Let’s race! Pontoon boats- not for your old granny anymore.

Soon I’ll lose count of the number of visits we’ve made to the oldest city. Lucky 13 with this stop. Twelve by boat and once by car Dec 2014 when we stayed at Anastasia State Park with the motor home. We moved along, arriving in two days.

Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky…

Easy walking or do the trolley tours. Fascinating architecture and history, shopping, dining, watering holes, museums, distilleries, mini golf, and as of February, Rype & Readi, a “city farm market” across from the St Augustine Distillery. What’s not to love about this place?  Now that we have access to produce (with a side of olive oil and other local products), the best just got better.

The majority of the moorings are south of the bridge of Lions, but we wanted one north of the bridge for better wave protection in the 10-20mph south winds. The marina’s docks and the bridge abutments did an excellent job.

Looking south through the bridge as m/v Wishing Star heads to a mooring.

The bridge made the morning news; unfortunately.

Oil poured on lion statue makes local news

The local JAX TV station would rotate through live shots of local spots; one being the St Aug city marina and the Bridge of Lions- you could almost see us (to the left) but not quite.

Certain places or activities are “must dos” when we stop; although we always try to manage at least one or two new experiences. St Augustine offers up a smorgasbord of options for any and every one visiting. Even if you don’t have wheels, the possibilities are still nearly endless.

We tried a new bistro- Cellar6 located on the VERY old Aviles St, about a five-minute walk from the docks. Sidewalk table was the better, albeit more breezy, choice.

Cellar6, dinner. Shrimp & Grits for me and Captain’s Trio for Russ. We both took home leftovers.

A young mom with her two boys had perfect timing. I shared all those celery tops with happy kiddos

Ann on Traveling Soul said the Pirate Museum across from the fort was a worthwhile (interesting, and not too time consuming) visit. Pirates you say? Aye mateys, we’d be keel hauled before missing that!

Eye surgery display at Pirate Museum. Looks too realistic!

Black Bart’s Breakfast before battle. Sounds more like dinner, but it’s very balanced

Our friend, Anne Bonny. We watch Black Sails when possible- gotta keep that image

Warning to others. That’d deter me!

Only remaining pirate chest- with a sneaky lock- not in front as might seem obvious, but from the top.

After making a failed attempt to abscond with the pirate chest, Russ got thrown into the stocks. He looks too happy though

We roamed the streets looking for treasures; in other words, window and real shopping took place. Someone bought a pair of shorts and sunglasses, and it wasn’t me!

Lunch at the Floridian- fabulously wonderful as always and that includes the service, the libations, the décor and the food!

Black Bird & Garden Gimlet at Floridian

So, come dinner time our stomachs still weren’t ready so we headed into town to hunt down a cocktail hour beverage. The Tini Martini bar at the Casablanca Inn was jumping- oh wait this is Friday night- duh. Since this is the season for proms, weddings, graduations and various other celebrations, the entire northern part of Florida had gathered in St Augustine, so it seemed. Undaunted, we strolled on heading further away from the water, across St George and then we found it- Dos Gatos. Of course: Two Cats 🙂 . Bar and lounge only with live music at the moment. Not our usual milieu, but only two other couples occupied the bar so we plopped ourselves down for a long study of the substantial drink “book”.

I know that was short- well, shorter than my usual, but we only spent two nights here. So if you need more. Here’s a couple of links to prior pirate-like posts! Why we like St Augustine   and Tale of … 

65′ Nina built by hand, 85′ Pinta- at Vero Beach City Marina docks for 10 days

I am sure that someday one of our stops at Vero Beach City Marina mooring field will be short, but this wasn’t the one. If only our MINI Cooper, Bonny was here to make the post title complete! The day we arrived at 1:15pm, mooring #47 was the only empty ball remaining. Fenders out, lines ready, prepared to raft we were. True to form, the more prepared the more likely “it” won’t happen.

From our ball #47 looking south- oh… who’s that boat?

Ortolan beat us here; her new owners taking the same window we did to get across. The window would shut for the next seven to ten days, so if you were interested and ready, now was the time. We chatted and lamented that very soon they’d be hauling out for the summer.  I really dislike being hauled out because it means work, work, work. Our next haul out appears to be two, yes TWO years away!! Yes, that’s really good.

How many bus trips in to Publix? I lost count; surely more than the trips to the ABC Liquor Store and other miscellaneous stores, oh and the post office and the Farmers’ Market- which we got to twice. Panera got two stops also. It’s located very close to Publix you know.

Yum, arugula shoots. Two weeks earlier I bought radish shoots- they held up very well

Dentist appointments checked off too. Another very important stop was a visit to Battery Plus Bulbs, a nationwide small chain of shops that sell all kinds of batteries and bulbs. Russ had called numerous places and mobile services in an effort to have my iPhone brought back to life with a new battery.  This shop required using two bus routes, but we were up for the challenge. Competent, professional and quick service; all for less than $50.

Packages arrived from our best friends at Amazon, Defender and Quill. After an easy (yes miracles do happen) tax prep and filing morning, we got ourselves settled and engaged in our respective cording/line endeavors.

First step- lots of online research, then some trial and error. Next, “borrow” 2ft of my new brass wire and success!

Remember Russ’s lifeline project last summer- the one where we saved a ton of time and money by not putting a new vinyl covering over the “in good shape” stainless lines? Now he was taking it a step further into the realm of “soft but stronger than steel” line, namely Dyneema. We first used it as a way to attach our bridle hook to the anchor rode back in Ortolan days. Russ next used it for the lifting bridles to hoist up the dinghy. After reading that it worked well as a replacement for stainless lifelines, he replaced the stainless lines at the bow. Every time we’d lean over the line to attach the bridle to the anchor chain, a bit of rust would rub off on our shirts if we weren’t really crazy careful. That was successful, so why not do that all around; eliminate some rattling and have no rust or teeny shards of stainless ready to attack you.

Lines, knots, braids, splicing- oh my!

I had the good fortune (I think) to be introduced to knotting/macramé by Erin on m/v Barefeet. She admired a bracelet I’d made using a smooth coral piece with a center space- perfect for using a Larks’ Head knot on either side to make a bracelet. Her version used knotted macramé and she sent me the link for the “how to.”   Gee, what is it about cording that might be more cruiser/boater/water friendly? Maybe the fact that it won’t tarnish? Could be some merit there, as I often have to remove tarnish from the silver and copper jewelry I make. Salt water and even salty air love to leave their mark on metals. Add a how-to book to that Amazon order and aweigh I go.

This Great Horned Owl swooped in one evening.

A first! Great horned owl on boat next to us at 7:45pm- dusk

We’d hoped to see PDQ34 friends Jack & Diane on Airlia, but the day after we arrived they took off for what must have been a mini cruise because as long we stayed they didn’t return. Hey, it’s not US… is it?

However; Soulstice not only arrived after our chores were done (two weeks later) but they got the mooring next door- which is the closest we came to being rafted. They’d spent mucho time in the Abacos, enjoying the seldom visited out (more west) islands and cays; just what they like. I gaped at Lesli’s collection of sea biscuits, sand dollars and baskets that she’d woven herself since George Town. Very handy to have pretty baskets to display collected beach treasures. And boy, that girl can sure stir the pot! As in it prompted a mini Manta moment on Sunday and that’s all I’m gonna say.

Twins & Soulstice- a mini rendezvous

Pizza on Soulstice– doesn’t she cut well?

And then we thought Airlia had returned. I mean a PDQ34 picks up the only open mooring near the condo complex where they live, so why even check with the binoculars? But hey, no. It’s a new PDQ family member! Don and Lesli had returned from a shopping trip, noticed the boat and the next thing we know, it’s cocktails on Soulstice! Nick and Tayrn (rhymes with Karen) of (you’re gonna love this) Taryn Aweigh are new owners, bound for a couple of months in the Bahamas with a few other PDQs. We all shared as much about each other as humanely possible in less than two hours. Was really nice hanging out, even if it was up on the windy flybridge! 🙂

Our very first raft buddies from Nov 2010 arrived.  Vero is much like George Town, Bahamas; many boats stop to enjoy the pleasures of this protected lagoon so sooner or later you will run into people you know and you will meet lots of new peeps.  They played Uber and gave us a ride into town with their rental car so we had a quick catch-up and heard they’d be leaving soon, to do that “try and sail thing” up to St Mary’s inlet.

My marina shower buddy

To shower on board or use the marina shower, ah that is the question. As with many aspects of living aboard the answer isn’t always obvious. Although for Russ, who had the pleasure of a foot fungus a few years ago, he chooses “aboard” 99% of the time. This time I hit the bonus round and found a shower buddy.

Finally, the big day arrived. No, not departure day, although it was. This was the reason we’d spent 18 nights here; have our screens replaced. The Phantom Screens operate like an old-fashioned roller shade, either closing vertically, or horizontally as in the case of our door. The front window now has a finer mesh screen to keep out smaller insects and the little plastic gizmo on the roller set to a simple up and down and not “roller shade” mode. The door screen is now black instead of the old dark gray and is even less noticeable. It fits fully into the frame now. The old one didn’t fit because it had been trimmed a few times. The magnetic catch is new and the crappy screws got replaced with stainless ones. All for way less $$ and a much shorter lead time than if we’d had the Phantom franchise operation in CT do the work.  These screens are used primarily in Florida homes, boats are a minuscule (another “mini”) piece of their biz. Here anyway.

The job complete, Joe taken ashore. Only took 4 dinghy trips. Ate lunch, cast off the one remaining mooring line and bye, bye Vero.  Next stop, St Augustine. See you there!