Journey's End - March 12th, 2011 Charlotte, NC

Our voyage of dreams has ended!  We arrived home to Charlotte Saturday evening about 8 PM, leaving Cool Change in the Brunswick Landing Marina.  We had driven from Brunswick, GA to Little River, SC in a rental car Friday (280 miles) with a side visit to our prospective new marina in Charleston.   After replacing the dead battery in the old Taurus, which had been parked in Little River for the past four monthss, we drove it and the rental car back to Brunswick,, encompassing Friday evening and Saturday morning.  Another 280 miles.  Then, after loading the Taurus with all our take-home stuff, we took off for Charlotte (340 miles).  All this in a span of 38 hours.  The Taurus was dragging bottom when it pulled out of Brunswick.  We have both pretty much been dragging bottom for the past 24 hours. 

How Brunswick became our new home port:

For the past two weeks, high winds and very threatening weather had caused us to seek shelter in the marina in Cocoa Village, FL, tossed us around while buoyed in St. Augustine harbor, clobbered us in St. Andrews Sound, and waylaid us for four days at the Brunswick Landing.  Our friend, Roger from Merritt Island, FL, stopped by for a visit on the fourth day as we were trying to decide whether to stay another two days in Brunswick waiting out more high winds.  He suggested that we might consider staying in Brunswick as this is a very good marina and close to FL for the next year.  We weren't even thinking of that option.  We were heading for Charleston. 
At that point our daily rate in Brunswick would about equal the monthly rate and the marina agreed to credit us for the paid up month.  Second, we would save three days of boat travel and 220 waterway miles and about $400 in fuel.  If we went to the chosen marina in Charleston, we would have to lay out another month's slip rental there. With this all considered, we made the decision not to go on to Charleston and to end our wonderful adventure early by a few days. 
Now that we have traveled by car to the Charleston marina, we decided that it was not right for us.  With this, Brunswick has become our new home port.  And, the Brunswick Marina is only one day away from St Augustine next year.  The drawback is that Brunswick is a 6-hour drive from Charlotte.  That is 1 1/2 hours more than Little River's drive last year. 

A strange leaving:
As we loaded the car to leave Cool Change behind in Brunswick, both Colleen and I had sorrowful regrets about leaving our boat home behind.  Cool Change had truly become home to us.  We had really made her ours.  Of the almost four months that we were boat travelling, we only slept ashore four nights.   She had sheltered us as we anchored in saw grass plains with nary a light, boat, or home in sight.  She had held us in stiff current and high winds.  We had become quite accustomed to her.  We were taken back by those feelings when we were finally loaded and were ready to depart for Charlotte.  We didn't expect that.  It was hard to leave.

We are glad to be home.  But home seems so big now and Colleen is having some difficulty adjusting to walking across the kitchen when everything was within easy reach aboard Cool Change.  We have forgotten our pathways through the house in the dark.  We still do not know where we hid the garage remote from Colleen's car.   And we could not remember where we hid the Corvette keys, though we did find them.  I find that I am missing the closeness of touch, sound and breath that we experienced aboard the boat.  In 42 years of marriage, we had never had this physical closeness.  I already miss it!

We hope that those of you who followed our trip via this blog have enjoyed hearing about our adventures.  We would greatly appreciate you letting us know via a quick email if you've been reading about our four months on our boat - cnthrailkill@gmail.com or wayne.thrailkill@gmail.com

Thanks for journeying with us.

Brunswick Landing Marina - Brunswick, GA March 9th and 10th

One of several attractive downtown parks, Brunswick, GA

This is our third day in Brunswick, a small city that sits just off the ICW to the west of Jekyll Island, Emerald Isle, and St. Simon's Island.  The marina we're at is right downtown, in the historic park of this town that was established in 1771 and Wayne and I, street people that we are, have hoofed it around to investigate many blocks of interesting old buildings and beautiful old oak trees.  Though the downtown area is somewhat depressed with many vacant buildings, we've had no trouble finding some excellent restaurants, a fish market for good shrimp, a farmers' market, a locally owned bookstore and a fine assortment of antique stores.  We've concluded that our (so far) favorite restaurant is Brunswick's Brewburgers.  They specialize in fourteen different and unique hamburgers and we hope to eventually eat our way through all of them.  Four down - ten to go!

We've met many nice boaters and townsfolk on this trip but we both feel that the folks in Brunswick sit at the top for Southern hospitality.  Everyone we've met - from the bank teller to the marina staff to the waitresses to the fish store clerk to the bookstore proprietors (and their resident dog) - has made us feel welcome to this city.  Between them all and the windy, stormy weather of the past few days, we suspect there is a conspiracy to glue us to the dock here indefinitely.  It just may succeed.

The wild hairstyle is thanks to a relentless wind.  Brewburgers is just across the street.

Newcastle St. in downtown Brunswick

Our friend, Roger, passed through today and went to lunch with us where we discussed his idea that we might leave the boat here for a month.  After weighing all the pros and cons of such a plan, we've decided to rent a car tomorrow and drive to Little River where our Taurus has been parked for the past four months.  We'll drive by the marina we had planned to dock at in Charleston and look it over thoroughly; then come back to Brunswick and head back to Charlotte from here, probably on Saturday.  We'll leave the boat here in Brunswick for at least a month, then move it or not, depending upon which marina we like better.  Charleston, of course, is closer to home but costs more for dockage and is much more exposed to bad weather than we are here.  Bad weather (high wind) is expected throughout tomorrow so we would be grounded here anyway for a while.  Both of us are in gettin' home mode.

Dark, threatening skies Wednesday night

Our view down the side of the boat

St. Augustine, FL - Brunswick, GA March 6th-8th

Rain was predicted in St Augustine on Sunday.  We had planned to go to shore that day anyway so we packed up umbrellas and jackets and other supplies in the backpack and went to shore via the city pier's pump-out boat.  We had a great day in town - a morning visit to the Lightner Museum, lunch at the Spanish bakery in the old part of town, then back to the Lightner to see all the things we didn't make it to in the morning, and, finally, a tour of the Castillo de San Marcos. 

The Lightner is a "collection of collections," pulled together fom all over the world and displayed in the elegant old Flagler Hotel.

Wayne and alligator in Lichtner Museum.  "I hate gators!"

 The hotel building is as entertaining as the museum.  It was the height of nineteeenth century elegance in its day and featured an indoor swimming pool, a ballroom, steam baths, and exercise facilities, not to mention an elegant restaurant that lists "cheery Jello with whipped cream" among its classy dessert offerings.

Lightner Museum and City Hall

Castillo de San Marcos is the fort that successfully defended St. Augustine from several invasions.  A tour of it really brings home just how hard garrison life was in the 16th century. 

Wayne and I always enjoy a visit to St. Augustine, which was founded in 1565 and is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the United States. 

One of the fort's lookout posts out to the sea

Even though its streets are populated by many tourist traps selling Made in China genuine stuff, a deep sense of history is resting just below the surface - the fort, living history homes to tour, and delicious foods made as they were in the days of Spanish occupation.

A view from the fort of the Bridge of the Lions.  Our boat is on a buoy on the other side of the bridge

The predicted rain?  It never showed up and we hauled our rain gear around all day for naught.  We set out Monday morning into cold and strong winds but had a good day of cruising and wound up for the night near St. Mary's, GA.  We anchored near the same spot where we ran aground back in November.  No sweat - now we have what's known as local knowledge and we can stay away from the shallow spots.

Tuesday morning the sun was shining and we had had a restful night so we set out with high hopes to put a big dent in the 240 miles still before us.  The wind was very strong and we were heading right into it.  It was really blowing when we reached St. Andrews Sound off Jekyll Island.  The trip across was a DILLY as we plowed through high waves to reach a marker out in the ocean channel; then turned toward the other side of the channel into wild waves rolling us side to side.  This is the first time I've been petrified with fear on the trip - frankly, a state I had expected to experience more often when Wayne proposed this adventure.  My captain kept his cool, though, and eventually got us into the channel on the other side.

We decided not to challenge another rough inlet as the wind was only getting stronger.  We took on 149 gallons of fuel (you don't want to hear the bill's total) and have landed in a marina in downtown Brunswick for tonight. We expect to lay over here for a few days with bad weather approaching.  As we examined the charts we discovered an alternate route we could have used to avoid the worst of St. Andrews Sound.  That will be our future passage if we have NE, E or SE winds as we approach this area.

Sunset at Brunswick

Rain coming in Brunswick

So, we've shaved another 25 miles off our total to traverse.  We've made arrangements to dock the boat near Charleston; then rent a car to go pick up our car that's parked in Little River, SC.  Once the weather has settled down, we have 3-4 more days of travel by boat.

Cocoa Village Marina, Cocoa, FL - 2/27 – 3/5

We’ve spent a relaxing week in Cocoa and have seen a lot of Marla and Al and Roger and Marcy.  Our Orlando boating friends, Jim and Shaula, met us at the dock as we arrived and
we enjoyed seeing them several times over the weekend.  Their daughter, Lynn, and her husband, Mike, had a chance to visit the boat also and we fixed Sunday breakfast on the boat
for Jim and Shaula.  We always enjoy reminiscing with them about the boating adventures and disasters we shared over our many years together on the water.

Breakfast on Cool Change with Jim and Shaula

Saturday evening was a treat.  We joined a dinner party hosted by Marla and Al at Café  Margaux, sitting outside, right along the Cocoa Village Mardi Gras parade route.  Such a shame we didn’t
have our cameras as Marla and Al were dressed up in high Mardi Gras style and we all were generously draped with Mardi Gras beads by the end of the evening.  On Sunday more celebrations in the Village included Bark in the Park.  A large assortment of dogs, mutts and aristocrats, competed for prizes.  Marla’s and Al's poodles, Chloe and TD, were part of
the crowd of canine characters.

Cafe Margaux

King and Queen of the dogs

This dog was just too funny.  From the rear his skirt twirled as he walked.  He just had an irresistable wiggle.

Al and the ever cooperative TD

Marcy and I heard the author Randy Wayne White speak at the Cocoa Beach Library last Sunday.  He’s a Florida mystery writer, a very entertaining guy on paper as well as in
person.  His stories are based in Florida and mention many areas with which we’re familiar. 
I’ve had several enjoyable opportunities to sew over our week here and Marla came over one day to help with making doll clothes.   Between the efforts of both of us we finished four outfits, enough that Marcy’s granddaughter, Nathalie, and Marla’s granddaughter, Mia, were able
to choose one for their baby dolls.  The others will go to our grandgirls when we visit in March.  Marcy and I had a good time fabric shopping and planning for future projects. Between lunches out, movies (we recommend Adjustment Bureau), sewing,
and visiting it was almost all relaxing and fun.

Wayne got his second Cocoa haircut this week.  It’s a little, well, short, would be a kind
way to describe it.  He says that from the moment the bald barber started to work on him he knew he was in trouble.

There will be a few weeks of bad hair days with this haircut.

 Besides the haircut, Wayne had another exciting event this week.  He was
outside working on the boat deck when his phone started to ring.  I saw Wayne was at one end of the boat but the ring was coming from somewhere else – not inside but nowhere near him.  Was it outside?  It sounded like it was in the water.  We did a quick, frantic search and he
discovered the phone case had come off his belt and was hanging precariously on
the cable rail on the side of the boat.   A slight list would have dumped it in the drink.  It’s warm here but not nearly warm enough to swim after phones.

We hosted our own dinner party Thursday night, inviting Marla and Al and Roger and Marcy to join us for Low Country Boil on the back of the boat.  We had to buy a bigger pot but it was all good – new potatoes, corn, onions, sausage and shrimp all boiled together with seasonings and very delicious.  Now we have another good and easy boat meal for a crowd.  The frozen pina coladas were good too.

We’re finally on our way today moving north again (Saturday).  Our original
plan was to leave yesterday but the wind was really kicking up (20-28 mph) and
there were occasional rain showers off and on.   We finally had to scrap that plan. Today looks good, though, still windy and a little overcast but no
prediction of rain. So far, we've made it up the Indian River, across the Haulover Canal and through aptly named Mosquito Lagoon.  Our boys will remember some wild and crazy shrimping trips to that part of Florida.

We would like to make it to St. Augustine by this evening but that would be a stretch for
us.  120 miles in one day is tough when your speed is 8-10 miles per hour.  We
hear that the redbud trees and the Bradford pear trees are blooming in North
Carolina.  It is absolutely time to get home!!!

This is the chart for St. Augustine.  We made it here today, as planned.  You may remember my earlier attempt to attach us to a bouy here back in November.  The experience went no better today  We plan to layover here for a day and continue the journey home on Monday..