In Search of Blue Crab

If you know Shelley, you know her passion for good food. Most of our vacations, whether to the Caribbean or to Europe, she is in search for wonderful food that you cannot find at most restaurants. Yesterday after weeks of searching on the internet, she hit a gold mine. Its called the Sunbury Crab Co. and Marina in Sunbury, Georgia.

Its not an easy place to find. By road its 10 miles east of I-95 where the road ends at the shoreline. From the water, you take a left turn off the ICW and go west from marker #116 up the Medway River. Now my chart covers only the Intercoastal Waterway. So I as captain of the ship, am stressing a bit as we venture into unknown waters, that had one marker right off the ICW, but then you are on your own for 6 miles up the river.

Thankfully, my Raymarine chartplotter had the depths of the river I should follow and Shelley had an internet site that described how you weaved your way from one side of the river to the other to stay in deep water. I am pleased to say we made it, and it was way worth it. Way.

This place reminds me of those out of the way beach restaurants you would find scattered around the Caribbean, that are very eclectic and run by unique individuals who love being off the grid. They are way off the grid here in Sunbury, and they love it. We had the freshest and best blue crab for dinner last night, along with fried oysters, and barbequed shrimp. All of which they caught earlier that day by the husband of the proprietor and her sons. Simply fabulous, and what fun people. Elaine runs this place and she met us at the dock to help us tie up. Shelley had been talking to her on the cell phone to give us extra guidance to her dock in a 4 knot current. Once securely tied, she escorted us up to the restaurant at the end if the dock for a beer (which she joined with us) a cigarette (which she and Shelley enjoyed), and local lore. Basically we got her entire life story in a half hour. Very nice lady.

The food was fabulous so we knew we would have to somehow find a way back to this place. I just didn't think it would be tonight. But here we sit. Its 11:30 am and we are still at the dock while this line of severe thunderstorms threaten us from the west. This is the same storm that hit Oklahoma with tornadoes Thursday, and Alabama on Friday. So for the first day in two weeks, we are sitting. Yikes!!! This is hard.

The reward is making a good weather judgement, even though right now it still looks fine, but then being able to eat ashore one more time tonight. I just met Elaine's husband and her son as they were headed out in their crab boat for fresh Blue Crabs!!

The moral of this story is slow down, smell the roses, taste the wonderful blue crab, and avoid tornadoes. Nuff said. Marc

If it is Thursday, It's Georgia

Rock Chalk is back in its summer waters, Brunswick Georgia. Are you surprised that Shelley and I have basically gone from the west coast of south Florida (Ft. Myers) all the way across Florida, then up to Georgia? Now we are slowing down. Right.

There is bad weather headed for Georgia on Saturday, so we are going to our next destination early tomorrow. Shelley wants to go to the Sunbury crab comapny on the Medway River. I have a chart for that, but its 5 miles off the Intercoastal somewhere between St. Simon and Savannah. It is supposed to have the best crab cakes in Georgia. Storms may hit tomorrow night, but we will be tied up to the SCC marina.

I am forcing myself to go slow, ie at 8 mph. I have been following other trawlers who can only cruise at 8 or 9 mph, and it forces me to stay slow. But even going slow, we plan on spending the weekend on Tybee Island near Savannah, then a couple of days in Beaufort, South Carolina, and then a full week in Charleston, SC. That should be fun. Then its on to the Dismal Swamp in North Carolina.

It has become obvious that Shelley is a major risk taker. All day long I was obsessing with a small passage I knew was coming up the west side of Jekyll Island. I have taken the boat through there before, and know it was really shallow. Today's low tide was several feet lower than normal, and we were hitting that spot at exactly 12:30, which was dead low tide. We were not even to the shallows when I looked down and we had six inches below our keel. Yikes!!

Shelley said keep going. I said lets anchor and wait an hour for the water to come up. Well, 5 minutes later we are barely skimming over the bottom, and I am having a heart attack. Shelley is very calm reading her iPad. We made it through, but barely. Should have anchored and waited an hour. Rock Chalk

Tuesday in Jacksonville

The house has not closed yet, and we have been on the boat for only 7 days at this point, yet it feels like a different world. We have traveled from Ft. Myers, across Florida and up the east coast to almost being in Georgia. At this pace, we will have this loop out of the way by the wedding. Just kidding.....

We have covered water that we have seen before, as beautiful as it is, we decided to get north to spend time in places we have not been, like South and North Carolina. But we are sitting at Palm Cove Marina waiting on the paperwork to be completed to close on the house. We need a title company or a bank, and there are plenty near this marina. So we may be here for awhile.

Good news is that Shelley is really using her new camera, and I have finally figured out how to add photos to this post. So tonight I will try to add several shots from over this past week. Hope you enjoy these. Marc

Daytona Beach at Dawn

This morning in Daytona Beach

The Start of the Loop

More photos coming

Remember me talking about trying to add a photo to this blog. Well I think I have figured it out. Here is a shot from the early morning we left Moore Haven, Florida and crossed the Okeechobee. Here the fog is lifting, and we could finally see beyond the front of the boat. We saw lots of wildlife and alligators that morning. More photos to come. Marc