We’ve been holed up since mid- August here in Brunswick. It was the best hurricane plan we could think of. If you look at the map, we are located on the western-most part of the continental US Atlantic coast. The bight formed by the sea coast here gives the area a little more protection, so we seem to have better odds against a direct hit. Not that it doesn’t happen There is a lot of real estate though, between the East River and the open ocean further east. To the southwest, there is Andrews island, which is very high elevation, because it is mostly man made from dredge spoil. We feel reasonably safe here. This year’s storm season has been very tame so far.

The local weather is more tolerable now. Summer afternoon thunderstorms have given way to a general northeasterly flow. The monarchs are beginning to trickle through, and the sunlight is changing hue. So there is hope.

We have at least managed to get out for a few afternoon sails in the last week or so. The East River is wide and protected, with plenty of sea room to hoist the sails as soon as we are clear of the dock. It is a thrill to glide past the town waterfront under sail alone. Catamarans are generally quicker, but we had a humbling experience on Saturday out in the sound, when a production monohull smoked past us on a close reach, as we fiddled with the outhaul and the lazy jacks. There is much to learn yet about tuning and sailing this boat!

A small community of live-aboards tie up here, mostly waiting for cooler weather to head south. Speaking of that, we saw two more spoonbills roosting on quarantine island on Sept 19th, and several more in the Turtle River since then. I had no idea they stayed around this long. We have noticed more of these beautiful pink birds around here this year than I can remember. Last November on the trip to Merritt Island, we didn’t see any until we got into Mosquito Lagoon.

You can see quarantine Island just east of the Sydney Lanier Bridge.It is that small clump of trees on the north side of the Brunswick river. They used to detain inbound sailors there around the turn of the twentieth century. Earlier, it was a popular dumping ground for ship’s ballast stones before taking on cargo in the port. There is a private house there now, and a dock.

Just across the river at the marina is a good level spot to dry out at low tide, and the price is right! We had a pretty good mess of barnacles to scrape off after eleven months. It is hard to believe she has been in the water almost a year.