November 25, 2020 Wednesday

We spent the morning catching up on sleep and after the tide started coming up we took the dinghy into the small fixed dock at the Fort Frederica National Monument to look around. The site had a small but important fort in the early 1700s before the American Revolution built by the British to keep the Spanish in Florida from expanding into Georgia and attacking the colonies at Savannah and Charleston. The fort is most famous for stopping an invasion in 1742 by the Spanish and forever ending the threat from Spain in the thirteen colonies.

The tours are self-guided due to the pandemic so we strolled the grounds under the moss draped live oaks and tried to imagine a fort and support village as they were two hundred and seventy years ago when the only things left are a few foundations and a couple of walls. But the National Park System did a great job and we came away feeling we had fuller understanding of the early days of this beautiful area of the south often called the Golden Islands.

One story that was particularly fascinating was the story of Mary Musgrove, half Creek Indian, who worked as a translator and negotiator for the British and was a key to their success in making alliances with the native population which played a key role in stopping the Spanish. Through her skills and three different marriages she became one of the largest land holders in the state of Georgia.

When we returned to the dock, we found our dinghy stuck under the dock by the rising tide, so Sharon climbed down the side of the dock and freed the boat. Some of the float tube was pulled out of the track but we should be able to fix that. On the way back to Monarch we stopped and talked to a couple on a type of boat called a motor sailor named Lanikai. They had been married 60 years and have done a lot of cruising, recently based in Annapolis, but now living in Florida. We enjoyed talking to them while I slowly rowed the dinghy against the current but eventually the biting gnats drove us off.

Back on-board Sharon cooked us an early Thanksgiving Dinner which was delicious, turkey breast, mash potatoes, grilled vegetables and cranberry relish, a few less courses than our past events. We said what we have been most thankful for and gave our wishes for a more traditional gathering next year.