St. Mary's, Georgia

 We left Cumberland Island on December 10th and motored across the St. Mary's inlet and then went past the  Kingsbay Naval Submarine Base and then into the St. Mary's river. The entire trip was only 6.6 nm. We were expecting some fairly strong north winds in the coming days and the town of St. Mary's has an anchorage right in front of the town that has excellent protection from the north. They also have a nice town dock that is free to dock the dinghy and check out this very historical town.

Very nice floating docks that are provided by the City of St. Mary's

We have been to many small towns and most don't have docks this nice. If you look closely, you can see SHIFT at anchor in the distance.

 We decided to take a walk around town to see what there was to see. As it turned out there was a lot to see. This is where you can take a ferry over to Cumberland Island, so there are two different museums dedicated to the history of the Island. There was also a local craft market going on, that earned a bit of our money. We then went to the local visitor center and got a calendar of events including a boat parade that evening. We then went to one of the local restaurants and had a Greek lunch that was excellent.  

Kim at the visitor center for the Cumberland Island National Seashore

A small local craft market. We actually bought two things, both edible. 

The main waterfront street in St. Mary's, Georgia

We came ashore that first Saturday because we wanted to visit the St. Mary's Submarine Museum. You may know that our son, Michael served on the USS Hartford, which is a fast attack submarine. He never came to the Kingsbay Base, because this base is set up for the big missile carriers called "Boomers". The museum was for all submarines and their crews. 

A Plaque dedicated to the boat that our son served on, the USS Hartford

I enjoy learning about military history and hardware, so this museum was right down my alley.

There are many historic buildings around this town that has been a seaport since the 1600's. We enjoyed walking around town and reading about the history of each one.

The old houses and churches were dressed up for Christmas, so all looked quite festive.

The following day, we decided to take a walking tour of the Oak Grove cemetery. Yes Mom, you would have been proud of us. The local cemetery is very historic as it is the final resting place for a number of men that fought in the Revolutionary War. Many of the graves are very ornate and certainly old. 

The Spanish Moss in the trees made the place look quite creepy

Many of the graves were surrounded by walls. This was an area dedicated to some Acadians that died here before moving on to Louisiana. 

The Angel is the most ornate in the cemetery. 

We found the entire tour quite interesting. Then something kind of strange happened. We were walking back to the docks when an older man in a car stopped and started talking to us. After a bit he told us his name was Paul and he had been living in town for 21 years. He told us he was out for a Sunday drive and asked us if we wanted to go along. After a little hesitation, we decided to go. We ended up having a nice time listening to his very funny stories and jokes. We saw lots of beautiful homes and it was interesting to hear some local history that you would not see in the local brochures. He told us that he was a music teacher and performed in many places including for the President of the US. We drove to his house and he said he would play for us. There was no denying that he was a very accomplished pianist. He showed us newspaper clippings that he had framed of him at the White House. It was a bit of a strange experience, but cool at the same time. He then took us back to the marina and we said our good byes. 

I took a few pictures later that day of both Kim and some Christmas Trees and of our floating home. 

SHIFT at Anchor in St. Mary's River, Georgia

Kim LOVES Christmas!

I think I will end this entry there. We ended up staying at St. Mary's for 4 days waiting for the weather to pass. We had a very enjoyable time there learning all about the place. In my next entry, I will tell you what else we did while we were there and let you know what we did next.