South Carolina to Georgia!

We spent several days in Hendersonville, visiting Grandma Tellup and painting her living room. Then we returned to the boat and headed south. We thought that by the time we got to South Carolina, we'd be warm, but it's still cold here. We left Osprey Marina Thursday morning, and anchored that night in the South Santee River. That night we put on Christmas music, and while I made cookies, Mom and Erin made origami snowflakes to decorate our boat with... it's starting to feel like Christmas! Poor Tazzie didn't get a pit stop that night, because the guide book said that the waters were infested with alligators. Unfortunately, we didn't see any.
    We were hoping to get through Charleston, and all the way to Church Creek, which is a place we anchored on our last trip, but we heard an announcement from the Coast Guard on the radio that the swing bridge just before Charleston was stuck in the closed position. They said they could manually open it at six am and three pm, but we planned to go through about one o'clock. Luckily, around eleven o'clock, the Coast Guard announced that the bridge was repaired, and we made it through the bridge and through Charleston, and dropped the hook at Church Creek at dusk. It was interesting going past Fort Sumter, but in our attempt to get warm, we decided not to stop this time. 
     We had a rainy day Saturday and it was very challenging trying to navigate with raindrops on the Eisenglass. We are getting lots of schoolwork done on these long, cold, wet days, since it is nicer to be down below, inside the boat. We anchored at Beaufort, and my dad found a movie theater that was showing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Michael and I have been looking forward to seeing it since Prince Caspian came out in 2008. Erin bought our tickets as an early Christmas present, and she and Mom went to see Tangled. It was a two mile walk to the movie theater, but we needed the exercise. Thankfully, the rain had finally stopped.
   After a beautiful sunrise this morning, the clouds rolled in and the weather people said we wouldn't see the sun till Wednesday. The wind was gusting to 50 knots all day, and we had a very bouncy ride across Port Royal Sound, on our way to Georgia. Mom and Dad actually turned around, thinking it was going to get too rough on the sound, but we decided to try it, and we realized it was doable. Just as we were crossing the Savannah River into Georgia, the clouds dispersed and the sun came out! However, the wind is still blowing ferociously and the forecast is calling for lows in the 20s tonight, and a wind chill of 15. So we are tied up now at Isle of Hope Marina, with our space heaters on full force.
     When we first arrived it was still light, so Michael, Mom and I borrowed bikes from the marina and rode around the beautiful community of Isle of Hope, outside of Savannah.

There are huge antebellum houses here, so it was fun to ride around and admire the architecture. The streets are lined with old oak trees covered with Spanish moss, which gives the town a cozy feel.

We're not sure where we're headed tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be just as cold and windy.