Our trip to Brunswick Landing in Brunswick, GA was easy, just very, very long at around eight and a half hours. It seemed longer than that, probably, because there wasn’t much to see along the way – mostly all low marsh land. Oh, except for the submerged car carrier just outside the entrance to Brunswick. Yep, a sunken car carrier. Rumor has it that on Sunday, Sept. 8^th the 656-foot car carrier Golden Ray from Korea, carrying over 4,000 Hyundia and Kia’s, was disabled and listing heavily with a fire on board. It then flipped on to its side. The ship, with 23 crew and one pilot, was leaving Brunswick and headed to Baltimore.  The Coast Guard rescued 19 crew and the pilot immediately, but a hole had to be cut in the hull to rescue four remaining crew, trapped in the engine room, 36 hours later. The ship is now resting on the bottom on its port side and is blocking the Brunswick approach channel. The big question remains – what happened? And I would be suspect of a “to good to be true” deal on a new Hyundia or Kia!

The approach to the marina looked very industrial to us, right down to the white smoke coming from the paper mill, about a mile and a half away, and directly upwind from our slip. Ugh… Fortunately the wind is NOT usually blowing from the north here.

Once we were tied up the dockmaster invited us to come to the club house for “happy hour”, with free wine and beer. Wahoo! AND…he then invited us to return tomorrow, Thursday (11/28) for a Thanksgiving meal! He said, just bring a side dish and join us in the club house. Wow, how nice are they? So, Wednesday night we headed for the club house and joined about 50 other folks enjoying “happy hour”. We chatted with a few folks and with Melissa and Jeff on “Flip Flop” who we originally met in Wrightsville, NC and then saw again in Beaufort, SC. On Thursday we walked to the club house and joined about 100 people for Thanksgiving. We sat down and ate and chatted with Joanna and Paul who were also in route south aboard “Ursa Major”. It was fun and we met some new friends, but we really missed cooking our traditional Thanksgiving dinner with our “old” friends. Hope you all had a wonderful and happy day!

In the late afternoon we walked into town and were pleasantly surprised. Our approach looked like the town would be very industrial and not very appealing, but it turned out to be just the opposite. Once we crossed the railroad tracks, about a block way, and walked another block, we discovered a charming community. The main street, lined with businesses and restaurants, ran for about six blocks and was very quaint. Everything was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and most were still closed on Friday, but the town came alive on Saturday.

Saturday, in honor of “small business Saturday”, many businesses were open and having sales. In addition, numerous booths/tables were set up in the various parks and craftspeople were selling their wares. It was quite festive and fun and well attended. Michael and I had lunch at Island Jerk, a Jamaican themed place which was very good. My dish was blackened shrimp with a side dish of cabbage. Now, I have never been a cabbage fan, but this was delicious. So much so, that I had to ask how it was prepared. She said you just steam it with butter, salt and pepper. Hmmmm….. that sounds like something I might try.

Sunday (12/1). Yikes, It’s December!!! Woke up to an overcast morning. Supposed to be 80 degrees and humid today, not so. It was actually a bit chilly then around noon the wind picked up. The dockmaster said it was blowing 23 knots but seemed higher than that. We watched a couple of trawlers (Loopers) come in to tie up. Michael went out to help but the wind was so strong that they couldn’t make it into the slip so the dockmaster waved them off to go to a T-dock down the way. Then it started raining. Not a glorious day in Brunswick today.

We’re thinking we will be here through Monday (12/2) and leave Tuesday (12/3) morning continuing south. We will probably stay a month or so in Jacksonville, FL. Michael needs to be in San Diego on January 6^th, so we thought we’d stay put for Christmas and New Year’s. Haven’t firmed up the reservations yet but that’s a good place to fly out of and the marinas and/or yacht clubs have plenty to do to keep me and the doggies occupied. Will keep you posted.