St. Augustine

  

Well, you probably think we sailed off the edge...but no, we did not.  Just a bit of a respite here in St. Augustine.

We survived the anxious night (well, I'm anxious when anchored...Kathy assumes I know what I'm doing and all will be fine - she usually sleeps through my midnight escapades) at Sisters Creek - not sure I'd use that anchorage again!

Between Sisters Creek and St. Augustine we finally were seeing true Florida ICW habitat, marshlands of previous days were gone. 

Right before the St Augustine Municipal Marina one encounters the Bridge of Lions - even my little boat requires an opening of the bridge.  I got in line and notified the bridge tender that I wanted to pass through next opening then, fortunately, I had the foresight to hail the marina for mooring assignment.  Turns out we were to be in the north mooring field, right near the Fort, so notified the bridge tender that we did not need to pass through the bridge.  As the bridge only opens every 1/2 hour it was a good thing I talked to the marina!

Kathy was worried about picking up a mooring...she perhaps had only attempted that once before (on the Albin, in Stuart) and it didn't go well.  I assured her it would be fine, there was very light wind and current seemed to be light as well.  She was very surprised to catch the tether on the first try and in just a few minutes we were squared away.

Nearly right away we prepped the dinghy for its first REAL use of the entire trip!  The marina has a launch but it only runs every 2 hours, so not really useful for anything.  We took the short ride under the Bridge of Lions to the dinghy dock, checked in at the marina and then went in search of a rather late lunch.  We ended up at The Floridian, which is described as a seafood restaurant, but oddly, had very little seafood on the menu!  Ultimately I had a shrimp poboy, which tasted very good but could not be eaten as a sandwich as the roll was too firm and just broke apart.

We arrived on Saturday, 11/23 - turns out it was the first night of St Augustine's Nights of Lights.  The place was a zoo!  We were content to return to the boat after our lunch (and ice cream!) and relax.  There were lots of sight-seeing boats roaming through the mooring field, allowing the commoners to enjoy the view of the city...several of them came way too close to my boat for comfort.  They also were blasting music, but fortunately it stopped before 10 pm.

 

Kathy was preparing to jump ship - she had a flight out of Jacksonville on Monday.  Her ride arrangements broke, so she ended up getting picked up monday morning by an uber.  The boat definitely got quiet once I was alone...no more Farkle marathons!

On Tuesday I moved the boat over to a slip in the marina - life gets easier in a slip but it is noisier than a mooring.  The marina is very good about providing assistance with docking, so that went pretty smoothly.  

 

Barb and Jim Fravel came by for a visit on Tuesday - I was worried about finding a parking space close by but somehow the managed it.  After a brief tour of my boat (how long can it possibly take to see a 28 foot boat?) we went back across  the very heavily trafficked road and had lunch at Harry's - I had a seared tuna with fried rice and salad, which was delicious for lunch AND dinner.  I would definitely return to that restaurant!

 

At the slip yesterday I was fortunately to see a sea turtle right next to my boat, he hung around for quite a while.

 Last night's sunset was quite nice...

 

As was this morning's sunrise.

New crew will arrive tomorrow - because of difficulty with transportation, Maryellen and Frank will drive up, drop off Frank and then we will make our way to Stuart (3 days) and pick up Maryellen there.  The most challenging part of the trip (for a single-hander) will be the Okeechobbee Waterway - several bridges that need to open even for my little boat and a few locks (4?).

We should arrive in NPR either Friday or Saturday next week.