St. Augustine

We arrived in St Augustine, Florida on Wed 11/13 and planned to be here for 6 nights. Why? We have been watching Hurricane Sara. This storm has been moving very slowly in the Caribbean Sea pushing through the Yucatán Pennisula. It looked like it could go as far north as Stuart or south to Miami. We decided to stay north just in case. Over the last several days, it looks like it will weaken to a tropical depression and get picked up by a large cold front that will end up with only showers to the Florida area. YEA!!

St Augustine has been great. Being the oldest city in America, the architecture, brick streets and amazing Spanish, French, and English history make it a great place to stay. We where lucky enough to great the mooring ball closest to the Castillo San Marcos National Monument. It’s a major tourist attraction that we had a front row seat for. It looks amazing at night lit up. Given our front row seat to downtown and the Monument, we are also buzzed every 1/2 hour or so by tour boats coming through the harbor to see downtown and the Monument. We’re part of the tourist attraction, boatloads of happy people waving at us as they go by. Fun.

In no particular order, here are some of the things we did -

My friend Kelly Bennett Peterson and I went to college together our first two years and then she moved to South Carolina (and eventually Florida) and we lost touch. Thanks to Facebook we reconnected years later. She has been following our journey and we met up with her and her husband for dinner. It was so great to catch up!

We spend a couple of days riding the St. Augustine Trolley, which has 22 stops and you can hop on and off all day.

We visited the Fountain of Youth! Yup, we drank the water and are feeling so much younger already! 😂 They had peacocks all over the grounds. Small and overpriced museum but we needed to check it out!

We visited the Pirate & Treasure museum, total waste of money. 💰 We saw, but did not go into the oldest house, the first pharmacy, so many churches and historical buildings. If you have never been to St Augustine and are looking for a long weekend getaway, I would highly encourage it. But when you get your trolley tickets, purchase the packaged to get into all of the attractions instead of paying individually.

Restaurants were great!

Nonnas Trattoria, St. Augustine Fish Camp, Columbia (Spanish restaurant since 1905)

St Augustine Distillery, San Sebastians Winery and The Tipsy Duck Parlor (a little too girl for Gerry).

With the full moon this week, the tides have been extreme. We are on a mooring right off of Castillo de San Marcos and here are pictures of the shoreline. Notice the same palm tree in the first two pictures (left side then right side).

More pictures of the fort from the boat.

The moon has been so beautiful. At home, when you are working, you may notice it for a few minutes, but out here on the water, it becomes apart of the experience.

For you non-boaters, here is what it looks like for the boat to be attached to a mooring ball, and other pretty shots.

On Sunday 11/17 we decided to be proactive with engine maintenance. We pulled the covers off and went to inspect with paper towels, Clorox wipes, vacuum and new oil absorb pads. During this exercise, we take flashlights and look over the engine, touching clamps, wiping the bottom of the engines and looking to see if we notice anything askew.

Gerry checks oil, belts and other items ever time we travel, I almost never look, so when were doing this excercise, we typically notice different things. On the port engine, Gerry had noticed a small amount of oil under the engine (nothing to be concerned with, but he could not figure out where is was coming from). After a few minutes, I noticed a spot around a bolt that looked oily. I pointed it out to Gerry. He took a wrench and went to tighten it and then the F Bombs started. The broke right off. After a few minutes, thankfully, he was able to pull the bottom half out. It is part of what is called a banjo fitting that feeds oil to the turbocharger. The good news, we found the small oil leak, the bad news, finding the replacement part.

As of Monday morning, we have sourced the part and it will be shipped to a local marine supply store today and we can pick up, install and be on our way.

With the down time Gerry was finally able to get our AIS (automatic identification system) up and running. This is a way for other boats AND large commercial ships or barges to see our speed and heading and for us to see theirs while underway. It’s a great safety device that allows for no confusion on a boats direction and intentions. Another thing is, it’s a great way to “stalk“ other boats and see where they are on an App called Marine Traffic https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/mobile-apps. You just use the search function, put in AdvertureUS and you can see our location in real time.

SpaceX

Yesterday afternoon, after chatting with my dad, Gerry and I looked up at the sky and said “what is that?” We pulled out our phones and confirmed there was a launch of something. It appears SpaceX launches something most days when the weather cooperates.

In the second picture you can see the white tail (bottom right) puff of gray smoke, followed by the tail of it taking off again.

Today is the waiting game for UPS to deliver our $10.00 bolt that will be a 10 minute project to install. Then it’s off to Marineland FL, for a couple of days in anticipation of a few days of rain (better than the anticipated hurricane). Then its off to New Smyrna Beach.