Log Book: December 10th

Conditions: S wind, 10 knots

Location: Shellbine Creek

This morning Dad and I went to a coffee shop in town at Brunswick Point and then ventured to the Winn Dixie to stock up on food. On our way back to the marina Dad and I decided to take a shortcut through the "bad part of town." It is hard to say what exactly I expected but it was surely not what we found. On the north side of town was poverty the likes of which I have never seen in the U.S. The houses were tiny and unkept. The sidewalks were strewn with trash. The shabbiness of the neighborhood was shocking when compared to the clean, upgraded Main Street just a block south. But it wasn't just the neighborhood fixtures that were upsetting. The people out on the streets, sitting in their lawns, sweeping their sidewalks were devoid of hope. The despondency of the residents hinted to the obvious inequality of the area. When Dad and I walked down the street you could cut the tension with a knife. It was nice to get back to the marina, to sail away and ignore what we had seen but we couldn't really ignore it at all. 

It had taken us so long to run our errands that we didn't get off the dock until twelve thirty. On our crossing through Jekyll Sound I got sea sick, the first time in more than three weeks. Luckily we didn't have much further to go. We pulled into Shellbine Creek behind a catamaran as sunset was looming. We were the only two boats in the creek. Dad was somewhat unhappy about the lack of wind coverage that the creek had to offer, but it was too dark to do anything about it. After we were settled Dad and I had a discussion on poverty, the factors that increase it, and the solutions to reduce it. We settled on one thing, that poverty and wealth, like most dichotomies, are not simple divisions of black and white, rich and poor. If that were true poverty could be easily reduced. The difference is much larger than access to green pieces of paper and so is the solution. 

What we ate: green beans & ribs

Spotted: frog legs in the "seafood" section of the grocery store