We awoke our usual early-thirty, had our coffee, ate breakfast, pumped out our holding tank and did a load of laundry (Free laundry facilities at Brunswick Landing Marina were nice) before departing for a short trip to St Simons Island (Morning Star Marina). The trip today was only about 11 miles across the sound which is a good thing given that we ran on just one engine the majority of the time except for while docking. Today's trip went without incident....no engine fluid explosions.....no groundings....just smooth cruising. After about 74 minutes we arrived at Morning Star Marina and were shown to our transient slip which was on the outside wall of the marina at the far end of the gas dock.
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| Pic from the middle of the bridge riding from our marina over to St Simon downtown |
After checking in and acquainting ourselves with the marina facilities we got the bikes off of the boat and headed into the downtown St Simons area which was across a short bridge and a 2.8 mile ride. It was a very nice ride with VERY pedestrian and bike friendly paths (unlike Brunswick....by far the least ped friendly city we've visited!). The ride brought us by a couple of spectacular looking golf courses, through some neighborhoods with what we are sure are extremely high dollar homes, and through several areas of beautiful moss covered trees. We had set our gps for the ride to get us to the St Simon Lighthouse. Upon arriving another couple were taking selfies in front on the lighthouse so we offered to take their picture in exchange for them taking ours....we realized we had not taken many pictures at all thus far with us in them. It was a beautiful lighthouse with a rich history.
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| Beautiful lighthouse with much history |
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| See....we really are on this trip! |
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| View from another angle |
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We found a job for Barb, our neighbor, who says St Simon is one of her favorite places
We just need to teach her to swim now....lol |
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| Flowers...just because they are pretty :-) |
We left our bicycles by the lighthouse and walked along the Atlantic boardwalk enjoying more of the scenery of the beautiful trees, a city water park and to the city pier. Out on the pier many people were trying their luck at fishing and crabbing. We saw a couple of small fish get reeled in. Just offshore of St Simon Island, and very visible from the pier area, was the site of the 2019 ship wreck of the 'Golden Ray'. The salvage and cleanup operation is still going strong and according to a workboat captain I had spoke with earlier in the morning before departing from Brunswick Landing will likely be active for at least another year. I did a little more internet research on the wreck to learn more about how it happened and also what the losses/costs were. it was a 620 foot long, 17 story, car carrying ship that was loaded with 4200 new automobiles. The cause had to do with improper loading that made the 17 story tall ship list and eventually tip completely over.....oops! The estimated losses were 80 million for the ship itself, 80 million for the lost automobiles and 240 million for the cleanup and salvage operation. I wonder if the captain of that ship and/or the engineers who were in charge of the loading still have jobs? We sure hope that our grounding the other day doesn't end up having that many 0's on the end of the price tag...lol. We did a little shop walking and Renee bought a pair of earrings and a hat/shirt combo. We finished out our walk downtown with some a Reesees/toffee/caramel gelato.
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| St Simons Pier with the salvage operation of the 'Golden Ray' in the background |
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| Selfie time |
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| Lighthouse from the pier |
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| Anyone in the market for a new car? |
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| The trunk of this tree downtown was interesting |
After a late afternoon break in the AC back at the boat we took Riva on a short bike ride back across the bridge and to a nice little park where we played fetch and walked around for a bit. There were many other dogs in the park who apparently were MUCH better trained than Riva who had to remain on her leash most of the time. Riva has quickly learned to love riding in the front basket of the bike....she's just adorable!
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| Riva the Diva riding in our basket like a champ |
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| Small park across the bridge from our marina where we took Riva for a walk |
Back at the boat we prepared and grilled shish kabobs for a late dinner. The wind direction and speed made for significant rolling waves coming into the area of the marina and since we were on the outside wall the boat was rocking and rolling pretty good. We were unsure whether this would affect our sleep but the more we sat and relaxed in our recliners after dinner it became apparent by the fact that neither of us could manage to keep our eyes open that it was likely not going to hinder sleep for us too badly.
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| View from the clubhouse of the marina at night looking down on the walkway out to the boat |
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| This guy was guarding our boat while we were showering |
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