One day or one week? Umm there’s that weather decision again. Tuesday night would bring in a very breezy front and depending on which weather service you rolled the dice toward, the top wind would be anywhere from 25 to 35kts. Well isn’t that special?  We felt safe on these moorings, but the field is large and north winds (especially) would turn on the churn and bounce switch- big time. A call to Marineland Marina secured us a spot and with only 24 spaces, most not wide enough for us, we felt like lucky early cat birds with a juicy worm. 🙂

By now you’ve read numerous times how much we like St Augustine, so I’ll just drop in a few photos for a quick pictorial.

Good stuff for all tastes

No shortage of restrooms in town

Entertainment can be found on many of the side streets

As we tied up to the dinghy dock we spied a cute micro yacht- something like a very small Ranger Tug (?)- named Dessert 1^st. Russ got a haircut while I snapped a few “why I like St Augustine” photos.

More shops than you can count- a ShopAholic’s delight

Christmas gifts in hand, gelato in stomachs, we stepped out of a shop and I noted the woman ahead of me wore a fanny pack. Backpacks, fanny packs and comfortable footwear often indicate “cruiser”. As we turned down the street she looked back at us and asked if we were on a boat at the marina. Goosebumps. Turns out Mary and Casey are the adventurous owners of m/v Dessert 1^st!

This tiny vessel is 23ft long- talk about micro. I mean, Ortolan is 23ft WIDE. Trailerable little thing with a huge outboard- been all over the country including Alaska. We delved into the usual cruiser topics, exchanged boat cards and figured we’d see them again someday. We know how these things go.

Tues around 11am we tossed off the mooring lines. Marineland Marina is only 16nm south but we waited until the current was with us before leaving.

Two types of pelicans, each on their own side- Russ warned me not to say anything about segxxxxxxxn

Our tie-up would be port-side, which we prefer because the fenders rubbing can be noisy and we sleep on the starboard side. We’d be sharing the floating face dock with m/v Traveling Soul, a Jefferson 52 (think: mansion) and m/v Dream Weaver, a Kadey-Krogen 48 Whaleback. Around the corner sat s/v SeaSparrow, a Leopard 40.  We were in good company.