Updated on December 12, 2016
Impressions from St. Augustine -Nov 29 through Dec 6 – Latitude N29 degreees 53.216 minutes
Discovered in 1513 and founded in 1565, swapped between the Spanish and the English over 300 years, St. Augustine is even more steeped in history than either Charleston or Beaufort. Overlooking the harbor is a stone for, Castille de San Marcos, built around 1800 after the English from Georgia and the Carolinas had burnt the town down in the 1740’s.
We arrived on Tuesday, November 29th and spent the first night on the mooring ball. On the 30th we went dockside for maintenance.
Unfortunately, despite my best efforts at planning ahead over the previous two weeks, when we called the technician, he said he was too busy. I really just wanted an oil change and a fuel filter change and a hour of so trying to figure out why the generator did not work earlier in the cruise. In the end, Elena and I did the oil change and fuel filter change ourselves and just assumed the gremlins that had been inhabiting the generators have since moved on to somewhere else.
The head also had to be fixed. The electric toilet itself, with its two electric pumps and a macerator, looked like it worked fine, so I concentrated on the piping. Taking apart a place where I knew there was a restriction (the U that held the anti-syphon valve, a safety device that prevents flooding since the toilet is below the waterline). When I took it apart, UGH! Completely blocked!! Problem found. I flushed the U and the lines aggressively. Voila, everything worked to perfect. I think the acid cleaning of the Electrasan back at Beaufort loosed up some hard scaling which caused an eventual blockage. While I was in the head, I overhauled the shower installing new valves. Elena was very happy with the results.
After 3 days dockside, we topped off with water and fuel and moved to the mooring ball. We had more touring to do, so we passed on our first weather window when the winds turned north (meaning out of the north). Winds turned from the south on the 8th. That night we were returning from a day ashore and dinner, with 20 knots of winds and a contrary tide, with two foot of chop. We got totally soaked!!! From then on, Elena insisted we take the free marina water taxi, a much drier ride.
Schooner underway with Christmas lights (download movie)
Elena spent a lot of time in touring and shopping. We spent a lot of time walking the neighborhoods and the historic district which is large and extensive with lots of alleys and small side streets and hundreds of shops and galleries. We also had a little “liberty” ashore.
Singing Buffet songs in an Irish Bar (download movie)
Having fun in an Irish Bar (download movie)
Among Elena’s stops through the week were:
Flagler College, a former “gilded age” hotel, built by oil and railroad magnate Henry Flagler, a colleague of John D. Rockefeller. Specifically, the dining room has the largest Tiffany glass windows in the world, that Elena found impressive.
Castillo de San Marcos – a fort constructed of a local stone (coquille) that has stood since the early 1800’s.
The Alligator Farm with its 250 American Alligators and at least one of the 23 species of crocodilians found on Earth.
Ripley’s Believe it or Not – not so impressive, from what I understand
St Augustine Lighthouse – where she climbed all 223 steps to the top – an honor I decided that I did not need to attain, given we had a 1.5 mile walk there and another 1.5 mile walk back.
Today is Tuesday, 6 December, and we are beginning are underway preps, including laundry, for tomorrow’s departure for Cape Canaveral, 100 nautical miles down the coast, and other points south.