Day 94 - Farewell to Florida

At 7:30 am Captain Randy called Brunswick Landing Marina and learned that they had a slip for us – Yay!  The water in the Amelia River was like glass as we pushed off at 8:05 am.  We turned north on the ocean passing Cumberland Island, GA and the shrimpers just outside the inlet.  We had been in Florida since before Thanksgiving (when we were on the boat, and except for our trip to the Bahamas) and though we loved it, we looked forward to moving on.  It was warm and hazy and we could not see too much on shore.  When we reached St. Simon’s Sound, we turned west and made our way past Jekyll Island to Brunswick, GA.  We saw jellyfish and dolphin in the channel.  Captain Randy and I don’t even slow down for dolphin any more, but we did so for Laurie and Greg because the sight of wild dolphin “playing” near the boat is still very new to them.

 

By 11 am we were docked and cooked breakfast before exploring Brunswick, another historic town, named for one of its English founders.  Brunswick was first settled in 1738 and is one of the largest ports on the East coast.  During WW II, 99 Liberty Ships were built here and put into service as merchant marine boats to supply the troops.  Because it was Sunday, nothing was open.  We were impressed with the Ritz theater building and the downtown squares which were designed by James Oglethorpe.  On the advice of our dock master, we walked to Union Street to see the historic homes.  From here we planned to walk down the main street bisecting Brunswick on the east-west axis to Overlook Park.  Captain Randy decided this was not a very “interesting” street and decided to go back to the boat (so he could wash it).  It was quite hot by now but the rest of us pushed on to the park.  We walked out onto the pier overlooking the marshlands.  It was low tide and a family was pulling up blue crabs, collecting quite a few in buckets. 

 

 

 

We are now in “the low country”, which includes parts of Georgia, South Carolina, and the islands off their coasts called the Barrier Islands.  Later we reserved our car to drive to one of them, Jekyll Island, the next day. 

Note from the crew: I mentioned before how cozy and luxurious our cabin is; however, there is one slight issue with the temperature.  The Captain likes to keep it cool – real cool – and entering the cabin after a day in the heat is something like stepping into the polar vortex.  Luckily there are separate air controls for each compartment or I would be buying a parka!