Boy, its Cold in Georgia!

Here we are still in Brunswick, Georgia on Saturday, January 4.  Our Guidebook quotes the poet Sidney Lanier who was captivated by the Marshes of Glynn near Brunswick:

Somehow my soul seems suddenly free,

From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin,

By the length and the breadth and the sweep of the Marshes of Glynn.

At this point, we are ready to be free. (you think he ever met the mosquitos which also love the Marshes?? Or the paper mill scent when the wind isn’t ‘just right’??)

The Marshes of Glynn, as they appear today.

Yesterday was the coldest day down here in years and this coming Tuesday is supposed to be colder.  We don’t have the 20 plus inches of snow that Boston has, but this is not what we were expecting.  Our plan to take it slow from here in order to see the nooks and crannies of Northern Florida has been nixed.  Tomorrow we head South.  Sprinting.  As long and as far as we can make it.  If we get South enough in three days, we will have a high of 47 instead of 27.  That is worth trying for.

It is colder here than it was in New York City for our Christmas with Alison and Katie in the big city.  We flew out of Brunswick to LaGuardia via Atlanta December 21 and back via JFK on December 29.  A two hour delay had us miss our ATL to BQK connection (a trip that only goes once each afternoon), so Delta put us up at the Marriott Atlanta Airport.  With dinner.  Very nice.  We arrived to the boat on Monday afternoon (that once a day flight, again) instead of Sunday night.  And we missed Sunday’s rain.  Nice.

The delay was caused by the fact that we flew out of JFK on an MD88 or some such plane.  Despite the fact that literally 20% of the passengers were Delta pilots and flight crews being moved around the country for the January 1 scheduling shake-up, there was no one aboard certified to co-pilot this particular plane.  We had to wait the two hours for a pilot to arrive on another plane and make his way over to our gate to fill in.  We had sandwiches from a great NYC deli with us (thank you Alison!) and the Delta gate at JFK was pretty swank.  Private booths with tables and each seat with a free-internet connected iPad.  In two hours, I learned that I can make money at Poker.  Las Vegas here we come!?

Though today was a possible departure date, between laundry and other chores, we chose to hold off.  Our friends and neighbors on “Painkiller” (Rochester, NH, via Tennessee), left at 0900 today.  They purchased their boat here (an old Pearson 424) and have lived aboard getting the boat ready to go for the past three months.  Their plan was to spend a few days moving and anchoring out before a scheduled haul out in Fernandina, Florida mid-week (for a month on the hard and more boat work).  At 0920 they turned around and came back.  It appears that the radiator cap on their engine doesn’t seal and they lost all their coolant.  A quick trip to the auto parts store and they are on their way again within the hour.  Just goes to show you,… it’s always something.

We will miss Ken and Vicky from Painkiller.  Ken is a master carpenter and I knew as soon as he came aboard and saw the abomination of a table leg we had in the cockpit, he would explode.  Explode he did.  While we were in New York City for the Holiday, Ken replaced our cockpit table leg with a true work of art.  It may not seem like much to some, but if you had seen our hinged and cobbled together precursor, you would be amazed.  

Ken Page's new leg.  

Nice to know a boat carpenter.

Check out Ken’s nifty new custom composting head at http://pagetwo88.blogspot.com and his land side handiwork at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-anMpxAAzg.  Thanks, Ken.  I sure we will catch up along the way or in the Islands.

Notes from the First Mate:  The dock has been a nice pause to clean, sleep late, do laundry and groceries (what great neighbors were Ken and Vicky…Vicky never left the dock without asking if I wanted to tag along…did a dedicated trip to take me for fresh groceries…they even drove us to, and retrieved us from the local airport…we laughed and shared and talked non-stop from first dropping our lines here until their Bon Voyage today.  Fair Winds Painkiller, Rochester NH!)  We celebrated last night with Painkiller, going to American Hustle and then out for an on-shore supper.  I opened Christmas cards from home today, have tried to clean up business mail and checking, enough to let us get back to the serious work of avoiding serious work!  Love to all….until another few miles of water are behind us!