11/8/15  Tuesday

We decided to stay at anchor today and take a look at Sapelo Island, GA. Waved goodbye to our friends on R Dream, our Nova Scotia buddies, as they and Dana and Craig (both couples we met in Charleston) motored down river and safely into the next leg of their journey. Hopefully, we'll meet up again in a couple of days a little farther south.

David and I had pancakes for breakfast, packed our backpacks, loaded his bike on the dinghy and motored into the ferry landing. We called Cornelia to find an extra bike for me. She called Ken but couldn't find him (Ken rents bikes) so she sent her husband, Jules, to look for him. I told her we'd start walking in her direction.

So I walked and David rode...it IS his bike. It was SO beautiful. Bright sunny day, gentle breeze, no bugs, no sweat. We did slather ourselves with sun screen, though.

On the plantation rounds

Sun struck

Richard J. Reynolds, of the tobacco company in Winston-Salem, NC, owned the island from the 1930s (I think) until the early 1960s. So there is a Reynolda Manor (South), and restored and updated plantation.

Side entrance w/reindeer on the lawn for Christmas

Front door - sign says "Welcome"

Entrance plaza w/pool - the front door is behind me

We've met some very kind people along our way today. Cornelia's husband finally found us (and Ken, too?) along our way. He drove to get us a bike. Not sure what Ken was doing. Some young man gave David a ride to the next intersection and I rode the bike. Later in the day we re-met Yvonne, the Interpretive Guide from yesterday whose husband might have given us a private (less expensive) island tour had we been able to reach them soon enough this morning. Yvonne told me that when they are in the village (farther away from the mainland) the cell reception is lousy so she didn't get my text message until too late to accommodate us. We were totally happy on foot and on bike(s) though. Yvonne had about 19 people on her tour. She works for the State of Georgia giving tours of the island.

Made it to the beach which was expansive with shallow waves breaking in layers from shore to about 30 yards out.  

Waded in the warm Atlantic ocean

Wary resident - check out the shadow!

We ran into Yvonne again. She loaded our bikes into her pick-up and gave us a ride to Hog Hammock (the village, don't know about the name), to Cornelia's store. It was closed but Yvonne opened it for us and we bought ice cream and Cornelia's book, a history of the island and of Gullah/Geechee culture. Then Yvonne took us to our side of the island - her office is over here/there - and dropped us off so we wouldn't have so far to bike to the ferry dock.

Again we were riding through flat, wetlands with moss laden trees or long leaf pines on a one lane paved road. Quiet. Slow. Wonder-full. We arrived back at the ferry dock where the two men we talked w/this morning were still fishing. They'd come over from the mainland on the ferry and would be going back in another half hour...on the ferry.

I leaned my rented bike on the rail as instructed and David and I loaded his bike in the dinghy and boat home we went in time to watch the sun set.

Joy!      

Loving the beach...and each other