Day 56 - Thursday 31 January

We arrived at Brunswick Landing Marina in Georgia today. By 2PM we were secure at the dock with the able assistance of Sherry and Cindy of Brunswick Landing Marina and friends, Greg and Judy. We are across the dock from Greg's boat, My Destiny where we had dinner with them this evening and made tentative plans for our cruise to Florida and the Bahamas.

The day started out with a slight overcast and got cloudier through the morning with milder temperatures and a little wind...on the nose, of course. We also zigzagged through one of the longest stretches of "skinny" water we've encountered on the ICW. At low tide, we had a few depths of less than 4 feet and a lot of depths of 5 feet...but we made it through without incident thanks to the several ranges we found to guide us through and a careful and constant watch on the depth gauge. Lots of birds and marsh grass along the way and only one ignorant or extremely rude powerboater who decided he had to pass us on one of the confined and shallower stretches as we were following a range and trying to keep from grounding. The normal protocol when passing is to call the boat you are passing to let them know your intention to pass and throttle down as you pass the boat. In this case, due either to ignorance, rudeness or a broken radio, the first indication we had that we were being overtaken was the sound of the other boat's engine as he passed us without slowing down. The result of this is that in a confined channel, the boat being passed gets the full wake of the passing boat and it can be dangerous. Fortunately, we managed to keep our boat under control, off the ground and on course. We also resisted the urge to radio our feelings to the powerboater since it probably would have been useless information to him. Fortunately, such rude or ignorant behavior is the exception on the ICW and most boaters...sail or power...respect each other's right to be on the water enjoying themselves and behaving responsibly. Enough of that!

As we turned off the ICW and into the shipping channel at St. Simons Sound, we could see the St. Simons Light on the point of land to our port side. The lighthouse is "new" and replaced the old lighthouse. Like all lighthouses today, the light is unstaffed and like many, it is still working and providing a welcome service to the safety of mariners and boaters both commercial and recreational.

Coming into Brunswick we passed under the highest bridge we encountered on the ICW to date...the Sidney Lanier Highway Bridge which crosses over the shipping channel. The bridge is 180 feet high...almost three times as high as the standard 65 feet of the modern fixed bridges. After passing under the bridge, we turned into the river leading to the marina. We passed by the abandoned World War II shipyard ways and more shrimp boats than we have seen altogether on the ICW. There was also a blue-hulled three mast square rigged ship we haven't learned about yet. And finally, we arrived at our assigned marina slip.

By the end of the day, we were relaxed and having pleasant conversation with Greg and Judy and making tentative plans to depart as soon as we can, possibly by Monday next week.