Brunswick, Georgia

We survived two busy days in Brunswick that included eating in three of our favorite restaurants, re-provisioning for the next leg of the trip, indulging in two dinners of fresh, local shrimp, having the boat's waste system repaired and getting the running gear cleaned.

Brunswick is an interesting place.  In the nineteenth century it was an important port and, therefore, a prosperous place.  Many lovely Victorian homes were built in town, around city park blocks, the same model used to develop what is now downtown Savannah.  During World War II Liberty ships were built in the shipyards in Brunswick.  But the post-war period wasn't kind to Brunswick and its surrounding county, Glynn County.  The port mainly off-loads imported cars these days and the two mainland businesses are paper plants and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

The main source of income in Glynn County is tourism.  Glynn County has three developed barrier islands: Jekyll Island, St. Simon's Island and Sea Island.  Jekyll Island used to be a part of the Georgia State park system.  It became too expensive to maintain and the state formed the Jekyll Island Authority to oversee ways it could become self-sustaining.  Among other things, this means many of the houses on the island are built on leased, not owned, land, which does weird things to housing prices.

Until the 1960s there were no bridges to the islands.  Locals tell me that the islands were mostly inhabited by African-Americans who came over in boats to work on the mainland each day.  After the bridges were built, the African-Americans moved to the mainland, selling their island properties to white folks who then turned the islands into resort destinations.  Rich people moved to the islands, poor folks moved to the mainland.

The third island, Sea Island, is where George W. Bush held a G8 conference in 2004.  It was developed as a private retreat for a rich automobile manufacturer in the 1920s and is still privately controlled today by the Sea Island Company.  The only public accommodations on Sea Island are at The Cloisters hotel complex, a very expensive waterfront hotel and spa.

Without these three islands and their tourism dollars, Brunswick and Glynn County would be a very depressed place.  But it is very boater friendly with three good marinas and easy access to most of the services boaters need.  So we had a good stop and got a lot done.