11/11 - 11/21/2015
Not feeling the need to hurry on, Melissa and I opted to sign up for the Kiminski House Holiday tour while Carl and Don tackled our dingy repair on one of the dingy docks. The tour was lovely and included a tour of the neighboring house as well. We again strolled the bricked gardens and headed back to find the dingy repair had been successful. Leaving Georgetown, we headed down the ICW, bound for Dewees Creek. The little beach just before the turn in held a flock of white pelicans that. I had just mentioned to Don that last year we had seen them and here they were again! We have had ample reading time this trip as well. One of the books I read was centered in South Carolina and one of the surprising facts I learned was that white pelicans do not dive for their food as do brown pelicans. They instead form a circle and herd fish like dolphins do, so their feeding is a group activity. We rafted on a branch of Dewees Creek and had a very peaceful night with the lights of Charleston in the distance. In the morning we went out the Charleston harbor for an overnight passage to Brunswick. That passage ranks up with the worst five or so we have endured. Thirty hours of living in a washing machine. The only thing missing was the storm raging around, we certainly had the rough seas. Waves were only four or five feet, with occasional six footers, but the period was very small and with the wind and waves directly on the stern we only kept the headsail flying, helping stabilize and power through. It would have been even more uncomfortable to tack so we motor sailed through the night. Don did the lions share and I finally came through at midnight to relieve him until four am when I retreated to the salon settee where I wedged myself behind the table and rode out the worst of it until six when I made coffee and dug out two granola bars Dave had left last May. Thank you Dave! We had bypassed dinner for some strange reason. Nearing Saint Simon Inlet, the waves finally abated and we pulled off to the side to let a huge car carrier freighter pass us by. Don had radioed him to ask his speed and preferences as we were on a collision course. Seeing us on the outside of the buoys he was nice enough to radio back and let us know we better fall in behind him as it got shallow fast further up the channel. We spent three days at Brunswick Landing Marina up the Brunswick River. It was a nice place to recoup. They really want business with reasonable rates, good wifi, free draft beer in the captains lounge, free wine socials twice a week, free laundry, potluck dinners, and many other organized activities along with a fleet of free loaner bikes. Clean, private, showers with hair dryers. The captains lounge is huge with many separate seating areas, comfy couches, and a huge bar to hold all the food and gather around. There is a separate lounge off the laundry room with a large free library. A short walk or bike ride brings you to downtown historic Brunswick, a charming town fashioned after the grid and park system of Savanna. We enjoyed both strolling and biking on our explorations. Many huge Victorian houses line the streets and several of the parks held beautiful fountains and roses from the 1800s. Free flowers for the kitchen table! Tuesday and Thursday brought a Farmers Market just a couple blocks from the marina and the grocery store was several blocks away. And we would have been happy with laundry and showers, lol. We found fabulous, reasonably priced meals at Hungry Hanna's just a couple blocks away. We loved breakfast so much we went back for lunch the next day. Imagine a grilled salmon salad for $6.50, fish grilled to perfection and very fresh vegetables. Stopping for the free pump out, we also fueled up on our way back down the river, headed for Cumberland Island National Seashore. Crossing the Jekyll Sound, rounding the horseshoe shoal was a rocky ride, having to almost put out to sea to pass the shoal. Thankfully the duration was relatively short. We had neglected to lash down the dehumidifier and hope the tumble it took did not damage it. Time will tell, not running it while off the grid. Bay Breezin' rafted up with us after the anchor was set in the Cumberland Sound just down from the ferry dock. Dinner on Nemo while we watched to sun sink behind Drum Point Island. In the morning after a collaborative breakfast of pancakes and Bucksport sausage, Don lowered the dingy for another days exploration. This time we strolled paths lined with mammoth trees festooned in draping Spanish moss, stopping at the Ice House Museum before passing maritime forests, through historic buildings and ruins, past saltwater marshes, ultimately leading to a long white beach on the Atlantic Ocean. All the while we marveled at the wild horses casually munching on moss and grass, paying no heed to the people invariably snapping photos of them. The ruins of Dungeness, Thomas Carnegie's 1884 mansion, were impressive. The greenhouse, boathouse, and pool house ruins scattered around told of what must have been a very pampered way of life. The old laundry had been turned into public restrooms. The house built for two of the daughters still stood, but was closed to the public. We enjoyed peeking through the windows at the hand painted murals in the sitting room; scenes from the seashore, winding staircase and vintage wallpaper in the front hall and wrought iron boot scrapers at the bottom of the front stairs. The marshes were teaming with birds. My all time favorite sighting was the group of roseate spoonbills we saw through binoculars from the boat house dock. We also saw the usual suspects, great blue herons, snowy white egrets, kingfishers, sandpipers, seagulls, marsh wrens and some I did not recognize. This was a fabulous stop, glad to see it after speeding by so many times. Our dingy ride back to the boat was rougher and the boats rocked and rolled in the winds through the night. Don dozed in the cockpit through the early morning hours. Our plans to continue exploration of the island were stopped in their tracks as the weather called for rain and high wind until after noon. We are still rocking around as I type this. Probably going to be a boat day today. We have the time to be wimpy.