This morning we arose and headed back down the sound towards the ocean only to turn west again towards the community of St Mary's, Georgia. This is the place where on every American Thanksgiving there is a huge cruisers party on the docks sponsored by the cruisers themselves and by the community. Our friends Maury and Ginger aboard Gypsysails were here last fall for that event and by all accounts they had a great time. That might be something that we might try to do on the next trip.

Nelleke almost took us to Fernandina Beach by force of habit before I turned around and fought the current back up the St Mary's River to this place. En route we discovered that Lane's Marina has dock space for $1/ft and the cheapest fuel that we have found for a while at $2.79/gal, so we decided that we'd take a dock for the night and get some rest.

Barb and I took a walk through the town this afternoon and were most favourably impressed in everything except for the fact that things like groceries, hardware, etc are all a car ride away. There were several museums and for the first time on this trip we did what I had always thought that we'd be doing on these cruises, namely visiting museums and historical places to learn about the history of the regions that we are visiting. On this occasion we went to a submariner museum http://stmaryssubmuseum.com which is very appropriate considering there is a major US Submarine Base nearby; and we visited a seashore museum and learned even more about Cumberland Island, and the US point of view about the War of 1812.

This is a nice place. I just wish that we had more time and that we had provisioned before getting here.

Tonight we will splurge a little on appetizers in a local restaurant and then tomorrow since the weather is still going to be iffy, we will head on up the ICW to St Simonds and then the next day on another little hop further along without getting into the really shallow part of the Georgian ICW. We will likely be out of wifi range so please be patient.