We were greeted by a cheerful staff when we arrived at Brunswick Landing Marina (BLM) where we will stay through December. Our newest grand baby Wesley is already a month old and we can’t wait to see him. Jesse and Danielle are also expecting another boy in June, so we are also excited about this. BLM is a fairly easy drive to both Tennessee and Maryland so we anticipate having visitors while we are here. Saint Simons Island, Jekyll Island and Cumberland Island State Park are just around the corner. We are looking forward to exploring all of this by bicycle and boat.

We have only been at a few marinas but BLM is unlike the others. BLM has a large number of live-aboards, free laundry, WiFi, happy hours and scheduled events to get everybody together. The Historic town of Brunswick is just 400 feet from the marina and has several shops and restaurants. The marina has bicycles that you can use to get into town if you do not want to walk. The Winn-Dixie is just a mile away as well as other stores and you guessed it, West Marine.

Just so you know, it is not always just fun and games for live-aboards. Although we prefer life on the hook, it is always a treat when you are tethered to a dock. For example, you have access to fresh water, hot showers, trash disposal and you get to put your two feet on land. We enjoy being able to walk and stretch our legs even though it usually entails a trip to the store. After spending days on a passage or even weeks without being at a dock there is much to do. After being in the ocean 5KNOTS is covered with salt crystals so this is usually the 1st order of business once we have access to a hose and water. Then we clean, straighten out the cabin and put things that have fallen back in their place followed by laundry. We often only do laundry every 2 or 3 weeks so it is not an easy task, especially when you have to carry your stuff to/from the boat to the laundry facility. For added fun, this may also require a ride in the Jetta if on a hook or mooring ball. Although I try and help (sort of), Renee is awesome and never complains whenever laundry duty calls.

Although we did have a small shower on our trip, the sails and lines also get coated with salt. Today we raised the main sail and hosed it off to remove the salt before stowing it away in the sail bag. The next chore that we will do is to paint our anchor chain at specific increments in order to be able to tell how much we let out while anchoring. Since we like to anchor in 10 feet of water and you should let out chain in a minimum of a 5 to 1 ratio (5 feet of chain for every 1 foot of depth), 50 feet would be the least we would ever let out. So our plan is to mark the chain at 50,  75, 100 and 125 foot increments. This way if we need to let out more due to wind, we will have the additional markings.