Darien (Free Dock)

Friday October 10, 2014
31 22 045 N
81 26 129 W

Darien is one of our favorite stops when we take the ICW through Georgia. It is a bit off the ICW (8 NM up the Darien River) and it is not an especially pretty place, but the dock is free and the supermarket is only a mile away.

Darien fishing fleet

We are usually here by ourselfs, but last night another trawler arrived about 3 PM - "Queen Anne's Revenge".We helped them dock (which was a good thing as their "admiral" was rather handicapped and could barely throw a line) and they invited us over for a cocktail before dinner. The captain was an ex Navy destroyer captain and they were an interesting couple to chat with.

Saturday October 11, 2014

We helped Queen Anne's Revenge depart at about 8 AM and then headed off to the supermarket. The supermarket was clean and new but with limited selection. We have a little wheel buggy for grocery shopping and I tend to race ahead with the refrigerated products so we get them into the frig ASAP. On the walk back I ran into a guy who turned out to be the mayor. His name was "Bubba" Hodge- no kidding. We had a nice chat and he offered to drive back and give Deidre a lift to the dock.

I learned an interesting story from the Mayor. Some of the shrimp boats are now catching jelly fish. The jellies are "cored, dried and sliced" and exported to Korea. Some Koreans have purchased a couple of the boats and set up the processing facility. Note the name of the boat in the photo below. (I am now searching for a boat called "Bubba Kim")

This afternoon I unloaded a bike and rode over to the "local fort" built by the Scottish settlers in about 1721. It was about a mile away, the road was flat and I was in the shade of the live oak trees.

The guard tower

The barracks

The timbers were all mortised, held together with pegs

It was a hot afternoon in Georgia.

Our two-fisted neighbor