After another quiet night at anchorage in Frederica Creek, we head the approximate 15 miles to Brunswick, where we intend to go to a marina, provision and tidy up the boat and await Bob and Carolyn's arrival. Brunswick turns out to be a great place for this. The marina is very large and we have a great slip with all the amenities you can ask for. The town is not as glamorous as Savannah or Charleston but still has southern character and, as well, all of the stores and stuff we need to replenish Sea Sharp.

The kinship among boaters is every bit as profound here as elsewhere and we make friends easily. We get in on Monday late morning, and the weather is vastly improved. It is warm and sunny. I take a good part of the afternoon giving Sea Sharp a good cleaning outside while Judy cleans the inside. Not to go into a lot of detail on boat maintenance but suffice it to say that living aboard a small boat, in salt water conditions, motoring every day, means that you have to do a lot if you want to maintain your boat to good standards. It doesn't take long for a boat to show wear and tear and general decline if you don't keep up. We try to keep Sea Sharp in Bristol condition so this afternoon is a labour of love.

We go out to dinner with Jan and Bob on the neighbouring boat, Banshee, a Pearson 34. Very interesting folks and we have a nice pizza meal.

On Tuesday, we decide to provision which normally would mean a taxi to the supernarket and then another back. No big deal but a bit inconvenient. Well, true to form, we had received an email from our good sailing friends from Fredericton Monique and Henri, telling us that old sailing friends of theirs are at the same marina we're at and we should look them up. I wander to their boat, a very nice trawler called RamSea and meet Don and Betty. These delightful folks are from northern Maine (Lincoln) and have been cruising for many years. They had spent some time with Henri and Monique when the latter did their Bahamas trip I think in 1995 and had maintained their friendship.

Don and Betty offer to drive us to the supermarket and we gladly accept so off we go to our new favourite provisioning store - Super WalMart. We get huge quantities of provisions (Bob and Carolyn can probably stay with us for a month or more without having to get more stores) and Judy puts stuff away while I go for a run.

Among the folks we meet on the docks are a wonderful couple from Ontario, Ian and Marlene, retired school teachers/administrators from Ontario. They are cruising on their nicely outfitted CS 34 but will be leaving their boat at this marina to return home for Christmas. Mid afternoon, they suggest happy hour at the local pizza place and we join them there. True to the "five degrees of separation" rule, realizing that Judy's from Newfoundland, Marlene casually asks if she knows Judy Judge. Well, in fact, this is my Judy's first cousin. We invite Ian and Marlene to dinner on Sea Sharp and have a great evening replete with bottles of $2.97 wine from WalMart; another cruising friendship cultivated!