YeeHaw!

It's been a crazy few weeks, full of stress and excitement, and also some moments of unimaginable boredom.

The weeks running up towards putting Jim on a ship, involved putting lots of finishing touches to the interior, including blinds, cushions, curtains, , a mattress, hooks, a bin, a plastic bag holder, subwoofer grill bars, soap dispensers, shoe racks, a floor rug, a door matt, a toilet roll holder, a kitchen roll holder, and a washing line. In addition I installed the fresh water tank and two waste tanks, installed and calibrated the senders in each tank, and installed electric dump valves to each of the waste tanks. There were several items on my 'to-do list' which ultimately never got completed, but there was no mad rush to finish off critical systems at the last minute.

With such a multitude of changes having been installed since I last gave Jim any serious use, it was obviously important that we had a proper shakedown run to make sure that we could identify any problems and fix them before the big trip. With this in mind, we took the decision to spend one night in the truck on Bournemouth sea front before driving to the docks the next morning. Let it not be said that we aren't meticulous in planning and preparation!

Thankfully no major problems showed up; the beer was cold, the oven was hot, we were warm in bed, and we got to our destination without breaking down.

People talk about having separation anxiety, and I’m pretty sure that I know what they’re talking about now. The truck that I’ve spent several year of evenings and weekends, and six months of my life working on full-time, is now on a boat heading for Brunswick, Georgia, having spent a week sitting unattended at Southampton Port.

Whilst waiting for Jim to be loaded onto the ship, and start making his way slowly across the Atlantic, we had the inspiring job of emptying the contents of our house into cardboard boxes, moving the boxes to a loft, and thoroughly cleaning everything that was left in the house. I waved a tearful farewell to my welder and plasma cutter and left the house with the 6 suitcases of possessions which made the cut for a place in Jim's limited storage compartments.

After a relaxed 9 hours flight for me and Naomi, and a terrifying 15 hour imprisonment for Boris, we arrived in Orlando. With great intentions we had pre-booked a compact and efficient Toyota corolla in which to drive up to Brunswick to wait for Jim to arrive. I'm still not entirely sure how it happened, but we ended up being convinced to rent a Ford Crown Victoria, and so it was in this 4.6 litre V8 powered, 18 foot long, road going boat, that we ended up driving the 250 miles to Brunswick. We stopped for lunch at Joe's Crab Shack on Jacksonville beach, we ate a delicious plate of Queen Crab and stuffed Shrimp, and I decided that if I was going to be eating a lot of seafood, a huge beard is not the most practical facial adornment.

When I booked Jim onto the boat, the boat was due to arrive in Brunswick on the 19th December. By the time I dropped Jim at Southampton, this date had slipped by nearly two weeks. Having spent a lifetime using public transport in England, I'm used to major delays, but this stretched my patience. Thankfully the carrier were kind enough to put Jim onto an earlier sailing, which also running several weeks late from the schedule I received at the time of booking, is now due to arrive in three days. I therefore have a few days to kill in Brunswick.

The day after we arrived in this southern Georgian town we drove into the historic old centre, before taking a trip out to Jekyll Island. The old town is full of classic colonial architecture, huge timber houses with elaborate porches, parades of brick built shops, and pristine squares with fountains and lawns. It's a pretty centre, in an otherwise uninspiring town, but it would be difficult to describe it as bustling.

Jekyll Island is one of a number of islands forming the Golden Isles of Georgia, and is a privately run state park, costing 6$ per car for entry (10$ for oversize vehicles). I guess that there are many places along the coast to get similar beaches, dunes and marshy woodland without paying entry, but the facilities on Jekyll island are great and there is plenty to sea on a fairly small island. The place which stood out above the rest is Driftwood Beach on the north of the island. The beach is pristine, but what makes it unusual are the dead trees, left sticking out of the sand as the sea erodes the coastline.

We've now dropped the Crown Vic off, and have at least four days of carlessness to spend in a budeget hotel on the outskirts of Brunswick.