28-31 December, 2010

Our weather window held beautifully and we took off for Brunswick, GA on Wednesday at 1300. Kelly Roberts, our dock neighbor, was there to see us off. We left at slack high tide and motored our way out the channel for 2 hours and then set a course of 225 degrees for the next 120 nm to the channel entrance to Brunswick. The temperature for the full 23 hours didn't get below 49 which is what it was when we started and continued to warm up some all through the night. It got as warm as 52 overnight. Of course, that would have been much colder had we had strong winds and waves splashing cold water on deck. But again the weather gods were good to us. For most of the night, the seas were 0-1 foot but most of the time they were 0 and the water looked like a mirror. The winds were never more than about 7 mph and often much less than that but were on the nose most of the trip. It really couldn't have been better conditions for a late December passage during this unseasonably cool SE winter.

The sky was an amazing thing to see - the stars were so very bright and sharp and there were "billions and billions'" as Carl Sagan used to say. The moon didn't come up until around 0300 and then it was only a quarter moon and hardly affected our view of the stars. I was silly enough to let myself get cold during my watch because I was trying to give Bill an extra hour of sleep. Not smart. From then on I couldn't get warm again until the sun rose and really started to warm things up.

There weren't many other boats out there. Why am I not surprised at that. Bill did see one commercial ship during one of his watches but I didn't see anything until we got to the channel to turn toward shore. It was Eos and 13 fishing boats greeting the clear blue sky of morning.

We arrived at the dock at 1200. Sheri and Cindy from Brunswick Landing Marina were waiting to take our lines and Killer the marina guard dog - a Chiuhuahua - was there to make sure they did it right. We had mail, and packages awaiting us so I spent some time going through Christmas cards (and feel guilt about not having sent any this year) while Bill got us all hooked up. Then it was over to the Brewburger for a late lunch before returning - Bill to take a nap and me to do some cleanup and then reading.The new winches are here waiting to be installed. Our good friends, Gary and Judy Robinson, are waiting for us to drive down to Fort Myers, FL next week to see them and Jay and Diane, their son and daughter-in-law who are flying over from TX for our 10 year late Christmas grouper sandwiches. So we are settled in for the month and it will be time to call Monday and talk Bill and Judy Rohde who had Jubilee here so we can get the scoop on Brunswick and what is around here.