Report Review
I rarely give five stars to a marina. Liberty Landing in New Jersey, with its million dollar view of the Manhattan skyline, got five stars. Navy Pier Marina, on Navy Pier in Chicago, also got five stars. Both are totally top notch.
Occasionally, I give five stars to a not-so-fancy marina when the people there go above and beyond the call of duty to take care of their customers. Ess-Kay in Bremerton NY got five stars when the owner gave me keys to her personal car to drive into town to pick up my kidney transplant meds.
And Two Georges Marina in Shalimar FL gets five stars for the same reason. While it lacks a million dollar view and the marina facility is not the fanciest, the people who work there are top notch. You never see employees standing around, doing nothing. We left our boat there for an eight day visit home. One of the service guys walks the entire marina everyday to check all boats.
Another boat, with whom we were traveling, had some work done while they were also gone. When the owner got the bill, he remarked “that’s less than I expected it to be.” Have you ever thought that about a bill for service in a marina?
And after we departed, he discovered a problem with the repair. The marina service people dropped everything to address the problem, then gave us both slips for the night as it was too late to move on.
That’s not the sort of thing that would be in their procedure manual. That was somebody simply saying that they should do the right thing.
Clearly, the owners of the marina are investing in upgrading the marina and hiring good people.
If you’re a Looper looking for a repair before crossing the Gulf, Two Georges should be on the top of the list. It’s also a good place just to stop.