BOATS PASSING

Walking down to the pier, we sat enjoying the breeze and watching the water. We thought we saw a ship on the horizon and sure enough, in a few minutes a pilot boat came roaring back over the waves. The seagull on the post paid it little attention.

Then, after ten or fifteen minutes, the ship (pilot onboard) came in. Now there are two birds watching its progress.

It was a big car carrier and they're always fun to watch because they look like they're going to run into the pier. But the channel goes right by our little island pier and arcs around to just miss the Jekyll Pier.

There's always something to see here!

THE USNS BRUNSWICK

Last weekend, our mainland had their Blessing of the Fleet event. Along with the shrimp boats being blessed was the new USNS Brunswick, a cargo ship named for our town. They say the Navy is so pleased with the aluminum transport's overall usefulness in carrying troops and cargo quickly, that they've ordered more.

From the back it kind of looks like a building:

Here's an interesting tidbit: the aluminum is left unpainted since each gallon of paint weighs about twelve pounds, and the thousands of gallons it would take to cover the ship would add extra weight.

Here is the front:

Besides getting itself blessed, the ship offered public tours. Unfortunately, the line was so long we decided against waiting. (Also, we could see little groups of people staggering up flights of stairs and realized we weren't in any shape to do that much climbing!) Here you can see the end of the line after it went around the block:

Kind of neat to have a ship named for us!

WALK ON THE BEACH

We went over to the beach to walk yesterday morning. There weren't a lot of people but there were some pretty shells like these:

And evidently a swarm of jelly fish had been caught by the tide because there were a lot of dead ones on the sand. We had to watch where we stepped. Here's one:

And of course, there was a car carrier in the distance. The tiny specks at the bottom are people walking on the beach at the edge of the water:

Our beach has changed considerably since we started coming here fifteen years ago.  Then, the ocean was about ten foot from the end of the boardwalk and low tide meant just a short walk to the water. No more. Now there's a little trek to get to the water even at high tide.

There was also a long sandbar out in the water that was visible at low tide. As the years passed, the terrain changed. The sandbar lengthened. The currents between the sandbar and the beach turned into a river. Then the river narrowed. Now the sandbar is gone and all that remains of the currents are a couple of tidal pools. Sand has filled in the rest. This is a pool as we come off the boardwalk. The ocean is at the bottom of the sky beginning from the left. You can barely see it on the horizon, and it ends at the dark line beginning abour two-thirds across which is where the King and Prince hotel curves out toward the water:

And this tidal pool is further up the beach. The water once ran through it and down to the first pool above. You can't see the ocean at all in this picture because it's to the photographer's left:

As a result of the sands shifting, the houses that once sat close (in some cases, too close) to the water, find themselves a fair distance from the ocean. Dunes have taken over what was once a river and then a tidal pool. Now only a shallow trench lets high-tide water into the pools that are left. I took this photo standing on the beach and you can see how far the dunes extend:

Nature certainly brings a lot of changes!

MORNING WALK

Took our walk this morning even though the temp was in the fifties!!! Brrr! We were a little late because we waited for it to warm up, so the tour van was parked by the pier waiting for a load of tourists.

Notice the two flags, American and English on it. That's because Oglethorpe, who founded Georgia before the Revolutionary War, used us as an outpost to keep the Spanish away from Savannah. We did the job nicely, fending them off with the Battle of Bloody Marsh in 1742.

The name is rather misleading since only seven Spaniards died during this battle along with one English defender from heatstroke. I always figured it for a massacre!

If you look closely under the blue pavilion left of the middle, you can see a ship anchored in the sound. I have no idea what this ship is doing but it's been here for over a week. Sometimes ships anchor there when their cargo hasn't reached the port; they don't have to pay port/mooring fees except for when they actually receive their loads. Maybe that's what it's doing. Anyway, here's a little better picture of it as it skulks around.

OCEAN VIEW

We walked down to the pier yesterday to find a HEAVY LOAD ship anchored, probably waiting for its cargo to get to the port so it could load up. Anyway, as we watched, my guy pointed out a tricolor heron on the beach.

I believe the ship impressed the little fellow!

Over on Jekyll

We went over to Jekyll Island yesterday and walked Driftwood Beach. Met a couple from Cornwall who had exchanged houses with a family on Jekyll. They were totally delighted with Driftwood Beach and kept saying they'd never seen anything like it. In fact they were totally delighted with everything, from the American breakfasts to even the hot sun (95 degrees with a heat index of 105 yesterday). I hope our American tourists are this pleasant when they're in other countries.

And later, we saw a ship leaving Brunswick port. They come so close to Jekyll Pier, it's almost as if they're about to run over it.

Lovely day.