Historic Brunswick

Brunswick and the Brunswick Landing Marina are great! We remember both fondly from our last visit and haven't been disappointed this time. After refueling we tied up the boat at dock 9 next to Beth & Art on "Adagio". We got to know them over the next few days and had a

lovely Sunday evening with them on our boat before they left to return to Maine. The very attractive cruiser's lounge shown here is unique in our experience. There are two TVs with Direct TV cable, comfortable seating, book exchange and a FREE laundromat (four washers and dryers)!!! Although the transient rate is expensive, the monthly rate of $11 a foot makes this a really top place to spend some time.

In addition each dock (there are at least 12) has it's own covered deck with a big gas BBQ and benches. We've met a number of cruising couples who make this almost their home port. This big facility is booked for the summer hurricane season. Georgia in general has a really good safety

record and you are way up the river and off on a narrow tributary here. This has floating docks and tall cement piers. If we hadn't promised our family to be up nearer them in the Chesapeake we would have probably left the boat here.
Each morning we took a long walk around the area admiring the parks, beautiful homes and stately trees.

I love the marshes too although it is very hard to take a picture of them that shows their beauty (see how dull the photo is above).
The marina is located along a small river which borders this county seat town. Shrimp boats tie up along the riverfront park and then the marina stretches almost a mile.

The town center is just blocks away. It is studded with parks and broad avenues with center islands lined with more trees. The downtown has a lot of lovely brick commercial blocks, a theater, restaurants, antique stores, a big library and the public buildings common to a County seat. Scott met the charming robot in the theater. We're not sure where he was headed.


A Waterfront park has a covered farmer's market building (see below with striped awning), an old Victorian center and most fascinating (see the shot with Scott) a giant zylophone type instrument made from industrial pipes (picture way below). Lovely Colonial and Victorian homes line several long verdant streets. I couldn't help taking lots of pictures, a few samples shown here.













Brunswick was a very important part of ship construction during World War II. As the memorial says below 16,000 men and women labored here to build steel ships, 99 of them. They earned the name "Liberty Ships" and a model of them is displayed in the waterfront park.
They have their problems of course like any downtown main street area nowadays. There are too many empty storefronts and the now small prison close to the waterfront is supposed to get a huge renovation expansion. The townspeople are really fighting back. There are "Move the Prison" signs all over town.
We ate breakfast out twice, both excellent - there are at least 5 choices available downtown! One night we had dinner with Elena & Rick on "Moving On" and Lynette & Tom on "Por Fin" (see photo with us) at Fox's Pizza Restaurant. This retro gleaming attractive place with indoor and outdoor seating is very popular and no wonder. Our food was excellent and there is a good choice of draft beers. Good fact to know, happy hour is 4 - 5 PM. By an amazing coincidence Rick & Elena were with us on their old boat "Adagio" (second coincidence our neighbor here's boat name; not the same boat) on our last trip here five years ago. They've since bought a catamaran.
This morning we stopped after our walk at the shrimp boats and met Captain Diane. She sold us several pounds of shrimp right out of the hold. We hear that the shrimp is much better before it's had it's preservative bath. We'll let you know!
Another couple we've enjoyed here is Mary Jane & Art on "Break Away". They left this morning to make the trip north going inside the Intercoastal and if we hadn't gotten the good forecast from Chris, we'd be going with them. Instead we're leaving tomorrow morning for the three day trip to Beaufort, North Carolina. More to come in future blog entries.