We headed up to St Augustine.   There are many bridges on the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW) some are high enough for us to get under and some we have to wait for them to be opened.   I was making a cuppa, one of Ian’s endless cups of tea, and got called up to the fly bridge. “Lo, stand on the storage box at the back and make sure we don’t touch the underneath of the bridge!!”  EEK!  It was about 2ft clearance but we got through.

St Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European and African-American origin in the US and was founded in 1565 by the Spanish.  It is known for its Spanish colonial architecture.  It’s a big tourist attraction.

We needed to get a few things so the bikes got their first outing.  We needed something from the hardware store so Ian thought he’d support the locals. Unfortunately they didn’t have what we wanted. So, we ended up in a big chain store which was a lot further away and it was really hot. Amazingly they have bike lanes in some places so we took that route back to the boat which was a bit un-nerving, well at least it was for me, with three lanes of traffic blasting past, it was like being on a dual carriage way but with three lanes. I had to peddle like the clappers a few times to get through the traffic lights as they turned amber to keep up with Ian. The traffic was heavy and there were quite a few crossroads.

Susan, Ian’s cousin, was coming to visit and she arrived the next day with Daisy the dog.  There was lots of chatting and running us around to collect a new water tank which we couldn’t quite get on a bike. We had a lovely meal in the oldest restaurant in Florida, the Colombia which was Spanish/Cuban cuisine, so tapas it was.

We had to start heading north to get out of the hurricane belt so the next four days we covered just over 210nm arriving in Beaufort, South Carolina.  Here we were meeting up with our friends, Colin and Maggie, who were in the process of buying their boat for the Great Loop.  It so happened that the Music Festival of the Lowcountry was being held that weekend.  They had various acts playing and topping the bill was a Michael Jackson tribute who have been touring since 2003.  They had some fans who it appeared were regulars at their gigs.  It did feel at some stages of the show that some believed MJ was really there.

In the US you have to be 21 to drink alcohol.  To get some drinks at the festival we had to buy tickets and it doesn’t matter how old you are, or how you look, you have to provide ID or no wrist band and no beer.  This is everywhere including the supermarket and the liquor store, you can only buy beer and wine in the supermarket.  Well I suppose if my birthday was 29^th February I would have only been 15!

Friday night is the start of the weekend so Friday night drinks it must be.  Colin and Maggie managed to sniff out a local brewery, Shellring, in Royal Port Landings, well you’d expect nothing less from them.  It became our regular Friday night haunt for a few weeks. It was a very popular place with various ales, which were very strong, to choose from.

Just before you arrive at the brewery there is the “Cypress Wetlands”.  As you drive past, at first glance, you think there are lovely white flowers on the trees.  Only when you get closer do you realise, they are birds.  On the other side of the boardwalk, we spotted an alligator chilling.  This place was stunning.  We watched one bird attempting to balance on a twig, he was wobbling about all over the place and eventually fell off and went for a branch!

As Colin and Maggie had a car, we decided to have a day out at Savannah.  Savannah is just how you imagine the towns of the deep south to be.  Wooden houses with verandas surrounded by trees.  Many of the trees are live oak trees with Spanish moss, which we were reliably informed on a Trolley Tour that they are not Spanish and it is not moss.  They look pretty stunning around the parks and roads.

There are two Brits who made their mark in Savannah, Georgia.  The first was James Edward Oglethorpe, born in Yorkshire, England in 1696.  On June 9, 1732, the crown granted a charter to the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia. Oglethorpe himself led the first group of 114 colonists on the frigate Anne, landing at the site of today’s Savannah on February 1, 1733. The original charter banned slavery and granted religious freedom.  He returned to England in 1743. 

The other Brit was John Wesley the founder of Methodism.  He was invited by James Oglethorpe to serve as a minister to the early settlers .  He arrived in Savannah in 1736, but only stayed for two years before returning to England.  John Wesley said “The first rise of Methodism was in 1729 when four of us met together at Oxford. The second was in Savannah in 1736 when twenty or thirty persons met at my house”.

Savannah is the birth place of Johnny Mercer, an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, best known for his contributions to the Great American Songbook and his co-founding of Capitol Records.  He wrote over a 1,000 songs, including classics like “Moon River,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” and “Hooray for Hollywood” 

June 2025