Day 18. Last night in Savannah

Day18 Savannah- a wonderful sunny day, but very cold wind.

Another glorious sleep disturbed at 5 AM!!!!! by someone banging into metal not once but repeatedly. I did go back to snooze for a bit longer once they stopped. Breakfast- same as always. 

After breakfast off to see if I could find a card reader. The answer is “no” after three shops. Luckily I always carry the cords- just in case.

Extendable octagonal table

Then it was off to the Telfair Museum- once an old historic home transformed into a museum. The original home was lovely, but was extended when they turned it into a museum. A really unusual octagon room and octagon dining table that could be extended with additional leaves. Great docent again. Nothing shattering on the walls, but some interesting traditional ones. After Telfair I walked across the square to the Jepsom Art Centre- linked to the Telfair- but containing modern works over there. Lovely modern building too. A nice exhibition of Rodin’s works plus a few others.

From here it was a quick walk up to the river to book a ticket for this afternoon’s river cruise. I got a chance to sit down and have a cup of tea. I did laugh however when the girl gave me a glass of ice first. I wondered, “What did I just ask for?” But she said that tea was so hot I might need the ice to cool it down. Hmm. Or maybe not. 

On board at 12:30 and we set off at 1:05 up the Savannah River first, then turned around and back down to Fort Jackson where we were ”lucky” to be in time for the cannon blast. (For those who know me well- I nearly jumped overboard with fright) I was so glad I had thought to put my coat, gloves and hat into my backpack. It was cold on the water unless you were facing into the sun.

Great cruise and saw lots and I heard even more history. The river is 600 m/y wide near Savannah and at the moment 42 feet deep at low tide, but is being dredged to deepen it for all the super ships. Savannah is America’s 4^th busiest port because it is the last deep water port on the east coast before the Panama Canal. It takes in more than 1 million dollars of trade per day. On the docks was machinery bound for NZ and Australia. (I gave the solitary cheer for that piece of information.) We saw two huge ships coming up the river. One went past and one was further downstream. The little tug boats are so small, but really important. It was fascinating watching them work. The really big ones have to currently wait until high tide to come up the river. The old bridge only gave them a draft of 124 feet and after a ship ran into the deck, they had the option to fix or rebuild. They chose to build a new one or lose the trade. The new one gives them 154 feet and the dredging will give them even more. The dredging material is used to reclaim land. 

It was also interesting learning about what each of the flags meant on the ships. They always fly the flag of the port of call and their own, but I remember that the yellow flag means do not board/ sickness on board/ has not been processed by customs. Red means the cargo is dangerous e.g .fuel/ gas- sort of obvious when there was a HUGE sign saying “no smoking” painted on the ship. Downstream were important ship yards in WW2 where they were able to make a Liberty ship in four weeks using a conveyor type construction technique. They had 8 docks working nonstop and built 88. These ships were only designed to last 5 years.

We came back to the dock and I walked up to Kayak Kafe for another late lunch 3:15. This time I opted for the small Cesar salad with avocados and chicken and two hot cups of tea.  (Small just gets lost in translation over here but it was very nice and fresh) While I was enjoying my cup of tea a lady sat at the next table and ordered GF in “Australian”. So I asked her to join me and we had one of those mindless chats that you do with strangers. She was from Brisbane.

Another Sanders. Found one yesterday too.

I walked back to the hotel at the very reasonable time of 4:15, washed my hair.,went downstairs to ask for a hair drier which was on the top shelf apparently. And if I was six foot tall I would know that. Found it. then came downloading and diary. Next comes packing to move tomorrow to Charleston.