Moving south to St Augustine, FL. Day Dreams & Waterford took off together again moving south. We were in the lead & we grabbed our first (&hopefully last) Crab Pot with our boat. Neither Doug nor I saw it but we heard it as soon as we ran over it. It was clunking & thunking along the keel. We stopped & both looked at each other not knowing what the sound was at first because we didn't see the blasted float. So Doug checked the engine room and the gauges & all looked fine. We put Day Dreams in reverse, only a little @ first & nothing came up. We began moving forward again & the clunking picked up speed. Doug went out along our walkway & could hear the float hitting so we put Day Dreams in reverse harder and longer & up came the dreaded crab pot. It was caught on the stabilizers & no harm, no foul. Everything including the stabilizers are working fine. It doesn't matter if you are in the channel, these Crap Pots are everywhere.
 |
| St Augustine Harbor |
We arrived to St Augustine & grabbed a mooring ball @ the Municipal Marina right downtown. The Municipal Marina is in the middle of town where we can pretty much walk or bike to all the sights. The mooring ball is just like what we used to use @ Put-in-Bay, South Bass Island in Lake Erie. We have our dinghy to get back & forth to town & they even have a dinghy dock. They also have a water taxi to ride but it has a limited schedule. The Marina has nice bathrooms, showers, laundry & boaters lounge which we have full access to.
We picked Garry & Jacque up with our dinghy to take them in to town to register. Since we have our new dinghy caddy, it is very easy to put our dinghy in the water. Once registered, we had time to walk around a bit before dark. There are loads of shops, restaurants & historical places to visit. We barely touched the surface on our first walk through.
 |
| The fort in St Augustine |
Waterford left us the next day to travel further south to Stuart, FL where they will get some needed work done and enjoy warmer temperatures. We plan to stay in Northern Florida for the winter exploring this region unless it gets too cold to enjoy. We still are close enough for my niece Wendi and her husband Tadd & daughter Samantha to visit and have fun with. We also are thankful for their help with our transportation needs. Wendi is an excellent chauffeur!
We've experienced a mix of weather: some rain, cooler days & nights and recently wind. Along with that though, we have had lots of sun, deep blue skies, warmth & beautiful sunsets. Biking has been great; we biked to Anastasia State Park on Anastasia Island and participated in a Guided Nature walk along the beach, into the salt marshes & under a beautiful hammock of a variety of indigenous trees. We walked up 226 steps inside the St Augustine Lighthouse to take in the awesome view of the Atlantic Ocean, Anastasia Island & State Park, St Augustine and the ICW.
In the center of town sits Flagler College which is a private 4 year liberal arts college founded in 1968. We listened to a free lecture @ Flagler College by a local archeologist regarding the 30 year dig @ the Fountain of Youth where the Spaniards first settled back in 1565. We visited Flagler College's Main Hall which originally was the exclusive Ponce de Leon Hotel built in 1888. Henry M. Flagler, the industrialist, cofounder of Standard oil & railroad pioneer commissioned this hotel & purchased the railroads knowing that the area had a huge potential for tourism. He certainly was right!
Wendi, Tadd, Doug & I hit the local winery where we sat outside on the rooftop terrace, sipping wine & listening to a local musician singing & playing. We checked out Conch House Marina, located just across the bridge on Anastasia Island. When pronouncing "Conch" the ch is hard like a K sound, I was corrected nicely on this. Anyway, they have a great restaurant & Tiki bar there-we hope to stay here on our return this spring.
On our last Saturday in town, my brother Bob & his wife Karen were back in the area, so all of us (Wendi,Tadd & Sam) explored the Alligator Farm-Wow do they have a lot of gators & crocs there! First of all: it is one of Florida's oldest continuously running attractions, having opened in 1893! No that is not a typo; I said 1893. See ole Henry really did know a tourist town when he saw one. It really was interesting & well done. They house 23 species of crocodilians in a zoo type atmosphere. The farm offers exhibits, animal performances & educational demonstrations. As always, we learned something new.
 |
| A great dinner with some of our family |
 |
| It may be cool here, but we're still able to be outside |
 |
WE found Doug's namesake! This is actually how his name
is spelled on his birth certificate! |
