Aunt Aggie's Adventures: Darien, GA

We went across the St. Simons Sound this morning without incident.

We are at the free docks in Darien. This is a sweet town with a population of 1700, a wine bar, a hardware store, two antique stores, a gift store and at least two seafood restaurants within walking distance. A guy is selling fresh shrimp from the back of his pickup truck. On our walk we also passed beautiful old churches. There are oaks hanging with moss and squares that remind me of Savannah.

We had planned to anchor out tonight, but then we would just be sitting on the boat, watching the marshes from 1:00 pm til dark. We read about Darien on Active Captain, and here we are.
The dock master, David Butler, was helpful on the phone. He also came down and met us this afternoon. It is a do-it-yourself dock. Mr. Butler told us to look for the floating docks after we passed the shrimp docks. We did fine coming in and grabbing a cleat. Another boater on a C-Dory came over to assist. We came in at slack tide with no wind, so that was good.

My only problem was that I wanted to leave my first mate's post and take photos of the shrimp boats.

This is the view from the stern of Aunt Aggie.

The low tide almost did us in on the way up the Mud River before we met the Darien River. We were showing 3 feet of depth. We think we have one more foot than the gauge shows; however, 4 feet is still very low. George slowed down, and we puttered through a long stretch. Another trawler behind us called to check. Were we really seeing just 4 feet? Yes! Neither of us ran aground.

We have free water and electricity and space. What a deal! So we walked around town and spent money at the hardware store. I bought a pot, soil, a basil plant and six lettuce plants. I planted them out on the dock. Any day now we will be eating "free" salads.