About Time!

It's about time you heard news from us! Rather than try and fill in the last month and a half since Deshaies, Guadeloupe (our last posting), we'll bring you up to date first. We're BACK (in the USA)! Specifically right now in Brunswick, Georgia at the Brunswick Landing Marina.

Scott Free motored into the Brunswick River on Friday, May 21 at 10 AM after a two night passage from Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The weather was excellent and in many ways we would have liked to keep on trucking north, but we have had little wind since filling up with diesel in the Dominican Republic and even our Nauticat needs to be refueled occasionally.

Five years ago we sailed up this same river with our good friends Bill & Jeannette on "Myasotis" returning from the Bahamas. As then fishing boats welcomed us well out to sea and the St. Simon Island lighthouse also as we entered. Additional cheerleaders in the form of dolphins played around our bow further down the river. We could have done without the horse flies that attacked us for about 20 minutes but they haven't been a problem since.
The Brunswick Landing marina is a well protected friendly comfortable place to spend time. As we pulled up to the fuel dock everyone was in a flurry as a NCIS helicopter was landing at the end of the dock surrounded by police cars (see the picture above left).


They weren't there for us!Saturday we rented a car from Enterprise (our favorite as they pick you up) and drove up to Savannah for the evening. We've been in Savannah twice before, once tied up to the city waterfront for several days around Halloween. This time we jumped on the trolley tour around the city as occasional showers threatened, getting off to walk about at several places.

Weather reports from Chris Parker have been ominous as a extra tropical low is forming north of here and is expected to cause high winds (from 5 to 65 knots) and seas off the Carolinas Monday and Tuesday. So we've settled down for a few days. Movement north on the ICW is prohibited for us right now due to mid day low tides.

This is one of the prettiest cities we've been in. Scott especially often talks about buying a house here. Twenty three beautiful squares are surrounded by equally lovely homes. The huge live oaks with gracefully draped Spanish moss line every street or the center islands.

Flowering magnolias scent the air and horse drawn carriages carry lucky princesses around. Statues and fountains abound. One of our favorites is the "Waving Girl" on the river shown here. She waved in every boat for over 40 years, at first in the hope that one carried her sailor lover (see picture above with closeup shot on the left).

One our stops was the City Market where Paula Dean has her Lady and Sons restaurant (we ate there on a previous visit - excellent). The Meinhardt Vineyards (Southeast Georgia's first Winery www.meinhardtvineyards.com) have a shop there where one can taste their wines - five portions for $5.35. They were delicious and we bought two desert wines, one plum and the other a fine sparkling port.


Dinner at 45 Bistro was one of the highlights last time so we revisited them at their new location in the Marshall House, a historic downtown Inn. The striking lobby welcomed us. We wished we could afford to stay there! Our beautiful and delicious meals were complimented by excellent friendly service. That's my rack of lamb shown here.
It was hard to call it a night and drive back to the boat, but we are we are confirmed early to bed and early to rise people. Tomorrow we're off to visit Jekyll Island.