2018: Doboy Island to Brunswick Landing GA

11/5/2018
Depart: Doboy Island, GA - Back River Anchorage 6:55
Arrive: Brunswick Landing Marina, GA 10:30
Distance: 31 nm

We enjoyed last night's anchorage. It was nice and quiet except for the heavy rainstorms that occurred during the night. Several times the pounding rain woke me. When the alarm rang at 5:45, I was not ready to get out of bed. Knowing we had a full day of activity planned, I dragged myself out and got going.

It took a full hour for daylight to appear. Shortly thereafter, we pulled up the anchor and departed.

Near Doboy Island / Back River Anchorage

One of the things I enjoy about boating in the south is watching the pelicans. Given their size, it never ceases to amaze me how they can glide so casually mere inches over the water with such grace.

Pelicans! 

For the relatively short distance we planned to travel today, we took the ICW route. With a bit of a headache, I left Clark on his own on the upper helm and hung out in the salon with a hot tea and novel. When I finally decided to join him, he said we were already approaching the bridge where he prepared to hale the marina. The only catch ... we traveled at 6.5 knots at the same RPM that gave us 11.4 the day before. It looked so close, but it took over 20 minutes to reach the bridge at that speed. Such is the case with tides and currents. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

Clark took a few pictures as we came into port. We passed the Peacemaker sailboat, which just happens to be for sale. On one of our other stays here, we toured this boat. Pictures can be found in a blog entry made last year.

Peacemaker - owned by 12 tribes

Peacemaker - for sale

As we passed the Mary Ross Waterfront Park next to the marina, I remembered our last visit here when they had a '50s day with dressed up participants and a car show. We found no activity today however.

No action at Mary Ross Waterfront Park today

After we docked and got settled, Clark made a reservation for Titusville in Florida as our next marina stay. We will either use a free dock or anchor until then. While he did that, I got my stuff together for a trip to the supermarket and made lunch. I needed a number of items, and given we traveled by bicycle, I wondered just how many of the things I wanted I could buy.

We thought rain might be possible today but saw no indication of an immediate storm as we set off on our bikes. The WinnDixie is just under 2 miles away. We have been there before but never by the back street the dock hand recommended to us. I did not recognize the place coming in from the back but remembered being there before once we came to the front of the shopping plaza.

I "cherry picked" items from my shopping list based on what the store sold and what I needed versus wanted. With two backpacks and two bags attached to our bikes, I managed to get it all comfortably stowed for the bike ride back to the boat. Going back we took the more familiar route that we have traveled in the past.

When we passed through / by Mary Ross Waterfront Park on our way back to our boat, Clark wanted to detour slightly to take a peak at the Peacemaker sailboat. When we did, we found, docked near that sailboat, another boat that had a very interesting haling port - one we thought our son and his wife might find amusing (Jeff? Devon?). Clark asked one of the crew what waterway connected the haling port with Brunswick, Georgia. The crewman did not know.

How did this boat get here from Park City, UT??

Ev on bicycle loaded down with groceries, passing through
Mary Ross Waterfront Park on way back to boat

What a busy day we had today! After unloading the groceries as quickly as possible, I grabbed up my laundry and dragged it 5 docks down from where our boat sat to knock that item off my list. I had told Clark I would need his help toting it all down there because I had so much of it. Wouldn't you know he found a good excuse to bow out?!

As we rode our bicycles through the marina on our way to the grocery store, Clark saw a diver in the marina parking lot. He stopped to inquire about the fee for him to dive under our boat and look to see what damage we may have done when we ran aground a few days back. Initially, the diver said he could not fit us in today. Then, later when he saw us coming back from our shopping trip, he said that he could dive under for us after all.

While I was happy to have the boat inspected, I was unhappy to find that I would not have any assistance lugging my clothes to the laundry room. Knowing it might take a long time before Clark would be freed up, I decided to deal with it by myself.

I felt like a bag lady and / or a pack mule dragging everything I needed to the laundry room. Besides a pull cart full of laundry, I had another bag full. In addition to that I had bag containing the laundry detergent, etc. I like to multitask and generally take a shower while the washer / dryers are working, so of course, I had yet another bag with my shower supplies.

Because I planned on being there a couple of hours, I also brought my purse and my kindle. With the heavy, humid air, I looked bedraggled by the time I climbed the stairs and entered the building. Little did I know when I got there that I would be there for almost 3 hours trying to get my laundry done.

The washers and dryers at this marina are free. I guess that is a good thing. They look great, but unfortunately, not all of them function as well as they should. Folks that stay here for longer than one night know which machines to avoid. I had no such advantage.  I picked two washers at random. Sadly, one had the unexpected feature of taking 50 minutes to run its wash cycle. The other washer took the normal 25 minutes.

When it came time to dry, I once again picked poorly. The one I chose indicated a dry would take 45 minutes, but it must have had some moisture sensor as well as a timer. The timer worked its way down to 10 minutes and then reset itself back to 15 multiple times. After an hour or more, when I checked the clothes inside, I found them warm yet damp. A person doing her laundry, suggested I move the clothes to another dryer. I did and they finally dried.

While I wrestled with the laundry, a fellow boater walked into the facility. She took one look at me and said, "I know you." From boating I have met a lot of boaters. She looked familiar but I could not place her. Instead of helping me out with a boat name, she said, "We met in Brewerton".  That didn't do it for me. "This summer", she said, "on the Erie Canal. You were there, right?" Yes, yes, and yes, but I still had no clue.

Finally she told me the boat name, and I immediately remembered meeting her and the fact that we hoped to see each other as we explored the Thousand Islands. Our paths never crossed again up there. Funny that we would come across each other doing laundry a 1000 or so miles later. Her name - Ellen. The boat name - Vagabundos. She is from California.

When Clark and I arrived at the marina this morning, the dock hand merrily announced that we chose the right night to stay here as Monday night is Happy Hour Night from 5:00 to 7:00 with free wine and beer. By the time I finished with the laundry, however, half of happy hour was over. After the walk back to the boat to drop off the laundry, 3/4 of happy hour was over. We decided to pass on participating and walk into town to grab a pizza instead.

Sunset at Brunswick Landing Marina, GA

By the time I got the clothes stowed and was ready to walk to the restaurant, the sun had already set, and we had a dark walk into town. As we prepared to leave, the folks on the neighboring sailboat recommended we order a small salad and a medium pizza to share. Even that turned out to be more food than we could eat, and we brought some pizza back for another day.

Clark says we are heading back out onto the ocean tomorrow to head for the free dock in Jacksonville, Florida. This is the fastest we have ever made the trip down the coast to Florida. Traveling by ocean certainly strips days off the travel time. With over 60 NM to go tomorrow and limited daylight, it will be another up-before-light and long day on the water for us. Guess I better get to bed!

BTW: The diver said that other than cosmetic damage to one stabilizer, the bottom and props looked good, i.e. no serious issues from our grounding mishap on the ICW!