St. Mary’s, Georgia

—this entry was written a few days ago….

At the end, we will have spent 9 days here. We planned on 7 but extended our stay at the Airbnb two days to give us more time and not get stressed! Of course, most of the time has been at the boatyard working on Pursuit and preparing for a two+ month cruise.

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We have had some cooler weather, and one rain day, but for the most part, we have really enjoyed it here. The Airbnb is a small guesthouse/converted garage with everything we need plus a huge fenced yard for Coconut.


The plan is to launch the boat on Friday. However, it looks like rain that day, all day. We have a very small window of time on Friday afternoon to launch as we have to be at high tide. The big sailboats with long keels have even a smaller window. We may just launch and anchor out in front of the town for a day—some down time just hanging seems appealing. I won’t be sad to leave the boatyard but, as far as boatyards go, this one is pretty clean. It still has its share of desolate boats but most are in storage or being worked on. They seemed to have pushed out some of the scary people living on their boats on the hard. Most likely due to a recent purchase of adjacent land. Our understanding is the City put the owner, Rocky, through some hoops to expand his boatyard business. Some cleanup was done. We also heard that he is the owner of “many” of the boats as people bring them here for storage and never come back. Yikes. Clearance sale anyone??

We met a scruffy looking soul yesterday zooming around on the smallest, foldable, electric bike I’ve ever seen (I think I’ll keep my pedal bike). He was very interesting; a wooden boat builder by trade. Now, because of the changes in our tax system, he said, wealthy Americans can no longer write off the restoration of boats so they do it in other Countries. He is having trouble finding work. He also said he knows the designer of our boat, Ken Hankenson. An interesting conversation that was cut short by the arrival of our boat neighbor.

St. Mary’s is a beautiful, historic town with a low waterfront along the St. Mary’s River. The historic section is quite small compared to many other waterfront towns and not as old but there are some interesting homes and buildings. Beautiful, old live oaks are abundant.

The First Presbyterian Church here is the oldest building continuously used as a church in Georgia!  This building has seen so much history – as far back as British troops here during the War of 1812.

St. Mary’s borders Kings Bay, which is the east coast home to Trident nuclear powered submarines. Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay is the state-of-the-art home to the Atlantic Fleet’s Ballistic and Guided Missile Submarines. You may recall, we were stopped by the Coast Guard last Spring because a submarine was moving in the Bay.

Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay has three major commands: Trident Training Facility (TTF), Trident Refit Facility (TRF), and Strategic Weapons Facility, Atlantic (SWFLANT). In addition, this installation is the homeport of five Ohio-class submarines (largest subs ever built by US Navy – 560’) and two guided missile submarines, the USS Florida and the USS Georgia.

There is a submarine museum here which might be kind of interesting. We’ll see if we find time to check it out.

We did find this fine concrete replica of the USS George Bancroft submarine outside the Navy Base’s gate. The “sail” is the original from the sub. The sail is the upper part of the submarine. Neither of us knew this—we need to get to that museum. This submarine was saved from the recycling bin in 1998. The sail display was constructed and built as the centerpiece for King Bay’s celebration of the submarine forces 100th anniversary in April, 2000.

This area is sprawling and its easy to get lost after you leave the historic section. We are thankful for GPS. The military base consists of 16,000 acres, some of which are wetlands. The US Army began to acquire 7,000 acres of land at Kings Bay in 1954 to build a military ocean terminal to ship ammunition in case of a national emergency. Construction began in 1955 and was completed in 1958. A 200-foot-wide channel was dredged to Cumberland Sound, and included two turning basins. The base was transferred to the Navy in 1976 after negotiations that involved withdrawing our submarine Squadron from its operational base at in Spain!

There appears to be a lot of rental properties here in town, most likely for military personnel. Inland, there are all the typical chain stores but they are spread out everywhere. Not scenic….

One thing about this area we don’t like, is the tapwater. Boy, living in Minnesota and now Wisconsin, wonderful drinking water is a gimme. The water in the boatyard actually smells. We will not be filling Pursuit’s water tank here! A few gallons of water will be brought aboard until we get to the first marina.

The thing we really do like is the food! Lots of small places, all offering takeout or safe places to eat. We had BBQ brisket one night that was really good and I got my hush puppies!! They also had a peach cobbler that Joe succumbed to on the take out order (it was a bit disappointing). We have stopped for lunch at Pirates Cove, a little spot with an outdoor tiki bar attached to a gas station. Hey, it was close to the boatyard! The service and food was beyond expectations. Plus they had Yuengling Beer, America’s oldest brewery and a favorite of my dad! We shared handmade mushrooms stuffed with crab with a remoulade sauce and split fish tacos with mango sauce. Their menu includes shrimp and grits which we learned from the proprietor were made to order by his wife, the chef. I ordered that for takeout one evening. It was good, with an interesting take on grits—they were fried in thick patties. It was good, but my favorites were from Surf City, SC and Sanford, FL. Fortunately, we will be in Sanford soon!

Last night we got takeout for the second time from a restaurant that features some Indian cuisine and fish and seafood. Divine. I had fish last night that was perfectly cooked with a very light batter. I believe it was Whiting. Joe had scallops. The best part—2 dinner were about $20! We have been very lucky in this town with hole-in-the-wall establishments—several have been attached to gas stations! This time it is true to “not judge a book by its cover”…..

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So the weather forecast for Friday is 100% rain most of the day. We are going to try to move up our launch to tomorrow and move the boat to a small marina here until the rain passes. Lots to do…. groceries, liquor, fuel for dinghy, fill propane tanks….. we will be without our car for a few weeks so we need to get going.

Here are some pics from last night’s waterfront stroll after another great meal at the Riverside Cafe.