Brunswick, Georgia--May 3

Finally, it was time to leave the Bahamas and head back to the states before the hurricane season hit. A good friend, Steve Olson, was able to take some time off and join us for the crossing, a two-and-a-half day trip from Marsh Harbor to Brunswick, Georgia. Steve could not wait to get out on the open water with no land in sight. His help sharing the two-hour watches for the entire trip made the crossing much easier for Mike and me. Fortunately, the crossing was uneventful. Calm conditions though great, with a lack of wind we had to motor most of the way. We were entertained along the way by several pods of dolphin, appearing every once in awhile to cavort around the boat. On our last evening Steve caught a 50-inch dorado, a real treat. We arrived outside Jekyll Island, Georgia, on Wednesday evening and decided to anchor there as it was getting late. The air was murky with the acrid smell of smoke from the Georgia fires, and for the first time since we started the crossing, the seas were a little rough. By morning, all had calmed down again.

We went another couple of miles into the Brunswick Landing Marina, recommended to us by some fellow Coloradans (Bryan and Sharlene from Castle Rock) on a catamaran, Tonga Time, whom we’d met in George Town, briefly. We loved the town of Brunswick.. Its historic downtown, a half-mile walk from the marina, has been renovated and boasts a few very good restaurants and shops. Of course, West Marine and the grocery store, where we really needed supplies, were a two-mile walk from the marina. Steve left us Saturday morning to return to Denver. We wish he could have stayed a little longer, but as it turned out, a tropical depression, Andrea, was making its way outside of Brunswick, so on the advice of the weather gurus, we stayed put till it passed. That meant we didn’t get on our way to Savannah until Friday, May 9.