September 16-30 to Brunswick Landing

We were up at 6AM.  It's not real bright at this time.  Dark might be a better description.

Mary took Bubbie for her morning walk and I cut over all the boat systems so we could leave Thunderbolt.  And we did, following out the Fleming 55.  At 6:20.

Alas, Hal didn't make it in time.  This was a donutless departure.

Our Nav computer, an old HP running XP blue screened just as we left the dock.  Subsequent reboots were causing the mouse to go bonkers, but the fourth one seemed to work and everything remained stable.  Meanwhile we were slowly crawling up the channel in the dark using a tablet to navigate.

Passing by Isle of Hope Marina on the Skidaway River

Once the navigation computer was back on line we boogied on down the Wilmington River and then, with a turn to Starboard, the Skidaway River.  A surprisingly strong ebbing tidal current was giving us a nice speed boost.

Sometime later we approached Hells Gate and buzzed right through with 10 feet of water.  Our ETA to Walburg Creek, as calculated by the navigation software,  was now 11:30.  The stronger than expected tidal flow pushed us at well over 1.5 miles per hour faster than I had figured

So we debated about just going another 30 miles to Duplin River which would have been our second nights stop anyway.  This idea would get us into Brunswick a day earlier.

It took moments and the question was settled.  We were going to Duplin.

The Duplin River flows into Doboy Sound.  The entrance to the river has a nice ferry dock on Sapelo Island where we can take easily the dog.  The island borders Sapelo Sound to the north.

With our speed boost we should be arriving  before 4PM giving us plenty of daylight.  The river is plenty wide and can accommodate many boats.  However it does have some strong tidal currents which will cause us to swing 180 degrees when the tide changes.

But ….

As we began making the turn into the Duplin River a Georgia State Marine Patrol boat hailed us on the radio and wanted to board us.  I kept replying back but they couldn’t hear me for some reason so I just went on on the side deck and talked to them. 

They pulled along side and requested we provide ID,  a drivers license.  And then asked if we had any firearms.

After we said no, the boat pulled up close and the two coasties hopped on board.

I had to drive the boat and while I was occupied doing that, Mary handled the official stuff with aplomb just like before.   She did present the Coast Guard Form given to us when we were boarded at Ft. Pierce 3 months ago.  They took it and basically repeated the same check as they did in Ft. Pierce.  Meanwhile I was making a wide circle in Doboy Sound to try and keep close to the Duplin River entrance.

Great guys.  Cheerful, professional.   And cute, so say some.

Anchored in Duplin River looking out towards Doboy Sound and the ferry dock

After they left we went about a mile up the river guessing it would be calmer there in these 15 knot North winds.  Maybe, but in any case the anchor stuck fast and we enjoyed cocktails in a bug free sundeck because the wind was keeping the little critters away from us.  I had my electric zapper just in case.

Almost sunset overlooking Doboy Sound

We took the dinghy down after feeding the dog.  She needs to, ah, percolate a bit before we take her ashore.  The ferry dock where we can tie up is about ¾ of a mile down river.  In our dinghy, its about a 10 minute trip.  I had forgotten how fast the current rips through here.  It made docking the dinghy a less than smooth experience but no harm done.

In search of "the" spot up the road 

Mary and the dog walked up the road leading to the buildings of the university research station here.  Mission completed in 15 minutes and we were back aboard with the dinghy secured within an hour.

As the sunset I was still waiting to see if the rising tide will bring clearer water in here so I can run the water maker.  Probably going to have to guess at this.  But I have new filters installed so if its crappy water they should take care of it for the most part.  

We have to be at Little Mud River (about 7 miles away) tomorrow around 9:30AM.  High tide is basically a necessity for traversing this little stretch of the ICW.

Ferry dock and the ferry well before it's 7AM departure

We ran the water maker tonight but after an hour or so it began making horrible noise so I had to shut it down.  I’m thinking it was clogged filters because the water here was pretty laden with stuff and I'd venture to guess the tide didn't flush it out.  Oh well.  We’ll be in Brunswick tomorrow and for all of this month and October so I have time to fix it.

Even so, we were able to get the water tanks close to full.

Not being morning people, we staggered around at 7AM but had the dinghy loaded and running by 7:15 and tied up at the ferry dock 10 minutes after that. 

Mary and Bubbie wandered off looking for a suitable spot while I talked with this guy on the dock who was a ferry boat captain here for 30 some years.  Interesting guy.  His wife still works for the university research station on the island.  He said the ferry leaves every week day at 7AM to take the resident kids to school in  Crescent, about 7 miles away. 

Us anchored in the distance taken from the ferry dock

There a several families that live here.   Blackbeard island lies along the north eastern edge of Sapelo Island and really isn’t an island but more of a spit of land.  The island designation must have been from years ago when Blackbeard Creek was more than a creek.  At least that's what I was told.

Mary and Bubbie soon returned and we zipped back to the boat.  I started the engines and we hauled the dinghy aboard and went out the river into Doboy Sound and then re-joined the ICW. 

Our target of making Little Mud River by 9:30 to take advantage of the tide was a little off.  The flood tide was pushing us along at 9mph so we went through there 30 minutes before high tide which worked out just fine but left me wondering where my math skills went.

After that excitement it was a slow cruise down the ICW in the typical 90 degree heat although the sun wasn’t out all the time so it wasn't over a 100 on the fly bridge this time.

We cruised by St. Simons Island and came into Brunswick, went under the big bridge and made the turn into the East River to the marina.

I called them on the radio and Chris, the dockmaster today, put us on dock 15 which is the last main dock up the river.  It's where I wanted to be.   Very protected up there and near a bathroom too.  We're going into slip 4.

Making our way to dock 15 way off in the distance on the right

Rhonda was there with Chris and a few other people we remembered but couldn't name.  With all those people we had a hassle free docking experience.  I put the bow in first because we shared the space with a small sailboat and there was enough wind and current to make backing in an ify proposition.  We could have done it I'm sure, but in a few days we'll be going out again to test the water maker so no need to try it now.

We of course had to chit chat about the latest news, most specifically Sherry, the previous dockmaster who was let go.  Sherry was iconic.  Her presence pretty much set the tone here so we'll see if anything has changed.

It took us a bit of time to hook everything up and walk down to see Chris.  She had all our paperwork completed but I had forgotten about the 4% fee for credit card transactions so we agreed I'd return in a day or so and write them a check.

They also seem to have added an environmental fee which is nothing state mandated or even state suggested.  Not much information as to what this is intended for, exactly.

I’ve taken to running the engine room blowers for an hour or so after we arrive somewhere and it seems to greatly reduce the engine room temperatures especially during these sweltering days with the burning sun and temps up in the 90’s.  In this case it did its job. 

We met Matt and Karen on a Lagoon 43 built in France and sailed over by here by them.  They are on the end of the dock, two slips away from us.  They're and are Aussies and immediately gave me the impression of being fun.

We also noticed Tim and Anne on Ivanhoe who we met last year.  Chris mentioned to me there is a boat next to them with a lady who seems to have dementia.  I'm pretty sure I ran into her as we were walking back to the boat from the marina office.  She was trying to get into the mens room so I pointed her to the ladies room and the let her in.

Brent and Susan meeting the dog for the first time

Pizza at Foxes

Went out to eat at Fox's Pizza with Brent and Susan.  Brent and Susan now operate a rooming house, from the house they bought last year.  They refurbished it but realizing they would have plenty of room, decided to make it into a rooming house.  They furnished it and then did a few things to make it livable including A/C, free wireless etc.  So now it's the premiere rooming house in Brunswick.

Fox pizza as good as always.

Tomorrow is Sunday and Packer game day so Mary is getting all primed.  Did I mention Brent is from Minnesota?

Oddly I had to reset the port battery charger tonight.  According to the display, it wasn’t charging for some reason.  I see phone calls in my future Monday.

It was hot today so we stayed in the boat a good portion of it.  I was cleaning up email and log files and Mary was reading and researching door screens and dog food.

I eventually took a computer break and cleaned out the watermaker filters and sea strainer hoping the watermaker problem was due to clogged filters.   It doesn't seem plausible we would have had  a sudden pump failure.

Got our cadillac of bikes down and after greasing it up and inflating the tires, rode to the Winn Dixie and made a stop at West Marine where I talked briefly with a guy I met last time we were here.  Forgot his name.  But he forgot mine too.

Winn Dixie is the same but awful pricey.  Cant wait to get to Walmart!

Packer game is tonight so Mary started the laundry early (the machines are free here) and I took it all back to the boat when game started.  She stayed in the lounge with other football devotees and the small cadre of Packer fans all resplendent in their green and gold.

Looks like some rain for the next few days.

They lost yesterday.  The Packers that is.

We stayed aboard, Mary reading and I cleaning up emails and beginning the long ordeal of ordering spare parts I have to install while we are here until November.  Speaking of November we, and Once Upon a Time (Brent and Susan's boat) are planning to depart here on the same day for the same destination, Huckins boat yard.  They are having a bottom job.  So are we but also some additional work.  We’ll have that completed while we are in WI for medical stuff so we can returned to a fixed and shiny clean boat.

I rode to Winn Dixie again.  The roads on my usual route(s) are all torn up.  They are covered with a thick layer of sand and if you’ve ever ridded a thin wheeled bike through sand you may appreciate the difficulty.  Not fun and there is no other easy access to the store.  Even my coveted short cut is all torn up.  Ugh …

First cocktail party (on the left, Mary talking to Bruce)

First cocktail party since we arrived.  Old friends were there and the wonderful camaraderie still strong as before.  We get to experience this for a month a half!  

Yesterday we didn’t do much at all

Today though, I received answers from the battery charger company and the stove company.  Basically the new battery charger is toast and the stove has to wait on a tech guy returning from vacation next week.

No word yet from the water maker people.

We walked up and paid for the slip today.  Ralph and Chris are the dockmasters.  Cindy is the same person handling the office.  Sherry, the previous dockmaster, now works managing a gas station. She will be missed.

The owner of the marina here, is not quite "right".  Little things like the environmental fee and general attitude send red flags up.  Well to me anyway.  They certainly displayed their naivety by not fixing the Sherry situation since she was a prime reason many of us came here.

Bob, had a 88th birthday party.  He’s an old electronics guy from the 50’s … think vacuum tubes and such.  He married a younger women 28 years ago and bought a Westsail 32 hull.  And completed the rest of the boat himself.

They then sailed off to Europe and spent 16 year over there cruising as far north as Norway and into the Mediterranean spending time in Africa, Israel, Greece, Italy Turkey and all the other spots over there.  He's got some stories!  And for 88 he’s in superb shape.  She's about 15 years younger.

Under intense pressure from certain crew mates I agreed to hook up the cable so we can have 38 cable channels!  We still have over the air TV and the Satellite too.  

Today I was aboard most of the time dealing with the battery charger problem, watermaker problem and the oven issue.  Many email exchanges and several phone calls later the battery charger has been declared malfunctioning and will be replaced with a new unit.

The oven was finally declared dysfunctional because of a design flaw.  The engineer I was talking with, sent me a long, very detailed email with directions on the only solution they know of short of replacing the whole unit.  As it turns out the company, Seward, went out of business shortly after we bought the stove.  And in an interesting twist of fate he said ours was the last production run before they closed their doors.  Are we lucky or what.

The fix involves drilling a ¾ inch hole in the face plate of the stove near the oven control valve.   This hole would ideally line up with the low flame bleed screw which I need to turn slightly to increase the oven flame so it can stay lit when the thermostat decreases the flame on the main burner.    Getting the hole drilled in the correct spot is all luck and guess work.

This screw controls the size of the flame when the main burner is shut off, or more precisely, turned down very low.  The low main burner flame acts like an OPL (Operating Pilot Light) so the main burner can fully re-light when the temp falls below a set value.   Most ovens employ a pilot light for such purposes.  But not ours!

The water maker remains in limbo since they haven’t responded to any of my emails.  It could be any number of things from malfunctioning generator voltage regulator, faulty pressure control valve, failed pump seals, failing motor windings …. and the list goes on.  But I still think its a clogged filter problem.

Mary decided we needed to have our curtains cleaned so we took all those down today and she and Susan ran the over to the dry cleaners.  She also went carpet hunting and brought back samples.

More gauges, meters and brightly colored displays

I finished installing the remote battery charger displays and the engine temp sensor, another easy job that morphed into a four hour affair.

And I hooked up the cable so now Mary has a plethora of entertainment options.  Regular over the air digital TV, Cable TV, Satellite TV and WiFi sourced stuff like NetFlix.  It’s lucky I purchased a new TV a few years ago.

Bubbie continues to acclimate.  The normal cocktail parties schedule is a three days a week but we are slowing down and only managing 2 a week.  Probably because we have to care for a dog?

Cuba is beginning to look less likely this year.  I’m reading some posts which don’t paint such a rosy picture. 

We went out to dinner with Brent and Susan, the The Copper Pig.  A fresh produce, seafood and meat store.  With a restaurant attached which was pretty good.  Pulled pork  Yumm.

Brent and I were going to play Euchre with Bruce and Ronda among others but at the restaurant they had live alligators which you could feed from a pole that had a 10 foot string attached.  On the end was a horse devore fork to which you attached cut up hot dog pieces.  Then you dangle the hot dog by the gators.

Who could resist.

Mary and Brent feeding the gators

I hit one on the head a few times.  They would quickly waddle up on the shore and try and grab at it but need to turn their head sideway in order to grasp it.  Quite fun in a Wisconsin Dells sort of way.  The gators were only 3-4 feet long at the large end.

We missed the card game tonight but there are always Euchre games going on.

Otherwise we didn’t go out in the boat but stayed in pretty much most of the day debating carpet choices.  Brent and Susan picked out a reddish hue carpet while Mary was set on the ever popular tan … ugh.  I was pushing for one with a flecks of red and gray.

Carpet samples

We are going to have to lay this ourselves and its rather easy.  Just contact cement and a few staples.  Having said that, I'm figuring it'll be a two day process.

We overslept until 10 this morning.

Brent and Susan wanted to go to St. Simons Island and the beach.  And we were going to leave early.  Well, that didn't happen so the modified the schedule required us to meet them at their car at 12:30.

Beach at St. Simons

Beach is wonderful.  It was windy though, windy enough to blow over our heavy poled umbrella with the separate heavy duty screw anchor right on top of Brent.  Meanwhile, their beach umbrella, with it's skinny little pole, stayed upright!

We walked the beach and came upon a little boy trying to catch a scurrying crab.  His mother asked for our help because he wasn’t having much success and was in tears.  So we did, chasing a smirking little crab in and out of the heavy surf for a few minutes.  We never did catch him but the kids seemed to have it corned so we left them on their own.

We eventually returned to our beach spot which was being threatened by the rising tide.  Mary commanded everyone to pack up and leave for lunch.  So, of course, we did.

We drove back into the little town's main street and the first place we tried was closed so we ended up  a few blocks away at the Mescaline Mushroom.    A neat place with TV’s and outdoor seating under a huge moss covered oak tree.

At the Mellow Mushroom

NO, no.  It's the Mellow Mushroom, not the Mescaline Mushroom!

Really good mushroom soup but the pretzels I ordered was a surprise.  Instead of good old salt and mustard it was drenched in honey and cinnamon.

Mary and I had sangrias.  Her's red, mine white. Quite tasty.

Then we walked to the village pier and saw the damaged dock where, so said a couple we met, a shrimp boat tied up to the dock to sell shrimp, apparently illegally.  A coast guard boat came in and the shrimp boat tied to leave but forgot they had one of their outriggers deployed across the dock and it tore up the railings pretty good.

Susan talking to the crafts expert

After that Mary and Susan met a women who was collecting shells (with their respective creature inhabitants intact) from the fisherman on the pier using casting nets for catching bait fish.  She evidently makes crafty things from them too.  There was a long discussion on craft technicalities. 

We drove back to the marina where we parted ways, they to their boat to relax, us to tackle taking up the carpet stairs. 

Well, that was my job.  Its was laid down with contact cement and the backing of the carpet was turning to powder so I hauled out the shop vac we havn’t used in 4 years and pulled the carpet off and sucked up the crumbled dusty residue.  And then scrapped what I could of the residue still left on the treads.  Lots of fun.

Old carpet removed.  Tape covers old stair light holes removed years ago

Tomorrow we take the carpet samples back with the old carpet so they can cut the new stuff to size.

Should be easy except we haven’t decided on a color yet.  Susan still thinks the reddish hue is great. Mary is for now eyeing a camel color and I’m holding out for a multi-colored gray.  Only time will tell.

Arnold Palmer died today too.  But the Packers won  

Debates are tonight.  Well, my characterisation  would be more  Reality TV show complete with insults and scowling gestures amidst finger pointed accusations.   There's enough bellowing noise in the world without this so I'm seeking quieter environment.

Susan kindly took us to Publix and then the carpet store A1-carpets today.  They still have their mini van thank goodness.

Nice people at A1 Carpets.   We picked out a color and a style (marine backing) and they will cut it for us.  Mary and I will install it with contact cement which is what Tony recommended.  We even have some left aboard.  

Tony who runs the place has a son who was attacked by a pit bull and severely disfigured.   The poor kid has had 30 surgeries so far and is looking pretty good.  Toni does garage sales to supplement the funds he needs to continue his sons surgeries.   Great man Tony.

We hung around the boat for awhile when we returned and then I took the re-cycling to the re-cycling dumpster here.  It’s ½ mile so they don’t make it easy.

On the way I stopped to chat with Rhonda a Bruce on dock 8 and they asked me to pick up a package for them at the dock office.  So at the marina office I started looking for my package which was mislabeled as George Carter, and found one for Brent and Susan.  Ralph, the dockmaster started chuckling when I asked if he saw a package for Bruce and Rhonda.  Turns out it was the 100 lbs. box in the middle of the floor.  I discovered that just as Rhonda walked in laughing.  Jokesters are pervasive here.

We went to cocktails tonight and I started up a conversation with Bob.  Not birthday Bob from a few days ago, but new single-handler Bob.   It turns out is a nuclear physicist and is semi retired.  I thought he was pulling my leg but he knew exactly who Sean Carroll was, and Richard Feynman.  And we both got a laugh when I mentioned Sean Carroll's, What-Particle-Are-You diagram.  So I guess he’s not pulling my leg.  Not that I’m a little sensitive about that now … Bruce?

The reality show … er I mean debates if you can call them that, are annoying.   If Canada were warmer …

Nothing much doing today.  Mary made a plane reservation, I consolidated my blog notes and we took Bubbie for a walk.  Brent went to the hospital for tests, and we drank a bottle of wine.  What a concise, compact description for a days worth of activities.

We hung around on the boat for awhile this morning and then I helped Brent inspect a tent he had to repair.  Mary went off with Terry to the fabric store and Susan was getting ready to do some home care work on Jekyll Island.

When Mary returned we all drove off to Jekyll.  It costs $6 to get on the island which is evidently all state owned and leased out to people who wish to build homes and become island residents.

We dropped Susan off at a condo where she was expected, and then we remaining three drove out to Driftwood Beach.

Mary by one of the uprooted trees

Driftwood beach

The beach is distinctive.  Very large, uprooted trees render the beach an almost surreal appearance.  Very cool place.

After an hour or so we then drove back looking for a bar and found Tortuga Jacks, a mexican style restaurant over looking the beach.  Pretty tasty!  And good drinks.

We left and drove back to fetch Susan who was walking along the main road and trying to direct us to where she was while we were slowly driving around in the condo parking lots looking for her.

We did take a little driving tour of the Jekyll Island Club grounds on the way back.  Impressive!  Large, old style homes surround the hotel.  If I recall correctly some of the homes can be rented too.

Then back to the boat.  Productive boat-chore-day it was not.

Even though the forecast was calling for rain, there is rain again today.  But clouds for a little while.

I rode to the UPS store, a 10 mile round trip.  I mailed the LCD screen head from our main depth sounder, to a marine electronics in Pompano Beach, FL.

Whitish streaks is the crinkled screen

They can replace the screen which has an increasingly large sun wrinkle on the sun which obscures the screen scrolling and data.  Since we will be here for several weeks I thought it would be an ideal time to get this repaired.

Later when I got back, I helped Brent, and a helper of his, George, take down a scaffolding 4 sections high and move it, and then put three sections back up.  But before that we watched the Glynn Acadamy high school homecoming parade.

The parade seemed to lack the spattering of smiling politicians but did include an over abundance of shiny cars.  Only a few floats though.  And oddly enough, no one was tossing out candy?  Maybe that's just a Wisconsin thing.

George and I were on the scaffolding and took it apart.  Then we reassemble three sections aboout 20 feet further on to afford easier access when they paint the soffits on the roof

When we returned to the marina I finally placed a phone call to  Daniel from Aqua Marine about the water maker pump and right away he said it was a water starvation problem.  Clogged filters or a bad raw water pump!  Yeah!I was right!

 High pressure pumps cost a few thousand dollars. A raw water pump is  a  $100.  Most likely suspect is the 5 micron spun filter cartridge which I'm not going to use any longer.  Pleated or string wound is the way to go.

I called Jeff and he’s doing very well up there in Canada.  We may actually get to cruise with him again on our way to New York since he is planning on moving his boat from Titusville up to Ontario this summer.

Also called Daff but he was tied up with a party so we’ll talk tomorrow.

We did laundry today.  Exciting day!

We borrowed Brent and Susan’s mini van today and went to the dry cleaners who didn’t quite have the curtains ready.  So we went back to A1 carpets where Tony explained that the color we had first agreed upon wasn’t available anywhere.

Good old A1 Carpets on on Highway 17

So he found a roll of something close but it didn’t have a marine backing but his suggestion was it would be fine anyway since the carpet would be indoors.  He also suggested we let it sit in the sun for a few hours before laying it.   Makes it more pliable.

Then it was to MacDonalds for breakfast (it was early, before 11 after all) and then to the dry cleaners who had the curtains all spiffy and clean.  Mary says they weren’t wrinkled either.  I never knew they were.

Back at the boat I cleaned the windows and trim off while Mary threaded the sharp hanger things.  And then we started to hang them only to discover we needed some extra doodad hangers, these little plastic things that run in a metal track.  We had several dozen.  But where?

Clean, and wrinkle free curtains.  Can you tell the difference?

It took me 30 minutes to find them in an old Band Aid box.  Once we added the extra hangers we hung them all and we’re done.  Only have the sliding door of the salon to get next week (they were repairing the backing).

I walked over to the marina office to fetch my generator fuel pump and the replacement battery charger.  Stopped on the way back to kibitz with Bruce and Rhonda who like to hangout on the dock gazebo where they have a nice comfy hammock. 

Back on board I got the battery charger installed and working so we’re good to go.

Next was the Friday night cocktail party and then dinner on board with a few episodes of Frasier before a short walk and bed.

A new month tomorrow!  And some simmering tropical weather again.