A Quicky re Savannah!

As I mentioned in my last blog, we've been holed up at IGY Savannah Harbor Marina since Friday. Some of what you think about the cruising life is true. We've both had massages (the Admiral is going back for a second one this morning); we had a delightful if garlicky Italian dinner at Garibaldi, we enjoyed Sunday brunch at a touristy all day breakfast place on the waterfront; and, best of all, we watched the Patriots painfully but successfully beat the Broncos from the comfort of Katahdin's salon. We've also had a chance to learn a bit more about Savannah than what I published in the March 1, 2025, bolg titled "So Much to Share".

I promised a good picture of a large container ship passing by the boat basin. I have still not managed to jump on one. Nonetheless, when the Savannah Belles Ferry wasn't running due to fog, the kind folks at the marina ran me across to Savannah proper in their Carolina skiff. As we were scooting across the river, this behemoth loomed out of the fog above us:

Scary Things Loom Out of the Fog!

We had a chance at the City Hall Ferry Landing to read about Savannah's Harbor expansion. Already, the third largest container port in the United States, they are deepening the entire harbor from seven miles out to sea to the Garden City terminal from 42 to 47 feet (this explains the dredging we got caught up in trying to arrive at the marina on Friday). They say the $1 billion + project which will double the size of the container ships able to use the harbor will have a five year payback.

A HUGE Project to Enable the Arrival of BEHEMOTH Container Ships

Of course, a project like this is great for the tug boat business, an industry near and dear to my heart and heritage.

A Half Dozen Tugs Headed Out to Meet Ships During Our Sunday Lunch

We also learned that the John Randolph, constructed and launched in Savannah, was the first iron vessel in American waters and that the Savannah, the first steamship to

cross the ocean left Savannah for Liverpool in 1819. Remarkable!

Naturally, when we're in port, the Admiral gives the Captain a honey do list. Smartly, I cleaned the decks while it was still somewhat warm. It took me a little more time and some coaching from my friend Craig Tallberg to tackle repairing the blackwater guage.

The Top of the BlackWater Tank

Because the wires leading from the guage were fixed without any extra wire and did not have breakaway connectors, I first had to rewire the guage adding both wires and connectors. With that accomplished, I removed the guage from the tank and discovered that dried (well, you can guess) was impeding the movement of the float up and down. Scrubbing and scraping solved that problem and we can once again measure the progression of the number two business.

The Rod on Which the Float Moves Up and Down. Yuck.

With a forecast of 25 degrees overnight (turned out to be 23), I dug out the electric heaters we haven't used since we were on the Gulf Coast last January and put one in the engine room, one in the utility room, and one in the forward bilge. I also disconnected our shore water hose and sorta drained it. Checking the heaters before bed, it turned out that the ones in the engine room and utility room were on the same circuit and had blown the breaker. The utility room gets some heat anyway so I pulled the plug on that one, reset both the circuit breaker and the GFCI breaker, and ran heat in the engine room.

This morning, we awoke to a frozen hose (now thawed out after an hour inside) and spigots frozen so solid you couldn't turn them on anyway. At this writing, the sun has done its thing, I've refilled our water tank, and we will run on shore water until this evening.

I'm picking up Jackie in the marina's golf cart after her massage and we're going to the Pink House Restaurant for lunch. It's a Savannah classic; I would have loved to go there for dinner but the only available reservations were past my bedtime. Tomorrow we're heading for Jekyll Island, a 111 mile journey that will demand a zero dark thirty start. More soon!