So we ended up spending 4 nights at anchor in St. Marys. The anchorage was busy, and tight, but we held well despite the back and forth of current and wind that kept us rotating all over the place.

We were in St. Marys after hearing about the city hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for crusiers. We learned that this has come to be a bit of a tradition from some 15 or so years ago when a group of curisers were stuck at St. Marys due to a hurricane and the city hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for them. I guess this has grown since then, and it's now a multi day event, with some workshops and get togethers and then a large Thanksgiving dinner.

This ended up being a great stop, and we met a bunch of other crusiers as well which was really nice. I do love hearing everyone's story of how they got here, why they are doing it, etc. I even bumped into some surprisingly local connections right back to our hometown marina, confirming that it is indeed a very small world.

I attended the anchoring and Bahamas cruising workshops which was quite productive. I've still got a lot to learn about The Bahamas, but it's starting to piece together a bit now. When we left I hadn't really given it any thought at all, with just "The Bahamas" as the destination, but of course it's not just one place you arrive at, it's a very large chain of islands. So we need some plans on where exactly we are going. I think when I left I had this idea that I'd have tons of free time to figure these things out along the way, but the reality is that we always seems to be super busy and rushed, and we only have time to do a fraction of the things we want. I wonder if that is just the way life is no matter what you are doing...

The Thanksgiving dinner was fantastic, a ton of great food, and we were privileged enough to spend it with a great group of people. We had a really wonderful time connecting and getting to know some of the other curisers there. We aren't very sociable people, so we often find these things difficult, but everyone is so welcoming and it was all very easy. Just an all around wonderful time.

I should also mention, St. Marys is a very beautiful small city. Wonderful waterfront park, and a ferry to Cumberland Island (we didn't take the ferry, but if you were here not by boat we'd recommend it). We didn't have time to do everything, but we did visit the Cumberland Island museum, and Aria and Theone did visit most of the shops. The Taco place was also worth the stop.

It was also nice to slow down a bit, and stay in one place for a moment. But Thanksgiving is now done, and it is starting to get cold here again, which means we need to continue south.