Fri Nov 15 - In which Krispy Kreme donuts feature

Savannah – Sunbury Harbor/Sunbury Crab Company Marina

It’s stressful to get up after a day off and realize you have to take care of a 22,000 lb mechanical object.  You have to be alert and cautious at all times.  And, as I may have said before, you have to watch the tide, wind, current, other boats, no wake zones, etc – and I am NOT a multitask-er. 

The other day there was a Pan Pan (pronounced Pon Pon –  it’s a French thing and always repeated 3 times, which is a lot of Pans, if you ask me…) call on the radio – this is a Coast Guard call that means there is urgency, and it is often a call for all watercraft to be on the lookout for something.  In this case it was a Pan Pan for a missing kayak-er, and he was missing from the area we had been in some days ago.  As of this writing, he is still missing.  It was a reminder that the sea and the weather are not your friend – they are indomitable forces and you best be respectful and prepared.  And we are, as well as we can be.  I make light of the experience, but I don’t take it lightly.

It had rained all night and was still raining (of course it was) in the morning at our appointed wake up time (7:15 am).  Rick had planned out a route to the Sunbury Harbor and Sunbury Crab Co., restaurant that was mentioned in one of our many guide ( we have more guide books than we had college planning books – and that is saying something) books as a “must stop”.  We really had to debate this, since the last time we went to a ‘must stop’ restaurant it was closed, and we ended up with oyster knives in our hands.  But we called ahead to verify it’s open-ness.

Stepping off the boat to get us ready to go, Rick found the ONLY thing that would have gotten me up – a box of fresh Krispy Kreme Donuts! We had heard about a marina that delivered donuts to your boat in the morning, but didn’t expect that it would be the Thunderbolt Marina – more an industrial boat yard than a luxury marina; boy will we be back to visit!

We packed up the boat (took in the power cord, water hose and most dock lines) and prepared to depart.  I am getting better at my deck-hand job (often my trainer, Karen, is talking in my head – I mean that in a positive way, not in a mental health worrisome way) and had two dock lines ready to release so we could slide away from the dock.  The boat has a helm station in the main cabin but we had never used it, opting to drive from the fly bridge.  With the rain pouring down we decided to drive from inside the cabin and what a pleasure it was!

It was warm, the windshield wipers worked (another thing that Rick had worked on – he changed the wiper blades and put Rainex on the windows to help the water sheet off) and it kept us dry.  Eventually the rain stopped and we moved back to the fly bridge but it probably would have been better to stay downstairs – it was cold with the direct wind.

We cruised down the Intracoastal and eventually turned right into the Medway river.  This area really has an amazing number of rivers, streams, sounds and other types of water – all merging and diverging.  We worked our way up the river and eventually came to the Sunbury Marina. We were the only transient boat (no one else was dumb enough to be out boating) so we almost had the place to ourselves.  We docked with help from Barney, hooked up the power and put everything away for the evening.  

One of the interesting things about the coast of Georgia is the tidal range.   Through the early part of our trip tides had been 2 to 3 feet at the most (high tide is 3 feet higher than low tide) but in Georgia tides are 6 to 7 feet.  This means that twice each day the water goes up 7 ft and down 7 ft.  Docks go up and docks go down.  It is important to time each day’s cruising with tides - if you are in a shallow area you need to cruise on a rising or high tide to make sure not to run aground or hit rocks.    This is an additional level of planning each day and departures/arrivals need to be timed with tides and currents. We had fun watching the metal walkway on the dock move from horizontal to vertical.

On a map, we are minutes away from from US I95.  But we are a world away.  This is not a glamorous stop, but it’s an authentic view of the heartland of coastal GA.  The restaurant and marina were built by the family who now runs it, and it’s lots of fun.  On a Fri night in off season it was full of locals, and they made us feel at home, and made sure we were well fed.  It would be super charming in warmer weather…  We will be back.