1 Aug 13

Up early-ish to catch the best part of the tide on the run to Jekyll Island. We had a very pleasant trip through the salt marshes of southern Georgia, past the Kings Bay Naval (nuclear attack submarine, but don’t tell anyone I told you so) Base and across St. Andrew’s Sound to Jekyll Island, another winter retreat for the rich and famous of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. We checked into the Jekyll Harbor Resort Marina, then borrowed their courtesy car for a quick drive around the island and a trip to the grocery store. Dinner aboard followed by long hot showers at the marina facilities. Oh, yes, and back on shore power, so unlimited A/C. I called NextGen (makers of our generator) during the afternoon, and they reckon the problem is a faulty 50A circuit breaker; they said they could get one to me by tomorrow (they are located in Jacksonville, FL, which we just left a few days ago), so I ordered a replacement.  

2 Aug 13

We slept very well under the A/C last night. After a hearty breakfast, we borrowed bikes from the marina and rode over to the Jekyll Island Museum. We took the tram tour, which was fun and included tours of two of the houses built by the rich and famous members of the Jekyll Island Club (including Rockefeller, McCormack (Int’l Harvester), JP Morgan, Pulitzer, Vail (CEO of AT&T), George Baker (Pres. of 1st Nat’l Bank, Marshall Field, Vanderbilt, Goodyear, etc.) These were the richest guys in the world at the time; Rockefeller’s fortune at the time was estimated to be worth 3 times what Bill Gates’s fortune is worth, when converted to today’s money. They reckoned that at some of the dinner parties they had, the men sitting around the table controlled as much as 1/6th of the wealth of the entire world; talk about concentration of wealth. These guys formed a club, bought the entire island, put up a fantastic club-house (now a 4 star 200 room hotel) and a number of them built their own “cottages” - small things of 8 - 10,000 sq ft) to amuse themselves during the 3 months of the year that the club was open; 1 Jan - 31 Mar. Anyway, it is very pretty and nicely manicured and a good bike ride. When we got back to the marina, the replacement 50A circuit breaker was waiting for us.  

3 Aug 13

The Georgia Sea Turtle Center beckoned today, so we rode the bikes over to visit the center. They do a lot of sea turtle rehabilitation work at this center, as well as keeping track of the annual sea turtle egg-laying and hatchings. This year, they have counted 162 green sea turtle nests on Jekyll Island. When we got back to the boat, the folks at the marina invited us to a pot-luck dock party, so we went up for a bit of festivity. We met the president of the Jekyll Island Corporation and another long-time resident of the island; fascinating folks, and a very interesting island.