Florida, the Gulf Stream, Surgery and Savannah!

As you can see from the title of this entry life has been far from booring!!

In fact, in many ways, it's been rather too exciting....
Still let us begin at the beginning.

Our trip from The Cayman's to Key West went well,no wind at times and then too much from the wrong direction but hey it's sailing right? TBH has mastered this saily business pretty well and we managed to do a couple of long tacks in order to enter into Kay West early on the morning of 11th May. We didn't even see Cuba as we passed at night and then too far off shore for a sighting.

We sailed right into the anchorage at Key West, got the hook down and made our way shorewards prepared to survive our confrontation with US Coastguards, Border patrol and any other security agency that was bound for our boat. What a let down! Not a soul was interested. No teams of hardcore guys in dark glasses with sniffer dogs and bulging weapons! Just a mild request to present ourselves at the airport to see customs and immigration.
We did as we were told and after parting with $19 we were good for 6 months in the good old US of A!

On top of that our taxi driver, J.R. no less, took us under his wing guided our forays around Key West and even had us over to his place for dinner one afternoon!

There's many a tale to tell but internet time is limited and I have to get this down before you all think we have disappeared from the face of the earth.

Two glorious weeks later and off we go again, this time bound for Georgia and the ICW. We found the Gulf Steam and zipped along at speeds previously unexperienced on our little vessel. Highest was 13 knots!!!! The boat, and us, are still in shock at that one.

One night of distant squalls that I insisted we alter course to avoid and before we knew it we were making our entrance in St Mary's Sound to the ICW. Wow! It's like the canal system on steroids! What we weren't really prepared for was the isolation of the place, no riverside restaurants, no marina's, no towns. Just miles and miles of salt marshes, wide blue skies and countless dolphins,yes dolphins, it was a big surprise but wonderful bonus.

We motored and sailed, depending on the depth and width of the waterway. We decided to head for Savannah, provisions were getting low, fuel was needed and we had a contact here.

Then I went ill. I mean really ill, agonising stomach pains, incoherent ravings and all the rest. TBH was a star. He single handed us ,navigating and steering(no mean task on the ICW) through shallow waters and narrow creeks until we made it here, Savannah. By this time I was not only raving but had gone a wonderful shade of yellow! We got to a hospital and within a couple of hours I was under the knife....Yup that middle-aged woman thing the Gallbladder. Which, thank goodness is no longer with me!

TBH meantime had found an old shrimp dock up a back creek that had a kinda marina now and had got the boat alongside. The great American spirit had swung into action and he was beseiged with offers of help, free dockage, car loan, meals....

Four days later I am back on the boat, healing nicely and recovering from every cruisers worst nightmare , the medical emergency!

Thanks to all who wondered what had happened! We will remain here a couple more weeks, hoping for no early hurricanes, allowing my wounds to heal and then head North again....