Week 35

 

Week 35

Mar 9-15, 2026

Monday

We have such a brown mustache on the boat from all the tannin in the river water. I was able to scrub the starboard side this morning. It looks funny with port side brown and starboard white but next port side tie we will clean it.  See YouTube video @LoveMeFender.

We left Fernandina for a short cruise up the St. Mary's river. We crossed into Georgia, the river is the boundary line. So Georgia is our 16th state. We docked at St. Marys municipal marina and met up with Randy and Gini from me an dher. And met a new couple David and Evy from O'Evy. We all went to lunch together.

We took a golf cart tour with randy and Gini around the historic part. The guide was great and taught us for 1.5 hours and it was only $5 per person.  St. Mary is small. I don't think we saw one traffic light. The last battle of the war of 1812 was fought here. The war had actually ended, but due to slow communication, people didn't get word that the treaty had been signed for several weeks.

We learned that the tannin in the water is actually a preservative. So even though it looks like tea, you can drink it outta if the Marsh that is. All the old time sailing vessels would send small boats up the river here to get their drinking water. It would last longer In Wood barrels for long voyages.

The hurricane in 2017 caused a lot of damage. Usually they don't get hurricanes here. It's pretty far west as far as the coast goes. Due north lines up in between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, that’s how far inward the coast bends. Hurricanes from the gulf usually peter out coming across Florida. By the time they reach here, they're just a tropical storm.

The noseeums, a type of midge, or miniature biting mosquito were pretty bad here. They bite! We had to put bug spray on to survive. Ed got probably100 bites.  This is really the first insect problem we have had in nearly 6000 miles of travel through 16 states.  These NoSeeUms are horrible.

The laundry was free here, but the marina office is at least 1/4 mile away up the street in a little red brick house. 

We played cards on O'Evy this evening. That was a lot of fun.

Tuesday

Happy birthday to Josh today. We left St Mary's this morning for a short drive to the southern part of Cumberland island. We anchored out and our friend George from Assisted living, gave us a ride in his dingy over to the island. We spent 3.5 hours walking around. We walked over 5 miles to see the Dungeness mansion and surrounding grounds and over to the Atlantic side. The mansion was built by George Carnegie (younger brother of Andrew). It was over 35,000 sq. feet. It burned by an arsonist in 1959. It burned for 3 days. Now it's just ruins. There are wild horses that the Carnegie's just let go from their herd. Now they just roam and forage on their own. It is the only Feral horse herd on the Atlantic coast.  It is a magnificent island and estate with over 200 slave staff and a dozen or more buildings to run it.  Rich!

Wednesday

We pulled up anchor and sailed for about an hour to the northern part of Cumberland island and anchored at Plum Orchard to see the other mansion here. 

George and Lucy's (Carnegie) daughter was given this mansion as a wedding present from Lucy. It's only about 22,0000 sq. feet. It stayed within the family until the 1960s when it was given to the national park service. By the time Lucy died she owned 90% of the island. They typically stayed on the island for April and May and then Oct and Nov.  We toured the house with a guide.  It is fabulous.  The grounds are amazing.  What a life they had.  

After our tour we continued our travels sailing to an anchorage at Jekyll island. George came and picked us up since his dinghy is down to take us to their boat for mocktails. She had a nice charcuterie board and I brought veggies and dip. We had a lovely time for about an hour and a half visiting on their R43. 

We had to get back to the boat for our institute class at 8. I was able to stay on zoom and attend my ward book club meeting afterward. That's always fun. 

Bruce got home from Guatemala today. He is done with his mission. It's just too painful for him to do any walking or stairs. He had a great experience though. It was worth it for him to go for 5 months.

Thursday

It got really windy this morning and the tide was going out. Ed was really worried about getting stuck in the mud, so he called and got a spot at the marina on jekyll island. It was so windy. Ed tried to do a starboard tie, but the wind just blew us right around. Our bimini is like a sail. It took 6 people to grab our lines and pull the boat to where it needed to be and we did a oiet side tie as mother nature wanted. We are docked right in front of Deb and Randy our friends from Road to Nowhere. We haven't seen them since the Dry tortugas. Also Gini and Randy from Meandher are here.

We got a golf cart to head to the Georgia Sea turtle sanctuary. It's the largest hospital for sea turtles on the east coast. They're mostly loggerhead turtles there. It's small but worth it. We learned that sea turtles can't pull their heads, arms, or legs into their shell for protection.

On the way there a torrential rain storm hit while we were on the golf cart on the highway. We were watching the clouds roll in. The weather app said tornado warnings. Luckily it didn't last long. 

Deb and Randy met up with us and the 6 of us went to lunch and to the famous Jekyll Island driftwood beach. It's really unique and beautiful. 

This island is only 7 miles long and 1-2 miles wide.

Gini invited us all over for cards tonight. We enjoyed a couple of hours with everyone. 

Friday

Ed spent the morning doing business stuff on the computer and transferring some assets to Morgan Stanley due to problems with wells fargo.  

We got a couple of the loaner bikes to go find lunch and ride around the island. There's a cute historic district and shopping area. People like Goodyear, J.P Morgan etc. built winter homes here. This is also the birth place of the federal reserve where JP Morgan and other fat cats sat in a room and thought up the fed. 

We took a bike trail that cut through the island. There are swamps and lakes with fresh water, so we saw a couple of alligators. It was such a nice peaceful bike ride for about 10 or 12 miles today around Jekyll Island. 

We ran into Deb and Randy when we got back. We arranged to go to dinner later.

We decided to go to the Irish pub in the beach Village. We had a really nice time with lots of laughs at dinner for a couple of hours.

Saturday

We only went 9 nautical miles this morning to Brunswick GA. It's a pretty big marina. They gave us a discount on the fuel, the laundry was free, and M,W, and Fri the beer is free for happy hour. Quite nice amenities. 

We worked a bit more on polishing the boat. We did laundry and walked to a pretty good Mexican restaurant in Brunswick.  Cute town.  Great marina with really nice club house amenities and massive library and game room.

Sunday

We were able to get a ride to the Brunswick ward for church this morning. Several people were visiting for several months this FLETC facility, federal law enforcement training academy center. It's interesting that the training center is here in Brunswick. They train ice, CBP, Secret service, etc.

We were able to get some waxing done on the boat. We're super slow because it hurts our back so bad. 

I made boillabaise for the first time. We were really happy with the result. We went for a Sunday walk afterwards.

See ya next week.