Mandolin-at-Large

It's a dark and stormy night out there! That means that there must be some dark and stormy's in here and I trust there will!

We had a cozy night last night. The wind howled and waves slapped. It was hard to tell which was having more of an effect on the boat; the strong current or the winds! Despite all of that, our anchor did a mighty job of holding us in place!

Anne made up her salmon soup and it was the best! We snuggled up and watched the movie Pain and Gain, a very silly movie but all a true story! It's proof that the stupid do get caught and end up in jail. It was hard to believe that people would do what they did but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. We kept threatening to turn it off but we were captivated by it like what else are they going to do! It was one of those videos you get for $3.95 at Walmart. The real people were portrayed against the actors in the end. Wow.

We fell into our bunks scratching our heads from the movie... This morning came cloudy, rainy and raw. We got going slowly, ate a nice breakfast and then made our way around Lanier Island to our marina where we had a reservation for the night. Lanier was a poet who lived locally and was renown for his work. The island was named after him, the large modern design bridge over the Brunswick River was named after him, The highway into Brunswick as well. Either he was really great or there was no one else notable in the area... I guess I need to do some research.

It is storming up a tempest outside. We are happy to be tied up in a marina with our heater plugged in. Thunderstorms are predicted for this evening and it doesn't look pleasant. On the positive side, we took our first showers in about a week so that's good! A shave and some fresh clothes makes one feel human again.

We discovered a boat we had followed down the ICW in South Carolina at the marina. They were the ones with the 65' mast who had to avoid the bridges at high tide. Especially the one that is marked 65' but is really 63' (check the ledger boards). They still have their mast so it must be working for them. Too nerve wracking for me! They told us they sold their condo in Annapolis and are living the dream, heading down to Ft. Pierce. That's a very nice marina and local so they should be happy until they get wanterlust again.

I've been hearing more good reports from the Keys. Places are being rebuilt and derelict boats are being hauled out. Speaking about hurricane damage; Morningstar Golden Isle (where we are now) suffered a bit of damage evidenced by closed off docks and damaged piers. A marina we looked into staying at in St. Augustine has lost half its docks. They are still selling fuel but they could no longer take transients for more than one day at a time. Bummer. We do had a mooring ball reserved for a week at the town dock so we are all set. The weather seems to moderate after this week.

So we will be at this marina for 3 nights. We will take care of grocery shopping and refill a propane bottle. Then when the weather improves a bit, maybe we will tour St. Simons Island and dream about warm weather. At least it's not snowing...