Jannuary 29

January 29, 2015

In Darien there is practically no industry except the shrimp boats. However it was once a thriving town, rebuilding the Spanish, French and English ships that were battling off the coast of Georgia for 200 years for the right to own or occupy the state. Darien did not play favourites... they fixed them all with the oak trees that grew around the area. But during the Civil War the Yankees burned the town to the ground including all except one of the warehouse, (pics in yesterday’s post]

Point being, the town is very interested in tourists both by land and sea. The town is situated on I-95 and very accessible. There are beautiful restaurants and shops and really nice hotels.

Yesterday around 2 pm the dock master came down to see if there was anything he could do for us. He said he would come by in the morning and drive Rick to get fuel. Good as his word, he was there at 8:49 am.

Around 4:30 pm Gail got a call from the Wine Bar/Gourmet shop to come up for the free 5 o’clock glass of wine and bring the new boaters from Canada. [other pic from yesterday] It was a great place. True to his word we all got a free glass of wine and Mark ordered a cheese tray which was delicious.

Then we went for dinner at the Skipper’s Fish Shack. Rick had mahi-mahi with collard greens [spinach type veggie] and sweet potato soufflé, which he ate last because it was like dessert! It had pralines and cinnamon in it, mmmmm. I had a half pound of peel-and-eat garlic and buttered shrimp and salad. That was awesome.  Unfortunately we had an extra coffee and that proved to be a mistake. Just as we finished the waitress at the table behind us dropped a bowl of freshly cooked collard greens on the table in front of this poor woman. It splashed all over her, her husband and between them all over my back! Guess where the colour lime green comes from ?!?! It took Whisk, some other cleaner and some Clorox super stain removed that Gail had to get the spots out of my pale blue shirt!! It came out of my hair pretty easily.

When Rick left to get the fuel, Mark came over to see if he had gone and as we were talking, this HUGE island of loose swamp grass came coursing down the river with the outgoing tide. We both jumped onto the boat and grabbed boat hooks to try to fend it off. It was so strong it lifted the dinghy up onto its side and nearly turned it over. Luckily it missed C-Soul and got hung up down river passed the shrimp boats. I was expecting to see it come back up when the tide turned.

We got away from the dock around 12:30 after Rick and Mark went for gas and shrimp ($8.00 /lb and they are huge!).

Coming through one of the narrow channels I thought I hit something although I was on 10 feet of water. when I looked back all I could see were DOLPHINS!  They were bouncing off the side of the boat! Tw

Shrimp boats in the morning

River otters or sea otters?

Guess what they're doing

Old shack on the marsh --how did it get there?

And how did they get here? no access and deep water!

C-Soul ahead again

Sunset on Buttermilk Sound

ice!

As we were coming around one the marsh islands we saw cows and goats! Not many and they looked very ...wild! Like someone dropped them off there. The chart shows very little solid land around that marsh so I don’t know how they got there unless they swam across. And where do they get fresh water? There were only about 10 of them, all different colours and a couple of what looked to be Brahma bulls but they were mottled grey.

 We are now anchored in a place called Buttermilk Sound. The scenery is spectacular and the camera does not do it justice...grassland marshes as far as the eye can see with very little solid land. It looks like African plains except for the water surrounding everything. Rick is doing a maintenance oil change. His back is still really sore and we are doing whatever we can to fix it...pills, massage, A535...

 We made about 20 miles, which as a good run against the tide and can just see Brunswick, Georgia [Jekyll Island] right in the sunset.  We expect to be passing it tomorrow. We will head to Fernandina Beach tomorrow and anchor somewhere there. That puts us in Florida! YAY!! Ttyl!