Connect Savannah I April 2024

SAVANNAH SHRIMPERS: A life and career on the water

ADMINISTRATIVE

RUFUS FRIDAY PUBLISHER rufusfriday@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4380

ERICA BASKIN DIRECTOR OF EVENTS AND COMMUNITY ericabaskin@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4378

WENDY WICKHAM BUSINESS MANAGER wendy@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4373

CONTENT

ERICA LANG EDITOR elang@connectsavannah.com (912) 428-7648

TRAVIS JAUDON REPORTER travisjaudon@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4358

MCKENNAH SINK MULTIMEDIA DESIGNER (912) 721-4354

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS

Chantel Britton, Jesse Blanco, Beth Logan, Heidi Fedak, Frank Ricci, Nathan Dominitz

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LOGAN HINTON DIGITAL SALES MANAGER logan@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4369

BUCKY BRYANT STRATEGIC MARKETING CONSULTANT bucky@connectsavannah.com (912) 721-4381

VICTORIA BUNSTINE STRATEGIC MARKETING CONSULTANT victoriabunstine@connectsavannah.com

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WAYNE FRANKLIN DISTRIBUTION MANAGER (912) 721-4376

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Welcome readers to our April issue where we explore the vibrant tapestry of culture, history, and natural beauty that make Savannah and coastal Georgia an incredible place to live and work. In this issue, we dive into stories that set our community apart and together celebrate the people that can only be found on our “Savannah Shores.” This coastal edition will have you ready to set sail into the spring.

Our introduction story with David Jones, an administrator at Pin Point Heritage Museum, works to educate the public about Savannah’s important Gullah/Geechee community. Art columnist Beth Logan takes a look at Katherine Sandoz’s water filled world. Our music story highlights the multifaceted talents of Kevin Rose–a musician, architect and fishing guide. Yes, you read that right!

It’s smooth sailing for the Geechee Sailing Club- a group of friends who have bonded over their high sea adventures. We also explore Savannah’s maritime history with a feature on Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum. Executive Director Molly Taylor is captaining her vision for the museum’s future

while navigating its important past. Food columnist Jesse Blanco gives his thoughts on what could be a rising tide on Savannah’s food scene. We also take a deeper look at the Georgia Ports Authority–a bustling industry that shapes our region. Nathan Dominitz shares the intricate web of trade and commerce that makes us an important port city.

Our cover story by Erica Lang sheds light on longtime Savannah shrimpers who will soon start a new season of uncertainty, possibilities and hope. For years, they’ve been fighting to sustain their way of life as low-cost imports flood and dominate the domestic market. Local shrimpers are optimistic that through more education about wild caught Georgia shrimp, consumers will help be a part of the solution.

Savannah’s charm, from its scenic coastlines to bustling historic streets, remains ever inspiring. We hope you enjoy this issue and until next month may Savannah’s spirit enlighten your path.

Sincerely,

RUFUS FRIDAY PUBLISHER

OUR VALUES

Connect Savannah is an arts, entertainment and news magazine, focused on Savannah and the Coastal Empire life and experience. We strive to feature stories that impact our community and the people who live here— to educate, entertain, inform and foster conversation.

We appreciate and encourage readers to share news and information with us, and to share any criticism and questions.

We want to be your comprehensive source for what happens in our community and beyond. We are here to serve you.

Find us on the following social media platforms or reach out to us at news@connectsavannah.com or 912-721-4378.

 APRIL SCHEDULE

TUESDAY, APRIL 2

12:30 PM SEBASTIAN KNAUER, PIANO

Trinity United Methodist Church | $45

7 PM TISRA: ZAKIR HUSSAIN TRIO Trustees Theater | $45

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3

4:30 & 8 PM

WARREN WOLF & WOLFPACK / ISAIAH J. THOMPSON QUARTET

Metal Building at Trustees' Garden | $42

7:30 PM ROSANNE CASH WITH JOHN LEVENTHAL

Lucas Theatre for the Arts $81 (Gold Circle), $69, $59, $49, $39

THURSDAY, APRIL 4

12:30 PM NOON30: ISAIAH J. THOMPSON DUO

5 & 8:30 PM

Metal Building at Trustees' Garden | $32

STEPHANE WREMBEL QUARTET / TATIANA EVA-MARIE & AVALON

JAZZ BAND

Metal Building at Trustees' Garden | $42

6 PM PHILIP DUKES & FRIENDS I

Trinity United Methodist Church | $52

8 PM RICKY SKAGGS & KENTUCKY THUNDER

Lucas Theatre for the Arts $81 (Gold Circle), $69, $59, $49, $39

FRIDAY, APRIL 5

12:30 PM NOON30: STEPHANE WREMBEL QUARTET

Metal Building at Trustees' Garden | $32

5:30 & 9 PM DUMPSTAPHUNK / CHA WA

North Garden Assembly Room at Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum | $42

6 PM ESCHER STRING QUARTET

FEAT. PHILIP DUKES

Trinity United Methodist Church | $57

8 PM DOC AND EARL: DOC AT 100 / TONY TRISCHKA’S EARLJAM

Metal Building at Trustees' Garden | $42

SATURDAY, APRIL 6

12:30 PM NOON30: TONY TRISCHKA

Metal Building at Trustees' Garden | $32

4:30 & 7 PM CAJUN DANCE PARTY: THE SAVOY FAMILY CAJUN BAND Metal Building at Trustees' Garden | $42

6 PM PHILIP DUKES & FRIENDS II

6 & 9 PM

Trinity United Methodist Church | $52

LATIN DANCE PARTY: ORQUESTA AKOKÁN

North Garden Assembly Room at Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum | $42

8 PM CHRISTONE “KINGFISH” INGRAM

Lucas Theatre for the Arts

$81 (Gold Circle), $69, $59, $49, $39

SUNDAY, APRIL 7

3 PM MICHAEL COLLINS & FRIENDS

Trinity United Methodist Church | $45

3 & 7 PM THE PO' RAMBLIN BOYS / AJ LEE & BLUE SUMMIT

North Garden Assembly Room at Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum | $42

TUESDAY, APRIL 9

5 & 8 PM KAIA KATER / VIV & RILEY Metal Building at Trustees' Garden | $42

6 PM PHILIP DUKES & FRIENDS III

Savannah Cultural Arts Center | $52

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10

5 & 8:30 PM BRANDEE YOUNGER TRIO / IMMANUEL WILKINS QUARTET Metal Building at Trustees' Garden | $45

7:30 PM MUDDY AND WOLF REVISITED: A TRIBUTE TO MUDDY WATERS AND HOWLIN' WOLF FEAT. BOBBY RUSH & NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS

Lucas Theatre for the Arts

$81 (Gold Circle), $69, $59, $49, $39

THURSDAY, APRIL 11

12:30 PM NOON30: BRANDEE YOUNGER TRIO Metal Building at Trustees' Garden | $35

6 PM PHILIP DUKES & FRIENDS IV

Trinity United Methodist Church | $52

7 PM MADISON CUNNINGHAM / JUANA MOLINA

Trustees Theater | $42

FRIDAY, APRIL 12

6 PM EMANUEL AX, PIANO

Trinity United Methodist Church | $65

6 & 8:30 PM AMY HELM

Metal Building at Trustees’ Garden | $42

7:30 PM MATTHEW WHITAKER Trustees Theater | $45

8:30 PM MIGHTY POPLAR

Lucas Theatre for the Arts

$81 (Gold Circle), $69, $59, $49, $39

SATURDAY, APRIL 13

3 PM ISLAND PRAYERS: TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET Trustees Theater | $52

7:30 PM SOLEDAD BARRIO & NOCHE FLAMENCA: SEARCHING FOR GOYA

Lucas Theatre for the Arts

$81 (Gold Circle), $69, $59, $49, $39

8 PM CLOSING NIGHT PARTY: REBIRTH BRASS BAND / EDDIE 9V Metal Building at Trustees’ Garden | $42

CLOSING NIGHT PARTY!

SAVANNAH MUSIC FESTIVAL

APRIL 1-13

The Savannah Music Festival (SMF) – known for its unique mix of jazz, classical and American and global roots music programs presented in venues across Savannah’s National Historic Landmark District – will run from Thursday, March 28 through Saturday, April 13, 2024.

SCADSTYLE

APRIL 9-11

SCADstyle is back! Experience what’s now and what’s next at the university’s exclusive design summit as icons across industries share aesthetic insights only with SCAD. Meet today’s forces of style and set the pace for your own thriving career. From fashion, interiors, and structures to beauty, forecasting, and content creation, SCADstyle is the ultimate guide to designing your story.SCADstyle events are free and open to the public.

BIRDIES & EAGLES A MINI-GOLF TOURNAMENT AT BOGEYS

APRIL 11

Mini-Golf Fundraising Event to benefit and celebrate Oatland Island Wildlife Center’s 50th Anniversary, “Birdies and Eagles at Bogey’s”. Tickets include: 1 round of mini-golf, pizza and a drink ticket. 5-9 pm All Ages After 9pm 21 . There will be Oatland Ambassador Animals on-site, activities and raffles. Prizes for every division.

THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE - FEFC THEATER ENSEMBLE

APRIL 12

Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of Narnia with FEFC Theatre Ensemble’s rendition of “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.” Journey alongside Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy as they confront the villainous White

CANOOCHEE PADDLE RACE

Witch and unite with the noble Aslan to fulfill a prophecy and end eternal winter. Through their courage and determination, they embark on a quest that transcends mere adventure, delving into themes of friendship, sacrifice, and the triumph of hope over despair. Tybee Post Theater.

ARDSLEY TOUR OF HOMES & GARDENS

APRIL 13

Join the Ardsley Park / Chatham Crescent Garden Club for an exciting day exploring several historic homes and gardens in one of Savannah’s most beautiful neighborhoods, Ardsley Park. While on the tour, you will get an up-close look at the beautiful interiors and gardens of these homes. Each one has a unique style and personal charm of the homeowner. Our docents go to great lengths to share the history of the home and key elements the homeowner wishes to share with you. In

BLESSING OF THE FLEET I APRIL 27 I 11:00AM - 4:00PM I THUNDERBOLT

Photo from Blessing of the Fleet

HIGHLIGHTED PICKS FROM HOSTESS CITY HAPPENINGS THIS MONTH

To have your event considered for inclusion, please visit connectsavannah.com and enter your event in our online calendar. There, you can manage your entries, change and add dates, times, etc.

addition to Ardsley’s fine architecture, its landscape and urban design features make it distinctive. Key entrances are marked with iconic terra cotta topped pillars. Streets are lined with majestic live oak trees draped in Spanish moss. The area has an abundance of lush azaleas and other large shrubs that decorate the neighborhood, private lanes and public spaces. If you like history, historic architecture, or simply looking for decorating inspiration, you won’t want to miss this tour. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

CANOOCHEE PADDLE RACE

APRIL 13

Ogeechee Riverkeeper (ORK) will host the Canoochee Paddle Race in Evans County, Georgia. The race will begin at noon, with fun paddlers to follow.The race will take place along approximately seven miles of the Canoochee River, from Brewton Bridge to Rocks River Bridge landing. Rocks River Bridge landing will also serve as the headquarters for the awards presentation, winners circle, food vendors, and entertainment. Everyone is welcome to come cheer for the racers and enjoy a day out by the river.

56TH RBC HERITAGE TOURNAMENT

APRIL 15-21

The RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing will be one of eight Signature Events with limited field sizes on the 2024 PGA TOUR schedule.

The 56th event will be conducted April 15-21 over the Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Each of the eight events will feature a $20 million purse, a limited field and will offer 700 FedEx Cup points to the winner. Five of the Signature Events, including the RBC Heritage, will not have a cut.

SUN ROOM

APRIL 19

Born and raised in SoCal’s surf-rock scene, Sun Room, quickly went from getting the cops called on them for playing too loudly at house shows to performing their music in sold out room across dozens of countries. After a series of unexpected viral moments, two of their songs were included on the hit Netflix series, Outer Banks, which continued the wave of excitement online. So within just six months

of the band forming, Sun Room went on to sell out a run of shows across the US, support Louis Tomlinson’s North and South American tour, and support Inhaler in Europe. Sun Room is gearing up for another busy year of touring, working with dream collaborators, and still finding time to make it back to Southern California to surf with friends.

3RD ANNUAL GREEN GALA

APRIL 20

Join Savannah Tree Foundation as we gather in the heart of our iconic urban forest to celebrate our trees and honor our 2024 Tree Champion, Audrey Platt. Enjoy an eco-friendly evening with cocktails, a sustainably sourced four-course dinner, live music, and a silent auction in support of our mission.

2024 SAVANNAH CHALLENGER

APRIL 22 - 28

In its 14th year, the 2024 Savannah Challenger is a week-long tournament hosted by the Landings Club at the Franklin Creek Tennis center on Skidaway island. This tennis tournament attracts a multitude of affluent tennis fans from the Landings community and from around the entire Low Country region.This USTA ATP tournament is part of the worldwide ATP Challenger series, which brings some of the world’s finest tennis players to our city. Past contestants include: John Isner, Daniel Medvedev, Denis Shapavolov, Nick Kyrgios, Kei Nishikori, Jack Sock, Ryan Harrison and Reilly Opelka to name a few!

THE WAILERS - REGGAE

APRIL 25

Their culture-defining music, embodying the spirit of the 70s reggae movement, has left an indelible mark on the industry. Experience the magic of their timeless classics and incredible cuts from Bob Marley’s vast repertoire in a set that is truly unforgettable. Under the guidance of Aston Barrett Jr, son of the legendary “Familyman”, The Wailers continue to preserve the legacy of their iconic sound. In 2020, The Wailers made a comeback with their new album, “One World,” produced by Emilio Estefan. The first single, “One World, One Prayer”, is a powerful anthem for unity, love, and inclusivity, and features a blend of Jamaican reggae and urban Latin music.

FOT GARDEN PARTY WITH EMILY MCCARTHY

APRIL 25

Celebrate Spring in sparkling style at this annual favorite event presented by Telfair’s affinity group The Friends of the OwensThomas House (FOT) and in collaboration with Emily McCarthy. Enjoy bubbly beverages, light bites, music, and a special fashion presentation by Emily McCarthy, featuring her collaboration with local artist Bellamy Murphy. This fun, flirty evening is the perfect way to welcome springtime to Savannah!

BLESSING OF THE FLEET

APRIL

27

The Town of Thunderbolt announces the third annual Blessing of the Fleet, and invites individuals, groups, and corporations to join in the maritime celebration. This year’s festival will take place on Saturday, April 27, 2024, from 11 am to 4 pm on River Drive along the Wilmington River in Thunderbolt. In its second year, Thunderbolt Blessing of the Fleet attracted more than 5,000 attendees to this free, family-friendly event. Guests enjoyed more than 90 high-quality vendors, offering a wide range of food, art, crafts, clothing, and more.

2024 TRUSTEES GALA

APRIL 27

The Georgia Trustees is a recognition as old as Georgia and is today the highest honor the state can confer. In conjunction with the Governor’s Office, the Georgia Historical Society reestablished the Georgia Trustees to recognize Georgians whose accomplishments and community service reflect the highest ideals of the founding body of Trustees. Join the Georgia Historical Society and leaders from across the state as we induct the 2024 Georgia Trustees, Ms. Carol Tomé, Chief Executive Officer of United Parcel Service (UPS), and Dr. Louis Sullivan, 17th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services and Founding Dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine, on Saturday, April 27, 2024, in Savannah. This elegant evening includes cocktails, dinner, and a lively conversation with the inductees—two exemplary Georgians whose history-making accomplishments and service reflect the original Trustees’ ideals.

PLAN YOUR APRIL NOW:

Visit ConnectSavannah.com to find our 24/7, comprehensive list of all the things to do in Savannah this month. From theater performances to live music shows, art exhibitions to food festivals, Connect Savannah has got you covered. So, check out the website now and start planning your perfect month in the Hostess City today!

INTRODUCTIONS: MEET DAVID JONES

ADMINISTRATOR AT PIN POINT HERITAGE MUSEUM EDUCATING THE PUBLIC ABOUT SAVANNAH’S GULLAH/GEECHEE COMMUNITY

Located on the bank of Savannah’s picturesque Moon River, Pin Point is a community of Gullah/Geechee residents who have inhabited the area since the late 1800s. There, visitors will find Pin Point Heritage Museum, which tells the story of this community through engaging exhibitions in the former A.S. Varn & Son Oyster and Crab Factory where many of Pin Point’s community members worked. Since its founding, the museum, which is a part of the Coastal Heritage Society, has welcomed visitors to learn about the history and culture of this tight knit African American fishing community, presenting a unique opportunity to learn about Gullah language, foodways and traditions.

David Jones, the site administrator at Pin Point Heritage Museum, has worked to educate the public about this local

cultural treasure since he came onboard initially as a resource educator in August of 2018. Through the years, Jones has relished every opportunity to engage the public in learning about Savannah’s long standing Gullah/Geechee community at Pin Point.

“Since its beginning in the 19th century, Pin Point was a self-sufficient community, living off the land in coastal waterways,” said Jones. “Currently there are 100 to 150 residents.”

From the 1890s when Pin Point was founded to present day, the community members subsisted on the bounty of the river, with many residents working in the local oyster factory from childhood into adulthood. The coast is an indelible contributor to their culinary culture, with rice and seafood as important staples of their diet. Many of their

dietary practices came to them from their African ancestors who were stolen across the Atlantic during the Middle Passage. Likewise, the language links back to Africa with influences from the cultures encountered along the way to the Americas.

“The Gullah language comes from various African languages, not just West African, as well as European languages blending together. As slave ships crossed the Atlantic, some arrived in the Caribbean. This is how we get what is known as Patois. While others would continue west and reach Louisiana. This is how what we Americans call Creole develops. While between North Carolina and Northern Florida, along the rice plantations, Gullah/Geechee language would form in their ancestors’ isolation,” said Jones.

ABOVE: Pin Point Heritage Museum, Savannah, GA, LEFT: David Jones, Administrator PPHM

COMMUNITY

There is a point of distinction between the terms Gullah and Geechee, and it differs for each community.

“In Pin Point, Gullah is the language and Geechee are the people, but that’s not true for every community. In some places, people identify as being Gullah and speaking Geechee; it depends on where you are,” he said, adding that both of these terms originate from Africa with Gullah being derived from Gola, a West African ethnic group, while Geechee is believed to be derived from Kissi, another West African group.

While the Gullah/Geechee culture maintains its ties to Africa, it is a unique facet of American history and culture with great local significance that people should want to know more about. Despite being somewhat hidden from mainstream society, the Pin Point community continues to thrive, and the museum implores visitors from near and far to come out and experience this vibrant community and culture.

“The Gullah/Geechee culture is still alive today, even though it may not jump out at you within Savannah.

It has woven itself into Southern and American culture,” said Jones.

Gail Smith, a historical interpreter at

the museum and member of the Pin Point community had this to say about her upbringing within the Gullah/Geechee culture:

“From the time we were able to walk and talk, we were taught to put our faith in God first and be respectful to each other, which made and shaped me into the person I am today.”

Jones encourages people to visit the museum and take advantage of other opportunities to connect with Savannah’s Gullah/Geechee history and heritage.

“People can learn more about Savannah’s Gullah/Geechee culture by visiting the Pin Point Heritage Museum and seeking out other cultural educators such as Gilbert Walker, the blacksmith; Georgia Benton of the First Bryan Church; the Freedom Trail and many other great resources here in the Savannah area.”

Pin Point Heritage Museum is located at 9924 Pin Point Ave. The museum is open Thursday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. To learn more, visit chsgeorgia.org/ phm.

- By Chantel Britton

ABOVE & BELOW: Pin Point Heritage Museum Tour, Savannah, GA

BUSIER THAN EVER: THE PORT OF SAVANNAH BRINGS THE WORLD TO OUR SHORES

By Nathan Dominitz COMMUNITY REPORTER

You don’t have to go to the Port of Savannah to appreciate the massive facility’s impact on the city.

You can literally feel its long history as a gateway to international trade by taking a walk downtown by the Savannah River. Evidence is right at your feet.

“A lot of folks who come and go up and down River Street never pay attention to the cobblestones unless they tripped over them,” Lee Beckmann said.

Beckmann is the Georgia Ports Authority’s General Manager of Community and Governmental Affairs. It’s a long title, one he’s held for more than 20 years, that boils down to being a liaison to state agencies, the public and public servants to explain what the GPA does.

The Savannah native has an appreciation for local history and how his hometown came to be. Settled on a bluff along the river for practical and strategic reasons, Savannah is a port city.

“As Georgia’s first city, that connection to the water is the basis of our origin story as a state,” Beckmann said.

This is where the cobblestones come in. Wooden vessels sailing from Europe to collect cargo in Savannah used ballast stones to stay upright in the water. The stones were removed at the port and replaced by commodities being exported from Georgia.

“So that’s where those cobblestones came from, and it’s that connection to the world that I think folks kind of take for granted now,” Beckmann said.

The ships have changed, of course, and grown exponentially, and so has the port, which today boasts of being the fastest-growing container terminal in the United States. About 92 percent of its business is containers.

Savannah is the busiest container port in the Southeast, second on the

East Coast to New York/New Jersey and third in the country, with Los Angeles/ Long Beach, Calif., atop the list.

The Port of Savannah moves about 14,000 containers by truck on an average weekday, and in 2023 counted more than 3 million transactions through its gates. For example, a truck picking up one container is a single transaction, as is dropping off a container. A truck doing both pickup and delivery is two transactions.

Savannah isn’t LA or New York, but it has several advantages.

“The big difference is Los Angeles/ Long Beach and New York have massive metropolitan populations right outside their gates, whereas we don’t,” Beckmann said. “We don’t have the congestion that’s created by tens of millions of people right outside our gates, either.”

From a customer perspective, trucks are navigating traffic through Garden City or Port Wentworth, not LA or New York. Because of the port’s location on the west side of Savannah, the most congested parts of the city are avoided. Garden City Terminal is about 5 miles from Interstate 95 for the North-South deliveries and 6 miles from I-16 for the East-West routes.

Then there’s the on-terminal system, Mason Mega Rail Terminal, with lines accessed by CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern freight railroad companies. As opposed to a truck, which has a 100,000-pound gross weight limit (including the container, the truck cab and chassis) on roads, railroad cars are not restricted. Each one can take a full container, or double-stack them.

“Essentially, you can take two trucks

LEFT: Photos from gaports.com, ABOVE: MarcoPolo-003

off the road for every fully loaded box you can put onto a train,” said Beckmann, noting that the rail system at the port avoids the need to drive containers to an off-terminal railyard.

“You are seeing a reduction in traffic on local roads because of that direct access.”

Railroads are more cost-effective than trucks in connecting the port to inland destinations such as Chicago, Dallas and Memphis in a matter of days.

The industry standard of measurement is a TEU -- twenty-foot equivalent unit. Small containers are 20 feet long, much more common is 40 feet. Beckmann said Savannah moved 5 million TEUs in the 2023 calendar year, 5.4 million in the fiscal year (July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023).

NUMBERS GOING UP

On March 4, the GPA announced it handled 451,670 TEUs in February, a 14.4 percent increase (56,880) from the same month in 2023. Loaded import containers went up 19 percent to 219,000, with exports gaining by 10 percent to 121,930.

“I’d like to thank our customers for making Savannah the premier gateway into the U.S. Southeast for global commerce,” GPA President and CEO Griff Lynch said in the news release. “The region’s fast-growing population, and an increasing number of manufacturing and logistics operations are both factors in the long-term expansion of trade through Georgia.”

Vessels coming into port when Beckmann started held just under 5,000 container units, and 20-plus years later, some can transport 16,000 TEUs.

“Fun fact,” said Edward Fulford, GPA’s manager of media relations, “if a vessel came to us fully loaded with 16,000 TEUs and you lined all of those containers up in a row, they’d stretch for 60 miles.”

Fortunately, the port is designed to handle it. Fulford said a truck driver making a one-box run (pickup or delivery) can get in and out in about 32 minutes on average; a two-box run may take about 54 minutes.

“In our industry, compared to other major container ports, that’s very fast,” said Fulford, noting that moving a container from a ship to a departing train is “blazingly fast” at 24-36 hours.

Time factors might include paperwork

and bill collection as well as shipments clearing customs and inspections. The port has another advantage in that the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection have their own facility on the campus, a real time-saver logistically.

A foundational advantage is the GPA, as a state entity, is the owner and operator of the Garden City and Ocean terminals in Savannah. Ports outside of Georgia might be publicly owned by a state, county or city, Beckmann said, but they might lease operations to a private third party. A private business would have a profit motive when moving cargo.

“Our role as a state entity is primarily to create revenue for the state through business taxes and create jobs for the state through international trade,” Beckmann said.

ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY

According to the most recent study for fiscal year 2021 and published in June 2022, Georgia’s deepwater ports -- Savannah and Brunswick -- had an impact of $140 billion on the state economy, which was 12 percent of total sales in the Peach State.

Every dollar initially spent by the ports industry and ports users generated an additional 70 cents for the economy.

The ports contributed $33 billion in income, which was 6 percent of Georgia’s total personal income. The ports industry accounted for $3 billion (8 percent), of which the Port of Savannah contributed 89 of that amount. Port users accounted for a $30 billion income impact, or 92 percent of the total.

Georgia’s deepwater ports supported 561,087 full- and part-time jobs (from direct, indirect or induced effect of spending), which was 11 percent of the state’s total employment. One of every nine jobs in the state was in some way dependent on the ports.

The impact of jobs in FY2021 included 51,919 employed full or part-time in Chatham County, 2,302 in Bryan and 4,819 in Effingham.

The ports generated $7.4 billion in federal taxes, $2 billion in state taxes and $1.8 billion in local taxes.

The University of Georgia’s Selig Center of Economic Growth, at the Terry College of Business, conducted the study and is working on an update.

“Our role in this operator sense is to move the cargo as efficiently as possible,” Beckmann said, “but because

ABOVE: Georgia Ports, Mason Mega Rail Aerial

we don’t have that motive for profit, we put the money we generate here back into our facilities to maximize efficiency and our capacity,” Beckmann said.

The port has room to grow, with about 1,500 acres at Garden City Terminal (along with 200 acres at Ocean Terminal under the Talmadge Bridge). With nearly 10,000 feet of contiguous berth space, the port can adapt to changing schedules. Beckmann said with efficiency in mind, the port strives to keep capacity at 20 percent over demand to accommodate daily fluctuations in cargo movements.

The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, completed in March 2022, deepened the channel from 42 to 47 feet, but there’s more work to be done to make sure the massive ships have the necessary clearance in the future to come in and out of the Port of Savannah.

In addition to the parameters of depth and width, there is height, with the air draft, or clearance, limited to 185 feet by the Talmadge Bridge spanning the Savannah River.

The Georgia Department of Transportation has a maintenance project starting in 2025 to replace the existing cables of the 33-year-old structure and raise the bridge over the shipping channel by as much as 20 feet. The bridge would remain open during this process.

The Georgia DOT is evaluating the next step for a long-term solution, with no timeline set: replace the bridge with a taller one with a 230-foot clearance,

or dig a tunnel underneath the river and make air draft a non-factor. Either way, the cost is high at more than $1 billion.

EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE

Among the investments in infrastructure was a $220 million development which increased rail capacity to 1 million containers per year, rerouted trains away from neighborhood crossings and brought rail switching onto the port -- actions that improved efficiency and safety.

Mason Mega Rail has 24 miles of track on 85 acres at Garden City Terminal, making it the largest marine terminal rail facility in North America, the GPA said.

In the March release, the GPA said intermodal rail cargo set a record for February, increasing 39 percent from the same month in 2023 to 46,890 containers. Rail accounted for 19 percent, and trucks 81 percent of container trade in February.

There are other recent improvements, including Garden City Terminal’s Berth 1, which re-opened in July 2023 with 25 percent more capacity, or 1.5 million TEUs.

The dock alignment was reconfigured, adding another berth to accommodate more 16,000-TEU ships.

Also last year, GPA added eight new ship-to-shore cranes, including the

largest on the U.S. East Coast, able to serve vessels with a capacity up to 22,000 TEUs -- for a total of 34 cranes at Garden City Terminal.

The GPA plans to invest nearly $4.5 billion in infrastructure in the next 10 years, including an increase of Savannah’s capacity to 10 million TEUs annually by 2030.

ABOVE: Georgia Ports, Hapag Lloyd, BELOW: Georgia Ports, Mason Mega Rail

By Erica Lang

Calvin Wayne Photography

LOCAL SHRIMPERS ENCOURAGE CONSUMERS TO EAT MORE WILD CAUGHT GEORGIA SHRIMP

It’s quiet at the Lazaretto Creek dock Pat Mathews has operated for thirty years, but hopefully not for long. When Coastal Georgia’s shrimping season starts again this spring and summer, shrimpers are optimistic it will be better than the last one—for some, it must be.

In a word, “difficult,” said Dee Kicklighter of their most recent shrimping season. Kicklighter, who has worked with Mathews for about eight years, has seen first-hand how the unpredictability of the business can be costly. “You plan for something to be one price, and then the next week you come back, and it could be potentially thousands of dollars more, depending on what you’re dealing with,” he said of fluctuating prices, including fuel.

Over the years, Mathews said the ever-changing cost of fuel has taken a toll on the number of shrimpers in the industry. “We had about 15 shrimp boats here at the time,” he remembers, when he started managing his family’s Tybee dock and Lazaretto Packing Co. in 1993. “It was a thriving industry. We were all doing great,” he said.

Since then, the price of diesel has more than tripled, narrowing profit margins to the point that many local shrimpers have opted to stay dockside. According to the Coastal Resources Division of Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources, in 1998 the state issued 520 permits for commercial shrimp trawling. In 2023, 209 permits were issued—a 60 percent decrease over the last 25 years.

As a business that tends to be generational, it’s easy for shrimpers to see how much has changed over the years. Mathews is the fourth generation of a family who has been in the seafood industry for over a century. “My great grandfather was in the seafood business in Savannah. He started out in Bay Lane.” Their family seafood market, Frank Mathews Seafood, was run by his grandfather, then father until nearly 2000 at Congress and Barnard.

“I just do it because it’s in my blood,” said Mathews.

JUMBO PROBLEMS SERVED

In the mid 1970s, domestic and foreign sources supplied roughly the same number of shrimp to the U.S. market, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That changed in the early 2000s when low-cost imports first started flooding the market.

The report “A Crisis of Our Own Making” published by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, describes the role of international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, in funding shrimp aquaculture and “pouring billions of dollars to spread the industry throughout Asia and Latin America,” substantially injuring the American shrimp industry.

India, Ecuador, Indonesia and Vietnam are the top four suppliers of imported shrimp, which today makes up about 90 percent of the U.S. market.

Many shrimpers will cite the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which reduced trade barriers with Canada and Mexico, as one of the first causes for the market’s decline. Federal trade laws, unfair competition, and the lack of tariffs also boil the pot, they say.

“Most of the challenges today revolve around federal trade issues and quite frankly, the inability or the unwillingness of our federal government to combat unfair trade practices,” said Georgia State Representative Jesse Petrea.

“You have countries like Ecuador who intentionally dump, pour in masses of foreign, pond raised shrimp

LEFT PAGE: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Jeff Dubberly, Pat Mathews, Stevie Morrison, Paige Morrison, Mike Dubberly, Michael Sullivan, ABOVE: Dee Kicklighter, Michael Sullivan

into the American market, and they do that oftentimes intentionally to dominate the market,” Petrea said. “Some of these countries are paying no tariffs, there’s no tariffs at all.”

Those challenges weigh heavily on coastal Georgia shrimpers.

“This is all I’ve ever done, and it’s just gotten so bad in the last couple of years that it’s hard to make any money…and it’s just getting worse and worse every year,” said Jeff Dubberly, whose family has owned and operated a dock in Coffee Bluff since the early ‘70s.

In addition to their dock and boats, Jeff and his brother Mike oversee Dubberly’s Seafood and know all too well competing with foreign imports is risky business. Referring to this past shrimping season, Mike said, “We had an abundance of shrimp, but the actual prices that we were receiving were almost so low that you could [barely] break even.”

In 2023, the average price per pound was $3.61, according to the Georgia DNR, a number that has been in severe decline over the past several decades.

Walter “Big John” Smith Jr. of Smith & Sons Seafood in Darien, Georgia has been running his family’s shrimp processing business for 33 years. The business was started in 1955 by his father, Walter “WM” Smith Sr., and today includes a large network of docks from Virginia all the way to Texas. “Mostly we

buy from the docks where the boats sell to the dock and we’ll go by and pick up the product, bring it back out for selling and we’ll process it. We sell a lot of it fresh to grocery store chains up the East Coast,” Smith said.

Smith, who once had several pickup locations in the greater Savannah area, now only has two—Lazaretto Packing Co. and Nelson’s Quality Shrimp Company.

Increasing labor costs, the price of packaging materials, and competition with imports make keeping up with prices immensely challenging. “You have all these things going up and shrimp is not going up, it’s actually going down due to so much volume,” he said.

Relief came during the COVID-19 pandemic when imports came to a halt, but as international shipping started up again, those moments of reprieve quickly dissipated. “During COVID, a lot of containers coming from overseas were delayed. So, when those containers hit, they all hit at one time,” said Smith, who still has shrimp from last year.

“We’re sitting on over 10 million dollars worth of product.”

It’s not just Georgia shrimpers contending with the negative effects from imports. North Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, Florida and other coastal states are also feeling the friction of narrowing profit margins that threaten their way of life.

On Nov. 14 2023, the U.S. Department

of Commerce International Trade Administration initiated an antidumping and countervailing duty investigation after the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) filed a petition. On Dec. 8, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) determined “that there is a reasonable indication that a U.S. industry is materially injured by reason of imports.” Ecuador, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam were cited as the key countries negatively impacting the U.S.

The Trade Administration is continuing their examination of countervailing duty and less-thanfair-value investigations, with a final determination deadline scheduled this spring.

Smith has been a member of the American Shrimp Processors Association for about 10 years and is hopeful the investigation will lead to more tariffs on imports. “We’re going to try to get some of this tariff collected and send it back to the industry to help with insurance and fuel and repair on boats and give everybody a jump start again,” he said.

“You’re not competing against another company,” said Pat Mathews. “You’re competing against another country, that’s the problem.”

A SHRIMP STATE OF MIND

Paige Morrison has been outspoken about her views to support the shrimpers and protect their livelihood. From where she’s standing, advocating for them means supporting her own family since Morrison has been married to a shrimper, Stevie, for 35 years.

In July, 2023 she founded the Georgia Commercial Fisherman’s Association (GACFA) and became its president. “When I first met my husband, I didn’t know that shrimp had heads. It was a shock to me. Now I’m running an eightstate coalition for shrimping.”

Morrison also serves as the state of Georgia’s director for the U.S. Shrimpers Coalition, which represents eight coastal states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

She went from here to Texas, visiting shrimpers and talking to them about starting up their shrimp associations again. “This has been an important step, for all of these states, for us, to get all this going to revive [it] and we’re going to take back our market.”

“Since Paige has taken over, she’s

really gotten a lot of interest back into it and I think that this new association we have is going to be really helpful,” Mike Dubberly said.

The U.S. Shrimpers Coalition and the GACFA is focusing on addressing the need for better oversight and testing of imported shrimp, as well as imposing tariffs and fair trade and more protections for shrimpers. “We’re working with legislators to get not only state laws but federal laws [passed]. We’re working with Senator Warnock’s office, Senator Ossof, Congressman Buddy Carter’s office, State Representative Buddy DeLoach and Jesse Petrea are all staunch advocates and helpers for us.”

“I just got money in our budget this year for new seafood inspectors,” said State Representative Jesse Petrea. “I got an appropriation this year that I requested from the Department of Agriculture to hire new seafood inspectors.”

“Why do we want that? We want that for a couple reasons. Number one, we don’t want any hold up in making sure we can move Georgia wild products. But secondly, we want to make sure that foreign products are being inspected appropriately.”

Petrea said he’s also reached out to congressmen on the federal side to hold foreign countries accountable and make sure federal trade laws are being enforced. In the future, Petrea hopes to create a shrimp task force that would help give a louder voice to these concerns locally.

At the end of February, the Georgia House unanimously voted to make white shrimp the official state crustacean, thanks to House Bill 1341.

“It was an initiative by the first lady of the House of Representatives, Speaker Jon Burns’ wife, it was her idea. And it’s all about the same thing, we’re trying to just continue to show the importance of the Georgia white shrimp,” he said. “It may seem trivial, but it sends a message.”

It’s a message Morrison hopes to share loud and clear. “We can’t allow an American industry to be taken over by foreign interests,” Morrison said. “Shrimping is an American industry that has to be saved.”

Without it, shrimpers fear much would be impacted by its absence. “There will be a lot of people out of work. You have the people who build nets, you have the people who supply stuff to the boats. It’s not just the fishermen that’s going to lose, its other places too,” said Jeff Dubberly.

“It’s our heritage and it’s not only Georgia, it’s South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas,” said his brother, Mike. “I mean,

most people [who] do it are second or third generation. I’m second, my son’s the third. So, our whole family is involved and it’s just a way of life.”

“If we lose shrimping, we’re going to lose a way of life that is particular to the American experience. We have the best oceans, the best rivers, the best shrimp,

the best oysters in the world,” Morrison said.

“But if you’re looking at a reason that right now the market is not there, it is because without question, consumers all day, every day will buy foreign products because they are cheaper before they buy domestic products,” said Petrea.

ABOVE: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Jeff Dubberly, Mike Dubberly

EAT MORE LOCAL SHRIMP

Better labeling at restaurants of wild caught Georgia shrimp is one of the many goals Morrison has for the Georgia Commercial Fisherman’s Association. Referring to consumers, she said, “They shouldn’t walk into a restaurant that has shrimp boats on the wall and shrimp nets…and then serve shrimp from Vietnam that was grown in a hole with chicken cages over it, feeding it chicken poop.”

“Consumers have a right to know what they’re eating.”

The Dubberly brothers agree. “Wild caught shrimp taste a lot better than the imports and a lot of them don’t know that they’re eating imports when they go to some of the restaurants,” said Jeff.

“We as consumers hold the solution for our shrimpers, the answer is to demand— from wherever you buy your seafood— Georgia wild shrimp,” said State Representative Jesse Petrea, who added that only an extremely small subset of restaurants in Savannah currently sell

wild caught Georgia shrimp.

“You can turn it around pretty quick if the following happened: if people went to their grocery store and went down to Publix and they said…no, no, no, I shop here regularly. I want Georgia wild shrimp. If enough people did that, guess what would happen? The grocery store would start routinely carrying Georgia wild shrimp,” Petrea said.

Petrea and Morrison want to continue educating the public about the health benefits of eating and investing in local shrimp. Marketing efforts with the Department of Agriculture are in the works to help promote what Georgia shrimpers believe is the best product in the world—and it’s right here.

“That’s what we need, to educate the public a little bit and let them know the difference. I think that’s probably our biggest challenge because we only catch a small portion of what’s eaten in this country,” said Mike Dubberly.

“We’re trying to encourage restaurants and businesses to go straight to the shrimper, go straight to Pat Mathews, buy straight from him, buy straight from Buddy Nelson, buy straight from Frank Dubberly, from the people who do that,” Morrison said.

When the Department of Natural Resources officially announces the beginning of the spring shrimping season, many are hopeful it will be a good one.

“Most of the negative effects on the shrimp fishery in Georgia are not related to the population of shrimp in our water,” said Eddie Leonard, a DNR Coastal Resources Division marine biologist. In general, he said, the population of the fishery has been stable.

The fishery is considered the area from the beach to three miles out. Beyond three miles begins federal waters, an area open to shrimp harvesting outside of the state’s season. “In the spring, the commissioner can open the fishery as early as May 15. That very rarely happens. Usually, it’s the beginning of June,” Leonard said.

Shrimpers anticipate there will be plenty of shrimp to catch, based on the mild weather and warmer temperatures over this past winter.

“Hopefully this year is going to be one of those years where we’ll have a decent amount of shrimp and we’ll get a price where we can make some money,” said Mike Dubberly. “A lot of people are starting to realize that the domestic product is better, safer to eat than the imports.”

“It’s one of the most economical, sustainable, renewable resources that we can have,” Paige Morrison said. “I think that growing this and not letting this industry die is one of the most important things I’ve ever done.”

“It’s an amazing community and it’s worth fighting for.”

Visit gafisherman.org for more information.

LEARN MORE ABOUT GA SHRIMPING

ABOVE: Stevie Morrison, LEFT PAGE: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Pat Mathews, Paige Morrison, Mike Dubberly

SMOOTH SAILING: FOR GEECHEE SAILING CLUB MEMBERS, IT’S ABOUT

THE JOURNEY, DESTINATION AND FRIENDSHIP

By Nathan Dominitz COMMUNITY REPORTER

When Judy Grissette describes a day on the water during one of her and husband Tim’s ritual cruises along the coast, the listener might feel the heart rate slowing, even a sense of calm.

“We love the mornings,” she said. “We’ll wake up and have coffee and take off again. In the late afternoon or supper time, we anchor, we make a meal, sit up there and watch the sun set. It’s just nothing but relaxation.”

Such is life in the slow lane. Their Mainship 34-foot trawler goes about 10 miles an hour on the Intracoastal Waterway. A commonly quoted equation is one hour by car equals one day by boat, meaning that a favorite annual trip from Savannah to Jacksonville, Fla., takes about 3½ days when sailing only in daylight.

“I don’t like being in a speeding boat powering along and getting jostled and bracing myself,” Grissette said. “It’s a different life.”

Geechee Sailing Club in Savannah has been an integral part of the Grissettes’ lives, and vice versa. The couple

discovered the club by good fortune, having docked their boat (a different, smaller vessel) one day at a local marina when they saw a group having a good time picnicking after a race.

“They had so much fun,” she recalled. “We asked what was going on. That’s how it started.”

That was 50 years ago. The Geechees, as they call themselves, were founded a couple of years earlier, in 1971. Judy Grissette, now 84, and Tim, 87, have the greatest longevity of the current membership.

“It’s been our whole life,” said Judy Grissette, the club’s social chair and former secretary and treasurer, while Tim has twice been the topranking officer as commodore. “We’ve participated in racing, cruising (locally), cruising distances as well.

“We have wonderful, wonderful friends,” she added. “We will continue until we drop.”

Geechee Sailing Club has 58 members, though at one time it grew so popular that it was capped at 100 with a waiting list, Judy Grissette recalled.

Owning or renting a boat is not required, only paying a modest $125 annual membership fee – per family.

“We have a little bit of everything in

the club: We have trawlers, sailboats, powerboats,” said Linda Howard, the club’s commodore as well as communications chair. “Some people don’t even have boats but used to have boats and they’ve gotten to the age where they can’t handle it any more but they still want to be a part of the club.”

Linda and her husband, Tom Howard, a past commodore, joined the club in 2004 and count the Grissettes as best of friends. The two couples have gone on cruises together for 20 years, such as the excursion to Jacksonville, which has a scheduled stop in Brunswick.

While the Howards currently have a 40-foot trawler, Tom Howard has extensive experience with sailboats and used to sail to the Bahamas.

The Geechee Sailing Club organizes less-exotic overnight cruises, to surrounding islands and nearby coastal towns such as Hilton Head Island and Beaufort, S.C., and dock or anchor. Members bring along food and beverages, recreation equipment for some beach volleyball, for example, perhaps bicycles, and do some island hopping, maybe go for a hike. In the evenings, they may go boat to boat for dinner and socializing, enjoying board games and good conversation.

Linda Howard recalled a club trip involving several boats led by another sailor.

“He was leading us through this shallow area because he knew the way,” she said. “He fell asleep. We were following him right up into the marsh.”

The misadventure was added to the club’s catalog of stories shared when members get together on the water, at the monthly meetings and especially for the club’s numerous social events scheduled each year.

“Oh gosh, do we ever,” Howard said. “We could talk forever and just laugh. We’ve had some near-misses, lots of near-misses, because we call it boating. We’re not in a hurry to go anywhere. That’s the whole purpose of the club. It’s to enjoy the waterways here, the nature, and it’s just a beautiful sail in our area.”

That’s exactly what Angela Margolit

was looking for when she retired in August 2018 from her New Jersey company, which developed, sold and supported computer software for the car rental industry worldwide, she said.

Born and raised near Lake Winnebago in Fond du Lac, Wis., Margolit learned to sail while earning a master’s degree at San Diego State.

Margolit and her husband, Mike, wanted to get away from the snow and be in a city with a nice airport and a lot of activities near the water, including sailing. Florida was too crowded; Savannah was just right.

“I did my homework ahead of time as to what (sailing) clubs are around,” Margolit said. “As soon as I moved here, I reached out to them all and joined them all.”

Margolit, 70, is the race chair for Geechee Sailing Club, which organizes one of Savannah’s biggest competitions, the St. Patrick’s Regatta. The 45th annual regatta was set for March 23-24 on the Wilmington River, Wassaw Sound and, weather permitting, out to the Atlantic Ocean.

About 20 boats participate in the spinnaker, non-spinnaker and Rhodes 19 classes, which race by division one day and the entire field competes the second day in staggered starts –slowest boat first.

Margolit has competed on an all-female crew entry and is a prolific sailor who earned her captain’s license during the pandemic, teaches sailing classes and is crew for Sail Savannah private charters.

She also is education chair for The Landings Sailing Club and the Chatham Sailing Club, the latter of which Margolit said spun off from the Geechees about 15 years ago for those who wanted to do more racing.

These local clubs, as well as the heavily involved Savannah Yacht Club and others in South Carolina, collaborate to organize an annual slate of racing events. GSC is a member of the South Atlantic Yacht Racing Association.

The Geechee Sailing Club has an educational aspect with a variety of guest speakers at the monthly meetings at the Carey Hilliard’s Restaurant on Skidaway Road. Speakers in the last couple of years have represented the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, Chatham County Marine

Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard Station Tybee, Tybee Island Marine Science Center, Tybee Light Sail & Power Squadron, Savannah National Wildlife Refuge and the Tybee Island Historical Society. Club members also have given presentations about their adventures on the high seas. More often, they are sharing knowledge with their fellow boaters.

The best thing about Geechee Sailing Club is “being with other people who really enjoy being on the water,” Margolit said. “They’re always bouncing ideas off each other, especially if they have their own boat and they’re having issues. Just trying to find the right resources to fix certain things and have things done to your boat is invaluable.”

For more information about Geechee Sailing Club, go to www. geecheesailingclub.org, visit the club’s Facebook page or email GeecheeSailingClub@hotmail.com

ABOVE (LEFT TO RIGHT): Paige Lauri, Rose Oughtred, Jennifer Dwyer, Angela Margolit, photo credit Doug Powelson, BOTTOM: Photo courtesy of Linda Howard

maritime maven

MOLLY TAYLOR SAILS SHIPS OF THE SEA IN NEW DIRECTION

By Heidi Fedak COMMUNIY REPORTER

When Molly Taylor took the helm as executive director of Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, she didn’t just make a commitment to a collection that highlights 300 years of Savannah’s maritime history. She made a commitment to the community, too.

And 13 months into the role, she’s making good on both promises.

Not surprising considering the passion (and experience) Taylor brings to the position. A 15-year Savannah resident, Taylor spent childhood summers on the lakes of Northern Michigan; sailed a threemasted schooner at camp during high school; was a competitive sailor at Connecticut College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in art history; and attended Columbia University, where she secured a master’s degree in arts administration.

“Running a maritime museum is really not all that different from running an art museum, which is my entire background,” said Taylor, who

worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation in arts and cultural development.

Her arrival at Ships of the Sea seems like serendipity, coming on the heels of a seven-year stint at Telfair Museums, where she worked as development director and then deputy director, focusing on museum management, strategy and fundraising. When her role was eliminated during the pandemic, Taylor turned to nonprofit consulting. Ships of the Sea, poised to raise money for a potential expansion, joined her client list in May 2022, with Taylor providing insights on business development and fundraising.

Less than a year later, she became the museum’s executive director, stepping into a role that had been vacant for three years and seemed Taylor-made.

After all, the work combines her passion for sailing, art, education and community.

“She has a fabulous background,” said Michelle Riley, a communications and tourism consultant for the museum. “And she feels really strongly

about where Ships of the Sea fits into Savannah’s culture.”

Taylor’s charge in her new role was simple: Take everything the museum had been doing — serving the public, sharing maritime history and engaging with the community — and enhance it.

That resulted in an intertwined undertaking focused on expanding the collection, extending its reach and establishing educational programming.

A new building blossoming south of the museum’s location on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is evidence of the board’s commitment and Taylor’s task, which she has embraced wholeheartedly.

“The goal of that building is to expand the space, so that we can tell the amazing maritime stories of Savannah and educate children,” Taylor said. “Right now, we have one classroom, a huge outdoor event space and a garden… but we don’t have a large auditorium where we can have indoor events, lectures, things like that. The goal is to have a little more space to do those things in a flexible way.”

But Taylor isn’t one to delay dreams. Instead of waiting for the

ABOVE: Molly Taylor at Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum

new facility to be finished to create the programming she knows the museum needs, she’s doing it now, within the walls of the Scarborough House, in the gardens and on the road.

“We can play a role in telling Savannah’s history and really make it magical,” she said. “Savannah history is maritime history. Literally, if Oglethorpe had not come here on a boat, we would not be here. The maritime influence over the last 300 years is very intense and we do tell 300 years’ worth of history.”

Taylor and her team have been developing new and innovative ways of sharing those stories to create an engaging experience that is diverse, inclusive and far-reaching. The partnerships she’s forged and the programming she’s introduced make that clear, with activities spanning from preschoolers to senior citizens and everyone in between.

“We’re really trying hard to bring in the widest diversity of people,” Taylor said.

Riley agreed.

“You’re integrating into the fabric of Savannah, which has been the potential of this place for 60 years,” she said.

The museum has collaborations with Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools, Deep Center, Loop it Up, The Learning Center of Senior Citizens Inc., SCAD, the Savannah Music Festival, Tybee Island Maritime Academy, Horizons Savannah, Georgia Tech, Tharros Place and the Savannah Tree Foundation.

Those partnerships encourage children, college students, teachers and the community at large to discover the museum’s rich legacy. But it’s the children of the community that are at the heart of Taylor’s efforts. She is hoping the museum and its educational offerings will entice them to explore and pursue maritime careers.

Already, children from as close as Savannah and as far as Eastern Alabama have visited the museum, enjoying a range of activities from crafting a sailor’s Valentine and building pond yachts to interacting with “General Oglethorpe” for a lesson in colonial history.

“We had approximately 250 kids come through in February,” Taylor said. “It was really a feat and super special.”

Just how special is reflected in a series of hand-crafted thank-you notes Taylor keeps tucked in a folder on her desk and is likely to include in a future exhibit.

In each one (and there are many), the children’s joy, excitement and gratitude shine through. One student created a tiny blue origami boat, his words of thanks hidden within: “Thank you for inviting us to have that special time learning about the gardens and ships. I really enjoyed … all of it. It was very cool.” Another says, “Thank you, for making us build boats, and I also had a

great time during the scavenger hunt. I also liked how you taught us about colonial ships. You guys were amazing.”

As fun as the activities are, Taylor hopes the students’ experience with the museum’s three key elements — historic preservation in the Scarborough House, the gardens surrounding it and the maritime collection within it — move beyond mere entertainment to

TOP: Inside boat card from a student, BOTTOM: Display cases in a showroom at the museum

potentially change the trajectory of the students’ lives.

“It’s not just walking through the museum and seeing a pretty object and learning an interesting story,” Taylor said of her and her team’s efforts. “It is profoundly impacting a child’s life so they know that even though they’ve never visited a beach or been on the water or been on a ship, that they could work in a marine-related industry, at the port, as a tugboat captain, as a harbor pilot. And that that’s not a foreign idea, because I’ve already initiated the foundation for them, initiated the kernel of the idea, so they can have an aspiration that goes beyond what they’ve maybe experienced in their immediate circle.”

Children aren’t the only ones engaging with the museum. So, too, are college students. Over two quarters, two SCAD classes — one in museum studies and another in curatorial practices — have worked with the museum.

“They have done fabulous projects, and it has been a miracle to have these young brains looking at the museum, thinking about our hurdles, strategizing and navigating ways to get over them, like signage, wayfinding, how to market our next exhibition.”

That exhibition, “Sea of Ink: Savannah’s Maritime Tattoos,” opens Sept. 19 and is just one example of Taylor’s innovative and inclusive approach to museum programming.

So, too, is a fundraising event planned for National Maritime Day on May 22. The museum will host the opening night of a two-day event featuring eight artists using light and sound to transform the museum both inside and out.

“The maritime collection is important, but I really think it’s interpreting it and telling the stories and inspiring the people who come through the doors,” Taylor said.

In a little over a year, Taylor has become proficient at sharing the museum’s story, showcasing its collection and encouraging interest. Her passion is evident in both her energy and enthusiasm. On a whirlwind private tour, she begins in the basement, describing in quick bursts a museum that got its start on the banks of the Savannah River, moved to the Scarborough House in 1997 and now holds items that capture 300 years of maritime history.

“When you step in the door, it puts you in a completely

different mindset,” Taylor says, sweeping through the Scarborough House and explaining its collection of maritime models. “It’s like being in a really special jewel- box museum that, regardless of who you are and whether you know how to sail, whether you love the water or don’t, there’s something to appreciate here. And we are really trying to accentuate that and expand it.”

TOP: Entance to Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, BOTTOM: British Clipper Rigged, four-masted vessel, Bidston Hill

WATER FILLED WORLD KATHERINE SANDOZ’S

CULTURE

By Beth Logan CULTURE COLUMNIST

The opening reception for Katherine Sandoz’s new show at Laney Contemporary on Friday, April 4 is sure to be a well-attended, not-to-bemissed art “happening” in Savannah. The cerebral artist is known for delving deeply into her subject matter and this exhibition, entitled water ways, is no exception.

Sandoz (American, b.1969) graduated Mount Holyoke Cllege with a BA in French and a BA in International Relations in 1991. After serving in the U.S .Army Reserves and embarking on an early career as an advertising account planner, she relocated to Savannah, earning her MFA in illustration at the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) in 1997. She worked at SCAD as a professor of illustration from 19972005 and attained an MFA in painting in 2005.

Since then, there has been a plethora of solo and group exhibitions and innovative projects. A longtime public arts advocate, she recently created collaborative large-scale public art murals at the Enmarket Arena and at Second Harvest Food Bank; She was the featured fine artist at the 2021 Thomasville Wildlife Arts Festival in Thomasville GA; In the last two years, Laney Contemporary, Spalding Nix Fine Art, and Moffit McKinley Cancer Center have produced exhibitions of her paintings; She was represented by Laney at the 2023 Future Fair in Chelsea, NY; Most Savannahians will remember her mural and soaring, light-catching aerial sculptural installation entitled Katniss, commissioned by Telfair Museum’s local art program, #art912, and installed in the Jepson Center in 2019.

Having just finished up a series of paintings about Hawaii, Sandoz recalls that friends kept sending her images of lotuses that they thought she’d like. During a recent studio visit organized through Telfair Contemporaries’ (she has an exquisite barnlike studio behind her Vernonburg home), she confessed she was hesitant to embrace lotus as it felt a bit like painting roses

or sunflowers – hadn’t it been done to death? Wasn’t it a bit of a cliché? But being Sandoz, she embarked on a disciplined and thorough research into the flower – learning about its history, ecology, use as food, medicine, and symbol throughout varying eras and cultures. She also studied The Lotus Sutra, a revered final teaching of Buddhist scripture, which suggests that earthbound individuals may reach enlightenment in their lifetime.

“I rely on research, a conceptual framework and storytelling while working with beautiful and meaningful materials,” the profoundly thoughtful artist states on her website. Almost two years in the making, all the references, behind-the-scenes photographs, drawings, and writings have resulted in two sets of works about the lotus: 22 paintings in a ‘marga’ series (in Sanskrit ‘marga’ means ‘path toward’ or a ‘way

of reaching’) and 22 paintings in an ‘upaya’ series (in Sanskrit ‘upaya’ means ‘efficient ways’ or ‘strategy’). Sandoz explains the titles of the works are taken from the 22 archetypes of the tarot and the 22 faculties contained in Buddhism’s ancient Abhidharma texts.

She says the work uses a lot of the “DNA” from her 2014 tahoe hybrids series in that she is as equally interested in what is going on under the surface of the water as she is in what’s happening above it. At nightfall, a lotus closes and goes beneath the surface and at dawn it climbs above. Emerging from the underworld into the light, it symbolizes transcendence and rebirth in many cultures.

When we consider Sandoz’s greater body of work, water runs through it in every way. Painting with water-based paints, she has historically studied and

LEFT: Katherine Sandoz, artits and collaborative designer, ABOVE: Katherine Sandoz, The Sun, 23 x 24

depicted aquatic plants, marshes, barrier islands, and water-filled worlds. “Hidden in ditches and ponds of the coastal empire and low country, we find lotus popping up from late spring to summer,” the artist says. A resolute “ditch gazer,” she watches the season in these smaller waterways that connect to the larger tidal bodies that regulate and define our geography. In 2022, she presented her first abstractions with a series called tombolo. Twenty two years later, she is still featuring aquatic plants, looking to them and to the water ways in which they thrive to educate and instruct us on models for “right living” or “pono” – a word and concept she painted in 2021 and 2022 in her Maui-inspired series.

When the artist was profiled in The Bitter Southerner by her friend and fellow Savannahian Harrison Scott Key in 2019, the writer seemed slightly befuddled by the fact that her paintings are so beautiful. In Key’s typical tonguein-cheek style, he says he learned from his artist friends that to call work “pretty” is “like saying the ham has turned.” But her work IS pretty. Seeming like gentle layers of tissue paper, transparency and opacity meld, bleed, drip, and overlap.

The curator and artist Kristy B.

Edwards had similar thoughts when she wrote about Sandoz’s selection as one of four invitees to the prestigious Emerging National IX exhibition at the Macon Museum of Art and Sciences in 2021: “Sandoz’s work is easy on the eye. There are no jarring or dissonant elements, and there is not frenetic disorganized color or lines. I wouldn’t say they are “controlled” in a way that indicates the feeling of tightness, but rather they sit on the edge of paradox; strong yet gentle, organized yet abstracted, close yet far. Each painting has that beauty, that reminder of the landscape like a window outward. There is something deeper behind them all, though, and they are not just attractive works. They have a soul.”

And so, the work in water ways is often pretty, but always deeply soulful. Employing varying consistencies of paint to create numerous watery layers, the artist makes us wonder if we are looking at leaves, at pods, or at flowers. Her piece (marga) nothingness/mu is both ethereal and abstracted –a lotus above the murky depths? My favorites are

those that employ striking, Fauvist slashes of bright yellow. (marga) the tower captivates with its seeming simplicity of bold brush strokes laid down over multiple veils of thoughtfully applied paint. The flower is deconstructed to such a point that we are not exactly sure what we see.

Laney Contemporary explains it best: “Sandoz uses water as both a setting and a tool. Each image consists of watersoaked layers of acrylic paint and fibrous planes which mirror the composition of the aquatic plant itself…The Lotus Sutra teachings, and the paintings they inspire, hint at what we see and what we don’t see. The watery ways of the resilient lotus, flowering and seeding at once, point to the mystery, depth, and beauty embedded within nature and us.”

It is always exciting to see how Laney Contemporary and the artist will incorporate the upstairs mirrored gallery space; all I can reveal is that there will be lotus-themed, three-dimensional work on display - so be sure to come to the opening reception on Friday, April 4 from 6-8:30pm to see for yourself! The exhibit, water ways, hangs March 29 through June 1 at the gallery located at 1810 Mills B. Lane Blvd.

Additionally, Sandoz will give a gallery talk during the run of show, and by the end of April some of the paintings will be installed in the lobby of the Eastern Wharf’s Thompson Savannah.

More information will be posted on www.laneycontemporary.com and on Instagram @laneycontemporary. Sandoz’s website is www.katherinesandoz.com and her Instagram is @katherinesandoz.

ABOVE: Katherine Sandoz, Mindfulness 23, 24x36, BELOW: Sandoz lotus research

IS THERE A RISING TIDE ON SAVANNAH’S SEAFOOD SCENE?

EAT IT & LIKE IT

PRESENTED BY

SAVANNAH TECHNICAL COLLEGE

EAT IT AND LIKE IT

By Jesse Blanco eatitandlikeit.com

Depending on how deeply you would choose to dig into the modern history of Savannah’s food scene, you are very likely to find that the ‘demand’ side of the supply/demand dynamic in the last 20 years has revolved around two main questions.

Once upon a time the most asked question around here was, “We are going to Paula’s one night, where else should we eat?” Those of us who have been around here long enough know it was THE most asked question in Savannah for a number of years. Heck, I even started a blog you may have heard of based on the varied answers to that question.

These days the options in and around Savannah are so plentiful that we don’t get that question nearly as much as we used to, but there is another question that we still get with equally as much regularity.

“Where do we go for seafood?”

C’mon, admit it. If you have any passing interest in our food scene, you have been asked by a visitor or someone else you know that is rolling through town. I know I have. A lot. As in, all of the time.

There was a time not all that long ago that my response was preceded by a crinkled brow. Most of our ‘seafood restaurants’ skewed on the casual side. More than once my response was “we really don’t have an iconic seafood restaurant.”

Now, before the folks that operate some of our seafood houses in Savannah get riled up and start firing shoes at me, I

need to offer a tiny explanation. We have plenty of restaurants that offer seafood in Savannah. Castaways is a favorite of mine. As is The Wyld Dock Bar. Flying Fish is another favorite on the islands. Of course our better restaurants in Savannah offer fabulous seafood dishes. Common Thread and Chive Sea Lounge come to mind on a short list.

But would I call either one a ‘seafood restaurant’? Not at all. Sorry Charlie’s is the first to check that box at Ellis Square.

When I’m asked for a seafood restaurant I’m thinking The Ordinary in Charleston, SC on the higher end.

I’m thinking The Optimist in Atlanta, which happens to be my favorite seafood restaurant in the state. Back in Charleston, SC Chubby Fish should be on every seafood lover’s list. It’s one of my favorites in that city…and that’s saying something.

ABOVE & BOTTOM RIGHT: The Optimist Atlanta Facebook, TOP RIGHT & BOTTOM LEFT: The Darling Oyster Bar, Charleston SC

The good news is that 2024 appears to be the year that all of that is changing around here. There are a few more options coming online soon that will give us some much needed depth in that department. Pun intended.

One that is already open is the rebranded space on the ground floor (River Street level) of The Bohemian Hotel. Formerly known as Rocks on the River, that space has gotten a makeover and a new chef. Coastal 15 features crudos and a raw bar that the previous incarnation of the restaurant there did not.There’s also lobster hushpuppies, chowders and a variety of fish for mains. I have yet to dine there, but I’m looking forward to giving it a spin in the next few weeks.

A couple of months away yet is the highly anticipated The Darling Oyster Bar. The Charleston based restaurant has been working on their space on Franklin Square directly across from City Market for a couple of years now. They had planned to open last year, but are finally hoping to get everything together to be open soon. We should be hearing from them in the very near future. The Darling is great. Ask anyone who has been. This will be a huge addition to our seafood scene.

Beyond that, there are whispers of a raw bar of some sort coming to Downtown Savannah. That would be another great addition to our scene. Fingers crossed.

Those three concepts alone–once they come online–would give Savannah’s food scene a dimension we haven’t really enjoyed yet. For all of the ‘new food’ that has come to our city, there are still several voids that need to be filled.

From my seat? I’d still like to see something like Chubby Fish in Savannah. Chubby Fish is absolutely casual, but the menu is super creative and fun. Back in January I enjoyed a Bone Marrow dish topped with Tempura Shrimp and Cilantro. Fantastic. This year, their chef was a Semi-Finalist for a James Beard Award. Yes, it’s that good.

Baby steps, though. Not only do I get it, but I am more than excited about what we have here already.

At least there will be more than one answer to the question.

ARCHITECT OR FISHIN’ MUSICIAN?

KEVIN ROSE ANSWERS, “YES.”

By Frank Ricci MUSIC REPORTER

Some people are lucky enough to switch careers from something they enjoyed to something even more rewarding. Some try to balance two passions at once. Very few people have three professions they’re bold enough to attempt simultaneously. The phrase “renaissance man” comes to mind, but that may not suffice to describe what architect, musician, and fishing boat captain Kevin Rose has been up to since arriving in Savannah in the late 1980s.

Three decades and counting in architecture has allowed him to put his mark on an impressive list of places both music and food fans in the Hostess City enjoy, like Starland Yard, Sea Wolf, Late Air, B. Matthews, Service Brewing, Trustees Garden, Victory North, the eagerly anticipated new location for The Jinx and so many more.

Kevin has also been a member of the legendary Savannah alternative rock band GAM, fronted by the late Keith Kozel, an incredible performer, and offshoot band Superhorse.

Our coveted coastal waterways fuel and inspire him, providing the natural beauty, calmness and tranquility needed to make this unique combination of endeavors work. The irony of being grounded by the water is something many Savannahians can relate to.

Kevin grew up in Taunton, Massachusetts and came to Savannah to study architecture at SCAD. He spoke with Connect Savannah about his work on and off the water.

WHEN DID YOU GRADUATE FROM SCAD?

I graduated in 1991 with a bachelor’s in architecture. And then, one day, I was living on Maupas [Avenue], and it was probably five or so years after I had graduated, and I got a master’s in the mail randomly. It was backward reciprocal or whatever because they got their program certified as a five-year Master’s. That’s how I got my M.Arch.

THEN YOU WENT TO WORK FOR AN ARCHITECT?

I worked all the way through school. My first job over the summer was for a small firm. I worked for Lee Meyer and did a lot of SCAD work for the Clark Hall building.

It was a preservation job that made it to the press as the preservation license plate. It was cool. I also did work for Lee and Bobby’s Diner which is now Strangebird. Then I went to work for Lominack Kolman Smith Architects and stayed there for 30 years.

DURING MOST OF THOSE YEARS, YOU WERE IN BANDS, SO I’M ASSUMING THESE WERE EMPLOYERS COOL ENOUGH TO LET YOU TAKE TIME OFF TO GO OUT ON TOUR.

Yes, they were very generous to let me travel. I got my stuff done, and they let me go.

WAS THIS WHILE GAM WAS A WORKING BAND OR SUPERHORSE?

No, it was GAM. Superhorse was something Keith wanted to try that was a little more straightforward rock and roll. A fun side project.

SUPERHORSE WAS JUST YOU AND KEITH FROM GAM?

Yeah, the two of us from GAM and a different rhythm section. Jim Reed on drums, Gene Lyons on bass, Bobby Holmen and Sebastian Edwards on guitar and Jason Anderson on keyboards.

We had a lot of fun. We would disappear for two years and then not play and then do a show. That was a lot of fun and a good outlet for Keith’s other songs that didn’t quite fit in with GAM.

DID YOU HAVE A MOMENT WHEN GAM OR SUPERHORSE CAME TO AN END? THAT “OH GOD, I’VE GOT TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT WORK” DECISION? BY THIS TIME, YOU GOT MARRIED AND STARTED A FAMILY.

We toned everything down, you know, there wasn’t any touring anymore. I’ll never forget sitting in a conference room with the band’s lawyer in New York overlooking Central Park around 2000.

He looked at me and told me the story about the day he knew he needed to stop trying with the band he was in. He said, “You’re a phenomenal band, but you know, we just had the Seagram’s merger. The music business is upside down. It’s just not happening for anybody right now.”

He brought everybody out to see us, we showcased for everybody, and we

ABOVE: Kevin Rose performing at the Jinx, LEFT: Kevin Rose, Catch of the Day

had offers but then the Seagram’s merger happened, and all the labels became basically two.

And we were actually in New York when it was going on, on 53rd Street. We watched laid-off industry people leave the labels with boxes while we were in town to play Brownies that night. That’s where all the industry people hung out. We played there with Grand Mal and all these guys were trashed because they had all lost their jobs and some of the bands were there because they had all been dropped.

It was a perfect storm of hundreds or maybe thousands of bands shelved like they were folding or downsizing.

BY THIS TIME, WERE YOU ALREADY INTO FISHING? I DON’T THINK YOU WERE A CAPTAIN YET, BUT DID YOU HAVE YOUR OWN BOAT?

I got my boat in 2005 a few years after all that early 2000s band stuff. I had friends that fished. I got hooked on it, and Jason from Superhorse had a boat, and I’d fish with him quite a bit.

But you know, when you’re at an art school, no one fishes. So I did the music thing and then started fishing more. Then, I sold a guitar that I bought for very cheap from a blues guy in West Virginia. I paid twenty-eight hundred dollars, and I sold it for twenty-three thousand. And I bought a boat.

The best investment I’ve ever made was poured into what everyone calls the worst investment anyone can make.

AND AT THE TIME, WERE YOU STILL A WORKING ARCHITECT?

Yeah, and that was just a fun boat, right? Then the economy tanked in 2008, and my wife at the time said you need to sell the boat. I had a better idea. I thought, since no one is buying boats right now, I’m going to start guiding. I got my captain’s license, and I would just sit at Bull River Marina, and people would come up, and I’d take them fishing. And at night I might run sound at the Lucas Theatre and then go over to Wild Wings and run sound there till 3:00 in the morning and then get up at 6:00 and take people fishing in the morning. It was a means to an end. There wasn’t a lot of architecture work, then I did fishing and working as a sound man. And the Bull River Marina folks were great to me. The first two years, I was learning on the go, you know, it was fake it ‘til you make it.

ARCHITECTURE WAS SLOW AT THE TIME, BUT YOU WERE STILL EMPLOYED THERE. YOU’RE NOW A FISHING BOAT CAPTAIN IN THE

MORNING, AND YOU’RE WORKING LIVE SOUND AND STILL PLAYING HERE AND THERE. AND YOU WERE GETTING INTO COMPETITIVE FISHING, TOO. HOW WAS THIS SUPPOSED TO ALL WORK?

It just fell into place and cool people helped. I took the class with the son of the owner of Old River Marina, and he said, “Dude, you and my dad would probably get along.”

Right after we finish the class, I fished in their redfish tournament and it was an angler tournament, meaning that it’s not a boat tournament. Any angler on the boat could win, and I got first and third, and then the owner said, “Amen, you’re fishing for us.”

Everything just fell into place.

WHEN THE ECONOMY IMPROVED, AND MORE ARCHITECTURE WORK PICKED UP, YOU’RE STILL AT LOMINACK KOLMAN SMITH, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, YOU’RE PLAYING MUSIC HERE AND THERE AND DOING A LOT OF SOUND WORK, AND YOU GOT THE BOAT AT FIVE IN THE MORNING ALMOST EVERY DAY.

There were a lot of seven-day weeks because I was dipping into different things. I would just sit at the marina, and people would see the sign and stop. By being available, I was able to keep busy.

But right now in my life, it’s too much. I’ve cut back a lot on the fishing for money. I’ve tried to do it more fun and go with friends and introduce people to the water that don’t get a chance to. I really believe that if you live in Savannah and you don’t go out on the water, you’re missing 80% of it. We have beautiful architecture here, but our marshes are so untouched and huge

that if you’re not looking at it and you’re not spending any time out there, you’re just missing out.

WHEN I FIRST MOVED HERE AND HEARD PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THE MARSH, IT WAS ODD TO ME BECAUSE WHERE I GREW UP, THE SWAMPS IN NEW JERSEY WERE CONTAMINATED WITH TOXIC WASTE. IT DIDN’T TAKE MUCH TIME ON A BOAT HERE TO SEE THE DIFFERENCE. YOU CAN SEE IT JUST DRIVING TO TYBEE. THE MARSH IS BEAUTIFUL AND SO ALIVE.

Yeah, and we’ve protected our coasts. Florida, their waterways are all concrete bulkheads. Georgia is trying to control development. I can take somebody out on the boat, and we can ride for 20 miles and not go by a single house. That is pretty remarkable. We might be going in a circle a little bit because it’s nothing as the crow flies, but it’s miraculous that we have that because other states don’t. Most coastal areas load their waterfront with tall hotels. Ours are the least developed.

WHEN ARCHITECTURE WORK PICKS UP, HOW DID YOU TRANSITION FROM LOMINACK KOLMAN SMITH TO YOUR OWN SHOP?

I felt like it was time, you know, and I love my former employer. I guess I reached a point where I’d talked about this kind of concept where I didn’t want to start a firm. I wanted to start a business that was the single point source. It’s like that Italian restaurant where the guy buys the food in the morning, prepares and cooks the food, delivers it to your table, turns on the radio, and does everything. It’s his idea of this

kind of single point source. It’s not a big firm, it’s a bit renegade in a sense, but the clients get that personal touch.

Everyone that works with me gets to have a life. If someone wants to work from home today, it’s fine. You’re going to visit your aunt somewhere; we just log in. Get it done. Have a job and have a life.

It was time to see if that would work, and it flourished. It’ll be two years in July. It’s great.

DO THESE THINGS, ARCHITECTURE, BOATING AND FISHING, AND MUSIC ALL CONNECT IN SOME WAY FOR YOU?

It’s probably easier to draw a connection between architecture and music because there’s the famous quote, “Architecture is frozen music.” I freeze music.

YOU GREW UP NEAR THE COAST OF MASSACHUSETTS; YOU MOVED TO ANOTHER COASTAL CITY FOR SCHOOL AND STAYED. GOT A BOAT, WENT DEEP. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE WATER THAT DRAWS YOU?

It’s proven that it’s just it’s relaxing. There have been some mornings in the gloaming when the sun’s not up yet. But the sky is just amazing, and the birds, there’s something powerful about getting up before the rest of the world right and being out and seeing the green heron on the dock when I get there in the morning and just taking a moment to look at that and things all start to fall into place. Sometimes I pick up clients from Miss Judy’s dock, so I have roughly 25 minutes on the boat in the morning riding over there by myself, and the nice part is it’s usually right at the gloaming and right at sunrise because I can’t take people out in the dark. It’s just the most gorgeous time of day. Sometimes the water is like glass. The reflection and everything that too many people never stop and look at how gorgeous things are. It’s really grounding, you know.

And that 20 minutes in the morning, I could have the biggest brat on the boat for four hours after that, and I am ready. It’s a great reset.

I’m lucky to introduce people to the area from that perspective. I’ve met so many amazing people doing my job. It’s a service industry. You don’t have to be the best fisherman; you have to make

sure that people have a great time and experience. Catching fish is the easy part. A good friend of mine said that people ask about birds so I’ve learned a lot over the years, but the best way to identify a bird is when it’s flying away because they can’t call you on it. Learning about our native flora and fauna and being connected to that around here is just amazing.

Everyone in Savannah should experience the marsh with more than just a booze cruise.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

"THEY’VE GOT CHEMISTRY "-MULTIPLE TIMES, EVEN

by Matt Jones

©2024 | Matt Jones

ACROSS

1. Begs for kitty kibble

6. Device that kept Blockbuster in business

9. Can’t-miss experiences

14. Move slowly

15. Random suffix

16. “Ah, I’m such ___!”

17. Pre-Internet library feature

19. Hooded snake

20. “But before ___ ...”

21. “Pet” that actually requires seeds

23. Actor McDiarmid

24. “Dang straight”

29. Mini-albums, for short

30. Word beginning a lot of Lil Wayne album titles

31. Grass rolls

32. Hacker’s language, in the early aughts

34. Leave off

37. “Superstore” actor Santos

40. Tutor’s task

44. Dispensers that may now be interactive

45. Where frisbees may get stuck

46. Fox show with choral versions of pop songs

47. Columbus sch.

49. 1970s-’80s sitcom planet

51. Sick

52. Browser issue

that might slow your computer down

58. Football position

59. Like some gummy worms

60. “Didn’t I tell ya?”

61. Second tries

63. Tests of numerical aptitude

68. Millionaire intro

69. ___ Dew

70. Former capital of Nigeria

71. Observe secretly

72. Up to now

73. Comes down in a blizzard

DOWN

1. 1200, to Tiberius

2. Memorable period

3. “___ the ramparts ...”

4. Collective acknowledgement from a room of beatniks, maybe

5. Coffee urn attachment

6. Quick clip

7. From Prague

8. Singer Bebe

9. Cheese partner

10. Eerie flyer

11. 1925 Edna Ferber novel

12. Bar mitzvah reading

13. Point of view

18. “Man’s ___” (viral 2018 song)

22. Part of FWIW

24. Reviewing website

25. “Nixon in China,” for example

26. Fitness motto opening

27. Less lurid

28. Checking proof

33. June Cleaver or Maggie Seaver, e.g.

35. Lance of the O.J. trial

36. Girl Scout group

38. Eyelashes

39. Deli counter qty.

41. Ninja, e.g.

42. In a new way

43. Toothpaste options

48. Colorful card game

50. Poses to propose

52. Contract conditions

53. Outdo showily

54. In a weird way

55. Delicious

56. Make speeches

57. Like Whataburger’s headquarters

62. Prefix with scope

64. Explosive compound

65. Some time ___

66. Cut (the lawn)

67. Punctured tire sound

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