|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
ST. MARY’S TO SAINT AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA We didn’t have much time to feel guilty about not saying a proper good bye to Pauline and Ron on Two by Two as we hit a shallow spot coming around the bend from St. Mary’s by red marker #8 even though we had it on our port and were steering clear of the shallows. It should be deep all through there so don’t know what we went over. It must be shoaling out. TIME WARP
The water is flat as a pancake today. We left at slack tide with no current and no wind. It’s like the world came to a stop, like a time warp. I can’t explain it other than that. When you are on these tidal waters day in and day out you become accustomed to the movement of its life cycle, a life that functions around the ebb and flow of the tidal waters and when it stops it’s like life stands still for those few brief precious moments at slack. The only thing that doesn’t seem to come to a halt is those darn bugs. They suddenly wake up and become a nuisance, those little stinkers. Don’t you wonder how these people deal with the bugs? They must be immune to them is all we can figure.
The calm water makes for some beautiful reflections across the sound and its nice cruising, smooth as glass. We appreciate the wind in our faces created by the force of the boat moving through the air and water as it keeps those little stinkers off of us.
OUR LUCKY DAY?
Actually there’s not a soul out here except for one solitary crab fisherman and well some hungry pelicans swarming his every movement hoping to get a scrap. Nevertheless, we are keeping a keen eye out though for a dark stealth-like submerged mass moving through the water.
FORT CLINCH Wow, what an amazing view of Fort Clinch we have from the water. It’s located right on the shores of St. Mary’s Inlet. We could easily imagine blockade runners coming out the inlet back in the mid 1800’s during the Civil War as the fort looks just like it did back then and there are no modern buildings nearby to distract that image from your imagination.
THOSE UGLY PULP MILLS SURE ARE A SIGHT Our next view was pretty shocking. It’s the view of the two pulp mills at Fernandina. They are puffing white clouds of stuff into the sky and the wind will take it where it may. The sight of these eye sores almost takes your breath away, I guess you could say, literally. We haven’t seen anything this ugly along the ICW for hundreds of miles. I know they are important for the local economy, a necessity for sure, but WOW, it’s a shocker to see them. It’s hard to image, now after seeing how close they are, how much we enjoyed our stay in Fernandina when we stayed there a few years ago with the Nordhavn. We enjoyed it immensely until the wind changed and then we suddenly had to leave. It’s a great town though with some of the nicest people we’ve met along the whole ICW so we would definitely recommend the stop, but check the direction of the wind first and future forecasts perhaps. Today it wasn’t a planned stop as we were still on a mission to get south and warm. CAPT SNORKY AND EARL’S GIRLS We pass some interesting rusty looking shrimp boats that have lots of character. The pelican’s sure like to hang around them too, hoping and waiting for a free hand out. They certainly are clever free loaders. We got a kick out of their names too: Capt Snorky, Earl’s Girls and Madame Butterfly. The shrimp boats don’t seem to mind docking right by the pulp mills. Maybe the price is right. NO JACKETS Finally, FINALLY, we’ve peeled off the winter jackets and don’t have the little space heater on making its steady noise, nor do we have moisture on the windows! It’s finally warming up a bit! That’s a first for these last few freezing weeks. No matter though as we are still trying to get south as fast as we can to guarantee some warm weather.
AMELIA RIVER We head down Amelia River and see more of those beautiful white pelicans, a rare sight, and a new group of birds, maybe smaller cormorants. They look just like the many cormorants that we’ve seen all throughout this trip but they are much smaller and swim in close knit groups with their noses stuck high in the air looking a bit arrogant. We make a turn into Kingsley Creek, a narrow cut straight cut, that eventually takes us back to Amelia River, South Amelia River. Amelia Island is to our portside. It’s a nice area. I notice on the chart a nearby creek named Alligator Creek. The electronic chart is really goofy here as it puts us right on land instead of the River. We’ve had a little as 3 feet under us but no less. THE PROOF IS IN THE POOP We passed dock after private dock with perching birds. We got a good laugh at one dock. The owner had mounted some plastic owls on the dock hoping to dissuade all the crapping birds, but no such luck, as ironically that dock seemed to be the most popular as it had loads of pelicans and cormorants saddled right next to the fake owls and the real proof was certainly in the poop. Finally at the end of Amelia Island we cross over Nassau Sound and entered Sawpit Creek. The landscape suddenly takes on a different look. For the first time we start to see palmettos and sand dunes. It’s a spectacularly beautiful area and is quite remote.
WHERE ARE THE MANATEES? Just when we were going a good clip and making up some time, we have to slow down now for the manatees or so they claim. There are a few signs now posting speed zones for their protection. The crazy thing is, we heard on the news that since it’s been so darn cold they all headed for Riviera Beach way south of here. Why? They're huddled in the warm water put out by a power plant there. So I’m wondering if this tedious slow crawl is all for naught, as I’m pretty sure the Manatees are not freezing their rumps here. WHERE ARE THE CRUISERS?
For the first time in a few weeks we see two cruisers a head. We’re actually out of practice passing because we haven’t seen anybody. So we hail the first one behind, ask if they would slow down so we can go by without waking them. I don’t know if the reason we haven’t seen many cruisers is because we are getting a late start south or whether the economy has kept many at home. I have to admit, it’s very scary listening to the news each night and watching our government juggle our fragile futures in our face and all of us not having much to say about it. We watch and listen to this crazy idea of forcing a huge “stimulus package” on us and future generations and all the while talking as if the world is coming to an end. Do they really think they know what
the heck they are doing??? They can’t even seem to count votes so how do
they think they are going to put together trillion dollar plans to save
our future, most of them never holding a job in the real world. It scares
me and makes me sometimes wonder what are we doing out here on the water
cruising like nothing is wrong when things seem so bad. Maybe we should
be home, stocking up on canned goods, getting ready for the unknown, but
then we shake our heads and just keep going. The scenery is so beautiful here. It’s so great to see all the masses of birds and great numbers of dolphin swimming by the boat. There must be lots of fish here to support all these fish eating birds and dolphins. Somehow you feel like things are going to be fine in the world when you pass through here. The animals seem to be going strong here no matter what kind of shenanigans humans get themselves into. I’m so glad this seems to be a healthy place for them. ST. JOHN’S RIVER As we pass the second cruiser we’ve seen today (and for weeks) we see a bridge ahead that we must go under before we can cross the St. John River that leads out to Fort George Inlet. We slow down as we begin to approach the bridge. There is a barge in between the posts in the center of the bridge. It looks like they are doing work on the bridge. We slow way down trying to see what’s going on. The cruisers we just passed have to slow down too behind us and are probably wondering what the heck we’re doing. CRANKY BRIDGE TENDER We hail the bridge tender to ask if we can go through. The bridge tender is kind of abrupt with us and tells us to come on through that there’s plenty of room as “tugs and many bigger than you have been going through here”. After that tirade we kind of sheepishly, but very slowly take the boat through and just behind the barge are workers standing on little floats working with machinery. The whole situation was looking pretty dangerous to us. I’m surprised that he wasn’t warning us to be more cautious or even to hail us first on the radio to warn us as we approached. Just as we began to cross St. John’s River we hear the bridge tender again. This time he’s hailing the boat behind us, “Knock off the wake captain as I’ve got men working here and don’t want anybody to get hurt.” Go figure.
LEFT TURN IS TO JACKSONVILLE We cross St. John’s River which if we took a right turn it would take us to Jacksonville and beyond. We instead follow the ICW heading into Pablo Creek. There are some swirly rapids at the Creek’s entrance
We passed some big homes and thought it interesting to see their gigantic screened in back porches. Some screen structures were two stories high and as big as main houses. Ya’ think they might have some bugs here? Pablo Creek eventually becomes Tomalto River. This area is spectacular scenery. It’s nothing but mile after mile of lush landscape that must look as it has for 1000s of years and is also rich with birds and dolphin every which way you look. Its things you can only see and experience by boat. I ask Larry if he thinks it’s about the most beautiful place with all the wildlife, and his answer, “It all depends on your definition of beautiful.” COAST GUARD FIXING THE MARKERS We hear a call on the radio and surprisingly it’s a call to us. “Small blue hulled boat heading south on the ICW near red marker #34, this is the US Coast Guard and we would appreciate a no wake as you come by red marker #36 where we are working”. We already noticed them ahead in their red go-fast pontoon boat with aluminum cabin and were planning to slow down for them when we got up there. We answered back and acknowledged. When we got near we slowed her down to a crawl so as not to wake them. They were working to replace a triangular shaped marker plate. Wow, they have a lot of work to do as all the markers for miles need new numbers. It’s a slow process as you can see. The problem is you cannot read the numbers because most of the numbers are missing. There is supposed to be a black number on each red or green black ground. The only thing left is a faint image where the number was. You can barely make it out and if you are lucky enough to identify it, it’s only because you are just directly beside it and maybe a little bit too late. WHO’S RESPONSIBLE? This brought about a discussion between us concerning all the difficulties you encounter when boating. It’s not like anything else you normally do. You have to be alert and responsible for yourself and your boat no matter what the situation. It may be an exaggeration but sometimes I think it’s the last thing in this world that we are personally responsible for. You can’t sue anybody if you get in trouble because something’s not marked exactly right or to your liking. Ultimately you are the responsible party for your boat and yourself. It’s a crazy world we live in today. We post signs everywhere for stupid things that most people would just consider common sense. For instance, if you don’t have a 36” high fence or rail and a sign to say “keep back”, to keep you from falling off something that you know you shouldn’t be standing by in the first place, and then you fall, then it’s someone else’s fault and you can, by golly, sue. You know the scenario. Everyone is afraid of a law suit and no one is expected to be responsible for themselves or anything they do so we have to have signs to tell you what common sense already should tell you. Somehow, boating has escaped much of this silly stuff. I think that’s another reason why we like it so much. You are on your own and it’s the last bit of real freedom you can have. In boating, things are never perfect but you are your Captain and have to figure it out. There’s a great feeling of accomplishment in that. Why have we lost that in so much of our daily lives? APPROACHING ST. AUGUSTINE Did I forget to mention that it’s been pouring rain for the last couple hours and the wind has picked up to 25 knots? The boat is running steady and cuts through the chop like it was nothing. One of the wipers looks like we might need to replace it soon. We need to get some laundry done so Larry made a reservation at the Conch House Marina Resort as it has some necessary facilities for boaters. The one thing I miss from the Nordhavn is that trusty washer and dryer. Yep, I don’t really like having to lug the laundry up and sit in a laundry room for hours when I could be out seeing something. It the big compromise for me. The last time we stayed at the city docks. They are close to the center of town and several restaurants. Since we’ve been to St. Augustine before in the Nordhavn we decided we’d forgo that convenience for the convenience of some washers and dryers. The marina also has a restaurant and we’d heard that it was supposed to be good so I think we’ll manage just fine. CONCH HOUSE MARINA RESORT The inlet to the marina is immediately to your portside after you cross the inlet to St. Augustine heading south. This area is pretty exposed to the ocean and there is nothing to obstruct the wind coming from the East. So of course as luck has it, the wind picks up and it continues to rain buckets. We hailed the marina to get instructions to come in as it’s a little tricky and suddenly is pretty shallow. The channel was narrow and pretty soon we only had a foot or so below us. They first asked if we needed fuel and we said we could use some so they gave us directions to put us in a nearby slip close to the fuel dock. Though the wind was really blowing Larry turned her around backed her into the slip beautifully and the two dock guys were great helping to get the line and boat secured quickly in the wind and pouring rain. By the time the lines were set and we were plugged in the two guys and I were sopping wet. It comes with the job I guess. We all agreed that tomorrow would be a better day to fuel up when it wasn’t raining. What’s really neat here is they have long hoses at the fuel pumps so they can fuel you boat right in your slip. How convenient! I like that so we don’t have to dock the boat twice to get fuel. Good idea. ST. AUGUSTINE LIGHTHOUSE What a spot. We had a great unobstructed nearby view of St. Augustine Lighthouse and also across a lagoon with dunes and beach nearby. We didn’t venture out though, not even to do the laundry, as it never stopped pouring the whole afternoon and evening.
WATCH OUT FOR GLOBAL FREEZING! We had to dig out those darn winter jackets again! Just when we thought it was finally warming up we got a three day blast of the deep freeze again. It was mean to give us a taste of warmth yesterday and then to blast us with even colder weather than we’ve endured for the last couple weeks. And to boot, throw in fierce winds, making it feel even colder. Some cruisers came in, filled up their tanks and left. Larry asked where they were going to so quickly. “Anywhere where it’s warm!” was their answer. Poor Larry had to walk down that long, long, pier each time he took Ziggy out. The wind blew across the pier and it could chill you to the spine. The worst part was that several times Ziggy refused to go when they finally reached some grass and I think it’s because it was too cold. They’d come back, both half frozen, and Larry would say, very frustratingly, “He refused to go again! Damn dog.”
THE DEED NEEDED TO BE COMPLETED I don’t blame Ziggy for not liking it as I couldn’t stand it either. The temps were down below freezing again at night and not much better during the day. Larry was amazingly patient with Ziggy, though he’d never admit it, or maybe it was just concern, as everyone knows a dog can only hold it so long. The deed needed to be completed. Finally I gave in and said let’s all go. I’ll do my best to convince Ziggy the importance of this mission and if we’re successful, we’ll see if we can find a place for breakfast, or at least some HOT coffee and maybe a roll. You’d think the marina would offer some coffee and muffins for the cruisers. They do that even up in the Pacific Northwest on cold chilly mornings. How about even a little vending machine where you could buy some coffee and a nice warm lounge to enjoy it in with other cruisers? We finally got Ziggy to go and then took a very stiff brisk walk looking for some breakfast. The walking actually felt good as it kind of thawed out the bones once you got all the appendages moving. We had our hoods pulled snuggly over our heads, our hands stuffed in pockets and our shoulders tensed up to our ears trying to stay warm. The cold wind was in our face. We walked and walked and couldn’t find a thing open. Finally, we came across another dog owner doing their morning duty and asked if there was a breakfast place nearby. “No, there’s nothing nearby for breakfast. You’ll have to walk down the highway quite a ways until you get to the bridge and over to St. Augustine’s.” We weren’t very interested in doing that, not in this weather. We finally came to a gas-pump-convenience store. Larry went in looking for anything to warm us up. Zig and I waited outside standing next to a wall trying to get out of the wind and still be in the sun. Ziggy was so cold he wouldn’t even set his little furry white rump down on the cold concrete. Larry came out, with two hot cups of coffee in hand and said “You can get a breakfast sandwich in there if you want.” “Nope, I’m not that desperate yet.” We walked back to the marina and sipped our coffee along the way. It was good and hot until it too turned cold before you could get half of it down. Back we went down the long pier and long dock, back to the warm comfort of the boat again. 50% MORE THAN GEORGIA I had to face reality. The laundry needed to be done. The idea of lugging the laundry down the dock in the cold was not appealing but a necessary job today. Larry and Ziggy helped me carry everything to the little laundry room up by the marina office. It’s funny. I’m becoming very familiar with these washers and dryers at the marinas now. They use the same brands everywhere we go. I told Larry, “They’re the same machines but these cost 50% more to use than the ones in Savannah at Thunderbolt.” He wasn’t surprised as he said “Everything seems to be 50% expensive once you leave Georgia.” It was cold in the laundry room but I was hoping it would soon warm up once the machines got going. I couldn’t believe the room wasn’t heated. I decided to stay until the first washing load was done so I’d be right there to put the stuff in the dryer and get the next batch going. I really didn’t want to walk to and from the boat anymore than I had to in this weather. Larry decided to try out the marina showers and went back to the boat to get his stuff. SLOW AS MOLASSES The machines were filling so as molasses. I guessed it was because Larry was taking his shower and the showers are close by. They probably don’t have enough water pressure to run the washing machines if the showers are in use. Great, I thought, as I listened to the water barely dribble into the washing bins. I felt like I was in a refrigerator rather than a laundry room. I guess they are not used to having this kind of freezing weather so why would they think to install heating or AC to make their customers comfortable? Finally, after an exasperatingly long time, the first two loads were done and I opened the lid to move the clean wash to the dryers, but the clothes were ICY COLD and grey looking. I checked the settings thinking maybe I forgot to set them for hot water, but no, they were set properly. The clothes were dull grey. That’s when I realized I didn’t put the bleach in. By now, Larry was back to check on things. I decided I was going to wash them again as the clothes looked worse than when I put them in. OH WOE IS ME “I guess I forgot to put the bleach in because it took a hundred years to fill the machines. By the time they were full with water, my mind was elsewhere.” With these machines you have to wait until the water filled completely before you can safely put the bleach in. By now, I’m more than half frozen. This time I remembered to put the bleach in once the water finally filled the tanks again but when I poured the bleach out it was globby and cloudy looking. What kind of bleach is this? That’s when I realized Larry must have bought some weird kind of bleach that was a mix of bleach and soap. I thought buying a bottle of bleach would be a simple errand but guess not. Oh well, at least the whites should come out really clean this time with a cup of high intensity detergent and then a cup of globby beach soap. I was griping about the machines to Larry telling him there was no hot water, the machines were excruciatingly slow filling, there wasn’t any heat in the room and the machines were downright filthy. Larry went across the hall to the marina office and asked about the hot water. NO HEAT AND NO HOT WATER “No, there’s no hot water piped to the laundry room!” was their and simple unapologetic answer. What? Who in their right mind would not pipe hot water into a laundry room to wash clothes??? Great, I thought. This place was getting on my nerves. TEMPTATION ON THE SHELF I asked Larry to bring me back a HOT cup of coffee from the boat to warm me up and a book, as this was going to take longer than I expected. I had noticed a brand new jigsaw puzzle box on the shelf in the laundry room along with a bunch of free flyers and other advertisements which I wasn’t interested in reading. I was tempted to get the puzzle down but I knew that would be a waste of time since I could never begin to get much done on it before it would be time to gather the clean laundry and leave. But as time went on,….and on,….AND ON,….. in this miserable laundry room, I finally got the box down and went to work on it. I poured the pieces out on the table and began sorting similar colors of the puzzle together in separate piles. My hands were freezing but the coffee served as a hand warmer until it too soaked up the cold of the room. DIRTIER THAN WHEN I STARTED? Eventually, the wash that was washed twice, was done but it still looked grey when I pulled it out. I can only conclude it was because there was no hot water or maybe their water is dirty? I had no choice but to throw the loads in the dirty dryers. Yep, they were dirty too. They had accumulated dirt in every crevice just like the washers. I began to wonder if our laundry was going to come back to the boat dirtier than when they left. LINT CATCHERS I tugged at the lint catcher in the dryer, but it wouldn’t budge. Some clever person had secured them permanently in the dryer with metal screws no less. So you had no option but to dig out the lint the best you could with your fingers. This place is ridiculous. I guess they must have lost a lint catcher once and so to solve that unusual problem they just came up with the clever idea of permanently fastening them to the inside the machines. Of course, everyone knows you have to clean out the lint after each load or the clothes won’t dry efficiently but there was no way to get the dirty lint out behind the lint strainers. DISTRACTION This place was really getting on my nerves but now I had something else on my mind and that was the jig saw puzzle. I knew it was a wasted effort but I went at it with a passion anyway. It was of a picture of a nice little harbor in Nova Scotia by National Geographic and a pretty complicated puzzle. Larry came in and he too began to help with the puzzle for a couple minutes but soon left. My suspicions were that it was too cold for him. DRYERS WERE NOTHING BUT A HOLE TO PUT MONEY IN This laundry experience went on for hours. Now the dryers wouldn’t dry the clothes, well at least not in the first three takes. That added up to a whopping $4.50 per load! In the world of laundry rooms, that is a total rip off! I was making a big dent on my bank roll of quarters that was to serve us for several weeks of cruising using washers and dryers along the way. I sure longed for the days of the Nordhavn today. To be able to do a load of wash in your boat is a real luxury and I was really missing it today. MAKING PROGRESS Larry would come by every so often to check on me. I think he was either feeling guilty or feeling sorry for me. He may also have thought my brain was certainly frozen because I was so absorbed with solving this puzzle that I wasn’t even aware at times when the dryers had stopped and needed another feeding of quarters. I was making great headway on the puzzle by now. I actually found all the pieces that put the signs on the buildings of this quaint little harbor in Nova Scotia. I also had by now sorted out the pieces for the area of water that had sunset reflections on it, and had put together one complete sailboat and so on. RECIPE FOR MILDEW The laundry began to get dry though, eventually. When you are on a boat you can’t get impatient with slow dryers by bringing bring back damp laundry to a boat as that a sure recipe for mildew to set up shop. Larry began to take pitifully small batches of dried and folded laundry back to the boat as they were by bits and pieces slowly completed. I was completely frozen by now and blowing hot air in the tunnel my hands formed as they over lapped each other like one fist, but it was not keeping them warm. They were becoming stiff with cold and it was hard to pick up the little pieces of the puzzle. I was racing with time now trying to get as much of the puzzle done as I could before the laundry was done. I was committed to the puzzle now and to the idea of leaving it unfinished was going to be difficult. LAUNDRY CLEANER??? After a literal fortune was spent in quarters, the laundry was FINALLY completed and what was formerly white clothes, sheets and towels were now officially dull grey but I can say fully dry. I hated to leave my puzzle as I had done all the hard work, the separating of similar colors and patterns and putting things in proper piles. At least the next person to suffer the torture of this laundry room will at least have the pleasure of putting the final pieces of the puzzle together after all the hard work I’ve done. The partially completed puzzle will be waiting patiently for that next person to complete, well that is unless the marina staff comes to clean. Did I say clean? Actually they seem to only empty the trash cans and then straighten up the flyers on the shelves. That’s what you call cleaning around here and it’s pretty much the same with the showers. The machines could really use a good washing down but most likely the only extra thing that will be cleaned or put away will be my puzzle. It probably will be swooped into the box it came in one big swipe of the arm and put back up on the shelf from where thy puzzle cometh. So, that was it. I left that freezing torture chamber and my puzzle, but during the day as we walked back and forth, I’d glance through the window to see if my puzzle was still there. It was but who knows how long. IN SEARCH OF FOOD By now it was afternoon and neither of us had eaten. We decided we’d walk down to the bridge and over to St. Augustine. If we get going and it’s just too cold or too far we’ll just call a cab to bring us back. It felt good to walk and get the arms and legs moving again after being frozen. I was slowly beginning to thaw out a bit. This whole trip I’ve felt much like a frozen steak that every once in a while gets a partial thaw on the outside but never quite gets finished on the inside and then just when you’re starting to feel warm you get thrown back in the freezer again. As we walked down the main highway that leads to the bridge we noticed a little place that looked like it could be a coffee shop. It had several newspaper stands out front and that’s always a sure sign that it’s a breakfast joint. I told Larry I’d check it out and made my way across the heavily trafficked Highway A1A which explains all the fast moving traffic. It stretches north and south for almost the entire length of the East Coast. SHRIMP JOINT The place was packed inside and people were starting to arrive in droves. I asked one old gentleman who put his name in for a table through was looked like a takeout window if this was a good place to eat. He gave it a glowing report as he told me the whole history of how it started back in the 50’s and that people drive for miles to come here and how fresh the fish is. “What do you like to eat here? I asked. “Everything is good, but I like the shrimp!” Okay, that was good enough for me and the fact that the place was packed and more people were arriving. I waved to Larry and Ziggy to come across the highway. Larry didn’t seem too happy about the situation when I told him it was seafood place as I think he had visions of a hearty breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs. I don’t think he liked the idea that I was going to get something “to go” and that we’d find a place in the sun out of the cold wind to eat. “Where would that be?” he asked. “How about that concrete planter across the highway by the little motel? It should be warm enough in the sun and out of the wind and, well, we’re really hungry NOW so what do you think?” He agreed and up to the window I went to order some lunch. SHRIMP! The lady dressed in an old fashioned
waitress outfit like you’d see in an old diner, slid the screened window
open and ready with pencil and order pad in hand asked what I’d like to
order. I asked her what was good here and she said “shrimp.” Okay, that
was three people now who recommended the shrimp, the old man and another
old lady that said she and her family drove 60 miles to come eat here.
“OK, two orders of shrimp!” I said. Then I had to pick the sides. You
get two sides and there were about 10 sides to choose from and they weird
sides like, cottage cheese, rice with gravy, apples, grits, strange things
that I would not think necessarily went with shrimp. It was like a place
out of the past, like a Campbell’s soup commercial. I guess that’s why
all the retired folk liked this place.
BACK SCRATCHING It was a fun experience though and as we waited for our order, more and more people arrived. There was an antique store and I some might call it a junk store right next door. Larry said “Why don’t you poke your nose in there and check it out.” I did and was surprised to hear a loud speaker inside the antique store announcing the name of the party waiting for the next available table or takeout order that was ready to pick up. Larry’s response when I told him this was, “I guess it’s a perfect example of I’ll scratch your back if you scratch my mine.” SACRIFICES FOR ZIGGY We got our Styrofoam boxes of shrimp dinners and high tailed between speeding cars across the highway again and plopped ourselves down on the concrete slab in front of the old little motel. (They do like their Styrofoam around here. Everything is Styrofoam, coffee cups and soft drinks and to-go orders. Haven’t they heard it’s not good for the environment?) As we sat there we contemplated the compromises we do for this darn dog. The worst part is he doesn’t even realize it so therefore doesn’t appreciate it. So here we are again eating in strange places because of Ziggy. Well, we can’t say that that was the best shrimp we’ve ever eaten nor even close but we had fun enjoying a popular little place that the locals really seem to enjoy and it satisfied our insatiable hunger after wasting most of the day in that stupid laundry room. OLD WORLD VIEW FROM THE SEA With some energy back after getting some much needed sustenance we continued heading over the St. Augustine’s landmark bridge which crosses the ICW and, which by the way, is completely under construction right now so it doesn’t look anything like when we were here a few years ago. In fact we remember coming into St. Augustine after doing an all-nighter up the Gulf from Stuart and I couldn’t believe the impression this town made on us when we headed in the inlet at the break of dawn. The the skyline of the city, the nearby fort with the nearby huge cross and this quaint beautiful bridge really make for quite an impression. It’s as if you entered a city back in time, someplace that does not comes close to resembling anything we are familiar with in the USA. It looks old world but you can only see it by water. Today sadly the impression was sadly distorted by construction, noise and traffic.
GREAT BARBER SHOP We weren’t in the mood for sightseeing as we had already seen practically every nook and cranny of St. Augustine the last time we were here. We were mainly looking for a place to get some coffee, sit down for a bit and perhaps find a barber for Larry. And find a barber we did. The barber
shop was the barber shop of all barber shops. Its located right across
from Flagler College and it is quite something with all sorts of animal
trophies mounted on the walls, and stuffed rattle snakes on the counters,
and etc. Several of the women are barbers too. They took Larry right
away and one of the women barbers gave him a great cut and charged him a
whopping $13!
As I waited for Larry to get his hair cut, I watched in amazement as gardeners working speedily to cover plants because of the freeze. Flagler College had yards and yards of plastic covering all their hedges. We walked around the center of town a bit but it was just too cold to enjoy and so did the long walk back to the boat and though we had planned to stay another day we decided to head out first thing in the morning. I was sick of the freezing cold and wind. I think in better weather we would have enjoyed the marina we were in as we had a great unobstructed view of the lighthouse and the nearby national seashore that is supposed to be a great place to go shelling but we needed to get to better weather.
TIKKI VILLE We did enjoy the Conch Restaurant at the marina and its funky décor. It was the saving grace from our laundry experience at the marina. It looked like one big Tikki hut with funny carvings and torches everywhere but in this freezing weather you feel more like a warm mountain lodge with a fire going. But I’d like to come back one day and have dinner in one their Tikki huts that are built way up high on a post overlooking the harbor. It looked silly but fun.
We were also so impressed the day we arrived at the marina. We were greeted by a very nice lady who is the mother of a couple that we’ve been corresponding with through the website for a couple years but have never met. We had barely arrived and were just settling in when this very nice lady with umbrella in hand came by in the pouring rain no less to welcome us to St. Augustine. Her son and daughter-in-law off of Idylltime, a 47 foot Krogen, had been checking the website. They knew we had arrived and asked their mom to come by and say hello and ask if there was anything we needed. Is that about the nicest thing anyone could do? She brought us a delicious rice dish she had made and a nice juicy lemon from her yard and offered to drive us anywhere we needed and to show us the city if we were interested. We were bowled over with such thoughtfulness and great hospitality they were offering to us almost perfect strangers. Now, that has got to top the cake of kindness and great experiences on this wonderful journey. We were very grateful but our purpose for this stop was only to get much needed laundry done and head on down the road to warmer weather. We were disappointed that we had sadly missed meeting these wonderful people from Idylltime but were confident that we would cross paths in a few days as we all were heading south.
Next stop, Daytona Beach.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As
we approach Cumberland Sound, I was secretly wondering if this would be
our lucky day. Would today be the day that we might see a submarine
coming through St. Mary’s Entrance? I don’t think it’s in the cards
though as there are no patrol boats in sight to escort one in. 
.
GREAT PEOPLE!
