With Gitlab CI CD , deploying the jekyll static blog to digitalocean vm , you can deploy in any server . no docker no kubernatives simply on vm
docker run --rm --volume="$PWD:/srv/jekyll" -it jekyll/jekyll:latest jekyll new blog
type ls in current dir you'll see /blog folder that contain all you need to deploy
push all the file inside /blog to your gitlab repo
next make a .gitlab-ci.yml
make sutiable changes accourding to your needs.... dont' forget to make variable in settings > CI CD section .
next go to _ config.yaml and insert your website url in url"" section
just wait and watch the deployment , as simple as it is !!