch on the water, and with a rainbow finish.

 Next stopped at Jekyll Island, Georgia. We had breakfast in a lovely old hotel... very fancy with chandeliers, huge mirrors, and wooden spindled staircase railings and a wrap around porch.  We walked to the other side of the island to find a grocery store. An Easter festival was in progress with all sorts of booths and lots of kids with bunny ears and bicycles everywhere. We walked past gift shops and old homes, and a beautiful golf course, with oyster shell paths lined with trees draped with Spanish moss. Very old South!

 The ICW thus far looks very much like the river system we traveled up in the California Delta. Some of it is marshy and swamp-like, some parts are very narrow like channels, and other parts are wide and open like lakes. We didn’t get to see a manatee even though we kept a look out for snouts and tails since signs are posted everywhere to be careful of them. Where are they!!

 From Jekyll Is., GA, we made our way up the ICW to Thunderbolt Marina just outside Savannah, GA.  We stayed there one day and then elected to anchor out just off Hogan's Marina a little way up the river.  We spent 3 days there, dinghying into a dock and walking to the local shops and restaurants to pass the time until our trip home to Southern California for our daughter Erin's wedding. Fortunately, there were several places to visit on that shore as compared to Thunderbolt…  A funky little bar called "Cheers" where no one knew our name, but did notice our boat in the narrow channel outside the bar, and served a really great meat loaf dinner for five bucks. We found a grocery store and drugstore just by the dinghy dock, and several restaurants within walking distance, also to Les's delight, a hardware store!  Then back to Thunderbolt Marina to leave "Cottonwood" safe and sound until our return.

 Needless to say the trip home was memorable.  We left at 3 am after staying up all nite watching the Laker game which started at 10:30 pm here. Thought we would take a nap first, but with too many things to do to get ready, we didn't. Howard arm he injured on Pacific leg was hurting him and he decided to fly home and have it checked out. His flight left a half hour before ours.

 It was a whirlwind week driving back and forth between our home in San Clemente, CA and Santa Ana, CA to try and spend as much time as we could with all our children and grandchildren. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful family! We also managed to get our taxes done (we had filed for an extension), get our follow up hepatitis shots, get our home computer fixed, and the Nav. computer from the boat fixed, and get our teeth cleaned.  Whew! We shared many memorable meals and talk with my Mom, sisters, sister-in-law, the groom's (Pete's) parents and brother, and all of our children and grandchildren. The wedding was perfect with a nice view of the beach and sunset, great food, fantastic band, and lots of dancing.  The bride was radiant! We are so happy that Erin and Pete found each other!

 We had arrived back in CA on April 20 and left to go back to Savannah on the 28th. Much too short a visit when we had been away for 6 months. We found our boat was just fine on our return to the Marina.  We stayed 2 more nites and enjoyed the quiet and rested up from our trip home. Walked into the tiny town the second nite and had a fish dinner and listened to a really good live band playing at another restaurant near by on our walk. The trees with hanging moss, the real gas street lamps, and the nice breeze and sweet music made for a romantic evening…alone. We haven't had that for a while.

 The next day we went back to the old spot and anchored again and walked into town in the rain for some Chinese food. The next morning in a lite rain we headed up the Savannah River to the city dock in downtown Savannah. What a gorgeous city! We had read that it was difficult to navigate the river due to the current and shallows, but we had no difficulty at all. Just as we docked we were treated to a display of the Coast Guard's Rescue Training complete with several boats and a helicopter all narrated from just above the dock we were on. A rescue diver jumped into the water from the helicopter, was "rescued" by one of the boat teams and then was airlifted by the helicopter. This all happened right next to our boat in the river. 

 When we went ashore we found that there was a "Seafood Festival" going on, complete with live bands, many seafood stands, and craft booths. The riverfront called River Street is beautiful and historic with many old tall brick buildings dating back to the 1700's, gas street lamps, cobblestone streets, and brick sidewalks. The buildings used to be part of the "Cotton Exchange" where the railroad delivered cotton to be sold and sent out on barges to other cities. Now the "Cotton Exchange" is a bar/restaurant and the employees wear t-shirts with the logo, but unfortunately none were for sale. We spent the first day taking a trolley tour of the city, resplendent with beautiful homes, lovely parks, and squares with park benches and statutes of famous people from southern history.  The park bench where "Forest Gump" sat when the feather landed was in one of the town squares we saw. The large live oak trees dripping with feather boa-like moss are everywhere as are magnolia trees and beautiful green lawns.

This morning it is still raining, tho lightly, we decided to stay another day. Our next stop was to be Beaufort, South Carolina, but we don't mind staying here at all. There is a lot of activity up on River St. to watch, the river is alive with tugs, barges, big container ships, and pleasure craft. And of course, we are quite content just snuggling and listening to the rain.

Beaufort, SC turned out to be a nice anchorage and a cute little town. We then went on to Barefoot Landing, Myrtle Beach, where a motorcycle festival was in progress. We also saw lots of signs saying "Don't feed the alligators" and we know they abound in these parts, but we never saw one until one day we were sitting on the boat at the dock and one swam by. It looked to be a "teenager", rather slim and about 4 feet long in body and 4 in tail.

  Next, North Carolina