05/19/2008 Jekyll Island

Everyone found our anchorage in the Brickhill River very relaxing...you could have called it almost perfect.



Except for the green flies that started showing up. They come in size large and bite. You swat one, it falls down...then gets up and flies off to bite again. We've declared war. The only one that finds them amusing is Callie who chases them around swatting at them having a great time and an occasional success. Her successes don't fly away...they're eaten. Yes!!

We hope we'll be leaving the flies behind as we upanchor and head for Jekyll Island.

From the Brickhill River we can see boats traveling the ICW.

Many of the Osprey nests now have occupants as it's springtime.

We see the last of Cumberland Island as we begin to cross St Andrew Sound.







As we approach the marina we notice a tug & barge coming the other direction that will get there about the same time we do.

Not only did a barge pass us by, but also a cruise ship.
Now how does that happen?

We're happy to be docked and ready to go ashore.

We were fortunate to meet Olie Olsen with one of the many boats he built over the years.
He and his grandson are working on her in the boatyard.

Sea Jays Restaurant at the marina

We timed all our ventures so that we could be back at Sea Jays for lunch. This squirrel is one of many that live in the trees nearby and like to case the place for goodies. One in particular had a sweet tooth and when no one was around he would jump to the table and rummage a sugar packet to take back to his tree.



Bikes were available at the marina for our use. It had been a while but we managed to stay upright and enjoyed the speed! There are 20 miles of paved bike trails that circle the island, while others cut through the wooded areas and get a little bumpy. (No, we didn't do the 20 miles.) But we did make it to the St Andrews Picnic area where we parked the bikes and took to the beach. We're headed to the point and the landmark fishing boat buried by the tides and shifting sands.

That's the Brunswick bridge in the distance.

There were some trees on the beach that made it difficult going.
With the tide up we took to a path through the wooded area.

Found cannon carraiges/mounts along the path.

This ghost crab wasn't pleased with our intrusion but he was standing his ground.
Of course there was a hole to run to if we challenged him too much.
We honored his ground and moved on.

Sailing off Jekyll Point with pelicans and seagulls watching their progress.
Notice the little seabirds are all hunkered down. It was pretty windy on the point.

These looked like serious birdwatchers/photographers setting up.

We made it to the buried ship and headed back along the beach this time.
Along the way we encoutered this beautiful Egret.

Bob found this beautiful MG in the parking lot.

We took to the bike trail again taking breaks at some of the overlook spots.

One path took us by a small pond where we saw our first alligators.
Who would have expected them there?
Bob took a walk to the other side for a better look.

See the big guy on the left. Well he seemed to take offense and started gliding across the small pond in our direction at a good clip. Not knowing when his last meal was, we decided it best to peddle on. But of course I had trouble getting back on my bike and he got too close for comfort. He cruised along watching us as we peddled around and I have to confess to looking over my shoulder as we peddled on down the path.

We parked our bikes and walked down the Jekyll Historic Wharf.
These tour boats had well known names on the island - Rockefeller, Morgan.

We toured some of the Historic District

Most of the historic homes were only open to tours.

There was one withd an Art Museum and Gift Shop that we could visit.

This is Grace Torbet the artist who's painting Bob fell in love with. If you've seen a 34' Morgan sailboat or a similar size one, you know this painting won't fit for the trip home. Grace was kind enough to have it packaged and see that it was shipped to our daughter to hold for us. This is a beautiful view of the marsh looking out to the Brunswick Bridge.

Just a short distance from the Historic District is
The Georgia Sea Turtle Center.

When you first enter the building there's a Gift Shop and we all know how I love them. There's lots of turtle souvenior stuff as well as educational books and materials. It's also where you purchase your $6 ticket to enter the Turtle Center and Hospital. There were several school groups that passed through the center while we were there. It was all so interesting that we became as engrossed as the kids with turtle facts, the work being done here, and the turtles themselves.
This skeleton hangs over the entrance to the Center. Don't recall the statistics...VERY BIG!
There were learning stations throughout the room. You were given a book as your ticket to get in. To the left of the picture you see Fun Fact #1 where you get to stamp your book with an embosser to answer to question. There were 5 stations. Bob and I stamped our books....out of curiosity and for fun we put each stamp on our page. Guess it's a good thing we weren't with a teacher because we weren't following directions too well on that part. But we have a neat collection of embossed stamps.

These kids are gathered around a window into the treatment center.
Visitors can watch procedures through the large window or a video screen to the upper right.

You leave the Center and walk outside to the Rehabilitation Pavilion with an elevated walkway to allow visitors to watch veterinary care of injured and ill turtles. As I walked into the pavilion I was awe struck by the name of the first turtle we encountered.

Ovida is an unusual name.
This turtle was named Vida (means life in Spanish).

Vida had been fitted with a transmitter for tracking when released.
This made an "O" on her back. What are the odds?
You could only see this particular turtle in a mirror above the tank.

There were turtles there that had been shipped from the North due to cold damage of various types. The northern aquarium did not have room for them and contacted the Georgia Center as they knew they were doing research and treatment. The Center accepted them.
There were numerous terrapins (not actually a sea turtle) that are taken in at the center frequently because they were hit by a car. That was a terrapin with shell damage that was being worked on while we were in the center. Hatchlings and even nest eggs are cared for here.

This list corresponds with eggs rescued, numbered and hatched in the pavilion.
There were several containers of the still small hatchlings.

If you want to see and learn more about the turtles please go to
www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org
I'll be going there to watch the progress of "O"Vida.
Seems due to complications she's not being released as planned.
Come on girl, let's go. A long Life waits in that big ocean.

This has been another beautiful Georgia island adventure and as always we hate to leave. I especially will miss sitting in the swing on the deck hearing Olie's stories of the area, having bikes to tour on, those wonderfull showers, and leisure lunches on the deck of Sea Jays looking out at the pool and docks in the distance. However, HAKUNA MATATA is pulling at her dock lines ready to move on...