Author: Rod Wolfe

While Brunswick is not what I would describe as a destination city, it is situated next to the Golden Isles that include St. Simon and Jeckyll which attract their share of tourists seeking beautiful beaches and expansive golf courses. St. Simon is the bigger of the two islands but Jeckyll has a more interesting past and, in our opinion, was more beautiful with the old oak trees that canopy the roadways and drip Spanish moss from their expansive limbs. While that is a common sight around Georgia, it was especially cool on the small two-lane roads that circle the island. Jeckyll was once privately owned by a group of America’s wealthiest. Families such as the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Pulitzers, and a few others that had a few bucks to spare bought the island and formed their prestigious private Jeckyll Island club in 1886, limiting access on the island to only their elite members. Story has it that they didn’t even allow the President of the United States to visit because he wasn’t a member. Jeckyll is now owned by the state of Georgia (purchased in 1947) and further development is restricted to preserve it’s natural state.

The first week of October was thunderous and very wet due to Tropical Storm Tammy passing just south of us. We received somewhere around 16 inches of rain in 6 days and we had a couple of restless nights on the leading edge of the storm with the thunder shaking the boat and the lightening getting a little too close for comfort. There were many areas of Brunswick that experienced flooding that week, and we were not immune to the wet living conditions either. After discovering a soggy rug and a soaked settee cushion, we deduced that some areas of the boat were not water tight. We have added “rebed chain plates” to our list of projects. Fortunately that’s not a complex project and it’s one that needs to be done as a normal part of boat maintenance. Guess it was time for ours to be maintained.

What began as what we refer to as a Bargain Safari, ended up including a side of tourism in St. Augustine. We were motivated to visit St. Augustine again, this time by car, after we learned of a store called the Sailors Exchange, where one could find good deals on used and new equipment. It’s basically like a salvage yard. A boater’s dream! At Sailors Exchange we bought Sunbrella cloth for a deck shade and other projects at approximately 60% of the normal retail price per yard. We also bought enough Triple B chain to replace and increase the length of our current primary anchor chain. This too was at a very good price. During our 4 hour scavenge at Sailors Exchange Rod found a welding shop next door where he scored a piece of stainless steel pipe needed for the windlass installation and we also learned of some local wood workers where we might get some small pieces of teak also needed for the windlass. By this time it was after 5:00 so we had to make a decision – drive the approx. 100 miles back to Brunswick and then return the next day to track down the teak, or spend a spontaneous night in St. Augustine. With the price of gas around $3.00 per gallon and our general inclination toward the spontaneous, we decided to spend the night. That decision allowed us to be tourists for the remainder of the evening and wander the quaint streets of this historic city, where Rod claimed to sense the presence of ghostly pirates. We even found the restaurant/bar in the tree, The MillTop, that Chris had told us about from their visit to St. Augustine.

Once we were mentally settled in to Brunswick after returning from Orlando, we started adding things to our project list, prioritizing, and determining where to begin. Here is a sampling from the list (yes, this is just a sampling):

Install Racor 500 fuel filter
Install solar panels
Order new sails
Install Windlass
Install chain stopper
Install new bow deck cleat
Install manual galley pump
Move raw water strainer on engine
Determine email/weatherfax solution for Bahamas
Connect GPS to network and radio
Install deck pipe for stern anchor
Buy 4-person off-shore life-raft
Fix auto-pilot mount
Add cheek blocks and cleats to boom for reefing
Repair Mack Pack zipper
Check water in batteries
Install Monitor wind steering system
Replace mast boot
Various sewing projects – bumper covers, TV cover, sunshade, windlass cover
Get ship’s clock fixed
Polish stainless and aluminum
Polish fuel and tank

Brunswick, Georgia

Brunswick has an active waterfront that is home to one of the largest shrimp boat fleets on the east coast and is frequented by ginormous (sic) container ships. The city is similar to Lewiston, Idaho in size and smell. Koch Cellulose operates a large pulp mill in the area that provides an aroma that is only rivaled by the daily low tide. While Brunswick is not a large city, is does offer convenient shopping for most of the items we need for our projects. We tend to frequent Home Depot, Wal-Mart, West Marine, and Boaters World along with the various specialty metal shops to locate items for our projects. The Colonial Mall offers some other typical Mall shops as well as a movie theater that we’ve gone to a couple of times. There are no Albertson’s in Brunswick, so we do our grocery shopping at Publix or Winn-Dixie. They even carry “Idaho Potatoes”!

Slow down, you move too fast…. You got make the morning last…
After sailing over 1000 miles in the initial 6 weeks of our adventure, we’ve certainly slowed our traveling pace since arriving in Brunswick, Georgia at the end of August. And that’s not just because we’re fitting in with the southern style, even though that happens to be our roots. My (Lisa’s) great grandmother was from the neighboring state of Tennessee. Her name was Sidney Lier Bolton, being named after a famous poet of the 19th century, Sydney Lanier, who was from Macon, Georgia. One of his most famous pieces of work, “The Marshes of Glynn”, was written here in Brunswick (Glynn County). We sailed under the massive Sidney Lanier bridge on our way in to Brunswick! I had no idea I was arriving in a place that had such a connection to one of my ancestors!

When we first arrived in Brunswick, we intended on sitting tight for a week or so while Hurricane Ophelia determined her path. As that initial week passed and we used that time for some exploration of the area and for making extensive lists of what we wanted to do to get the boat ready for the winter in the Bahamas, we made the decision to not continue north any further and to wait out the remainder of the very active hurricane season in this relatively safe harbor. This non-travel period would allow us the necessary time to check off the items from our growing list of projects.

Since this lengthy log entry captures a variety of activities and projects since arriving in Brunswick, it is divided into sections for easier perusal.

We just want to let everyone know that we are still safe and hunkered down in a marina in Brunswick, Georgia, where we plan to remain until the weather begins to moderate. Tropical storm Ophelia is stalled off the East coast of Central Florida and predicted to move slowly North or Northwest before turning back out to sea. We are keeping a close watch. Other active hurricanes in the Atlantic, Nate and Maria, pose no threat to us.

After returning from Savannah we did something that Rod had never experienced before. We rode a Greyhound bus. Hey, we’re all about having new experiences on this adventure! We had ordered solar panels for the boat and had arranged for them to be sent to Chris and Susan’s house, since we weren’t sure where we were going to be. We needed to pick them up and retrieve the Trooper from their house so we could have transportation while being temporary residents of Brunswick, Georgia. Which, by the way, when we rented the car for the Savannah trip we discovered Brunswick to be considerably larger than the struggling historic downtown district that we had access to on foot! The Greyhound bus trip was uneventful but there are very interesting folks that seem to hang out at bus stations. Thanks to Chris, we didn’t have to linger with the crack dealers at the Orlando station very long before he was there to pick us up. We spent a couple of days visiting with them and then drove the Trooper back to Brunswick.

Four days after arriving in Brunswick, we took a road trip via a rental car to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary on August 31 in Savannah, Georgia. What an incredible city! Rich with history, amazing architecture, and tasty southern cuisine – we sampled it all. We stayed in the oldest hotel in the city, The Marshall House , which has been a hotel since 1851. Fortunately, they have updated it with modern day conveniences, but it still maintains its 19th century charm – squeaky wood floors, fireplaces in every room, ghosts, etc. We toured the historical district and learned interesting facts and lore from our trolley tour guide about the beautiful homes and squares around which the city was designed. We then explored the riverfront and downtown shopping district on our own, over-eating at “The Lady and Sons” restaurant which showcases typical southern cuisine from chef Paula Deen of the Food Network. From Savannah we took a short side trip to neighboring Tybee Island and a tour of Fort Pulaski for our requisite military history lesson of the area.

Whew! We’re out of the path of Katrina! Thanks for the phone calls and e-mails encouraging us to get our website updated on our whereabouts!

After spending two full weeks in Ft. Lauderdale, we left on Tuesday, August 16th. While there we enjoyed the sites – taking advantage of “Free Summer Admission” at the Art Museum, scouting out all the Happy Hour half price appetizer deals, and discovering Max’s Grill on the riverfront in downtown where everything on the menu is $6.99! The menu included filet mignon (which was delicious all 4 times we ordered it), and fresh grilled seafood! We traveled around the area by Water Bus and city bus (very interesting depending on the time of day) and by the end of our stay we knew our way around pretty well. Chris and Susan and Park came for a weekend visit and we set a personal record on the number of marine stores we went to over a 24 hour period of time!

While in Lauderdale Rod replaced the Air Conditioning water pump and a refrigerator guy replaced a broken part on the fridge. We also got the fuel system problem fixed – it did turn out to be a simple problem with the fuel filter. So everything is in good working order now. In a previous update I referred to our genoa sail as Jenny, and I have to give credit to Sonya Kern for coming up with the clever name we now use to refer to our engine… Forest. “Run, Forest, Run!”, we called out frequently as we left the Port Everglades channel departing Ft. Lauderdale to head further north.

We arrived at Harbortown Marina in Cape Canaveral on Friday, August 19th. This is the marina where Chris and Susan keep their sailboat and we were looking forward to the planned day of fishing on their boat that Saturday. We didn’t catch much, but they did reel in a small barracuda! We kept it since our fish book indicated that the small ones were good to eat, but then a gentleman at the marina gave a different review. So rather than being our dinner it was to be fish bait.

After leaving Canaveral on Sunday, August 21st we continued north on the ICW. We anchored in a really cool area, aptly named Mosquito Lagoon. We then enjoyed one night in St. Augustine – we definitely want to go back there! It is the oldest continuously occupied city in the continental United States, so it has a rich history. The following night we spent in Old Town of Fenandina Beach, which as first glance looked, and smelled, very industrial. But it was an interesting place! Very similar history to St. Augustine and we enjoyed strolling it’s quaint historic streets.

We arrived here in Brunswick, Georgia last night (Thursday, August 25th). We felt the effects of the storm bands from Katrina yesterday afternoon as we sailed in very wet and windy conditions. We decided with the storms in the area that we would tie up at a safe marina, which is where we are now – the Brunswick Landing Marina. We think that we will be here at least a week, as the weather forecast is for continued storms for the next 5 days. The marina is right in the heart of their revitalized downtown historic district, so we look forward to doing some exploring here.

In the next day or so we’ll work on getting some pictures on the website, but right now my minutes are ticking down on this connection at the public library. Stay tuned…