Back in October, we knew we wanted to put Blue Turtle in a marina while we went south for the holidays to see family. I began calling marinas in the northern Florida area and quickly found out that almost all of them were booked for the December/January time frame. This is mainly because so many boaters are heading south that time of year. The other reason it made it difficult is because so many vessels were displaced after Hurricane Ian hit the southwest Florida coast. Many boat owners had to scramble and find dockage for the winter for their vessels. After calling about 30ish or so marinas, I had about given up. We decided to look a little further north and called Brunswick Landing Marina. As luck would have it, they had a slip for us!

After leaving Fernandina Beach and stopping at Jekyll Island, we motored to Brunswick Landing Marina. After tying up at our slip on dock 9, we headed to the office to settle up. The walk was almost a mile to get to dock 1 where the marina office was. This marina is huge! We paid to stay for a month and they gave us access keys to the clubhouse, laundry and showers. We explored the marina and facilities and were immediately impressed. As luck would have it, we were on dock 9, right next to clubhouse where the laundry and library are located as well as the spot where they host free beer and wine happy hours 3 days a week. Oh, and did I mention FREE laundry? This was a bonus and we were thrilled to have found a great spot to leave Blue Turtle while we rented a car and drove to Fort Myers.

Home for the holidays

Randy and I rented a car and drove to southwest Florida and planned to stay through the New Year. This gave us plenty of time to visit with family and friends and get caught up on all our annual doctor checkups. Sophie even had her annual vet checkup and teeth cleaning. While in Fort Myers, we drove to Fort Myers Beach to see the devastation of Hurricane Ian as well as progress being made. It was so hard to believe that we called this little beach town our home for 10 years and to see the devastation that had occurred. Even after 3 months of cleanup and demolition, they have a long way to go. We hope to see more progress next time we visit. Stay strong FMB!

After leaving Fort Myers, we headed back to the marina in Georgia for one night (to check on the boat) and then headed to the Smokies the next day. We had planned to keep Blue Turtle in the marina just 1 month, but ended up being there 6 weeks due to us being sent to Tennessee for Randy’s work. When we got back to the marina, we had just a few days to get the boat in shape and provisioned to continue cruising. I really wanted to take advantage to being on land and having access to unlimited water, trash and laundry. I spent 3 days cleaning, purging and reorganizing cabinets. On our last night in Brunswick, we decided to check out the local brewery, Silver Bluff. Located in downtown Brunswick, it’s just a half a mile or so walk from the marina. The beer was excellent, but we were even more thrilled about the great outdoor beer garden with corn hole and other games. It was just the break we needed after cleaning and getting Blue Turtle provisioned and ready to depart and head south.

Jekyll Island to Brunswick Landing Marina = 9 nm

TOTAL miles to date: = 2,525 nm
TOTAL Bridge Openings to date = 44