Pretty uneventful day. There were 11 bridges. Only 5 were draw bridges. And only one of them was on a 20 minute schedule. The others just opened upon our request. Very little traffic. We enjoyed looking at the homes along the ICW. We anchored about 5 miles south of St Augustine in a very quiet bay right off the ICW. We did hit bottom entering this bay in one spot. But we easily backed off of the sand bar.
Because of our incident with biting bugs recently, we decided to eat dinner inside the boat. After dinner, I could see some brilliant colors in the sky. So I took a chance and went outside to watch the sunset. It was worth it. The sky was beautiful. And there were dolphins surfacing near the boat. And you could hear morning doves cooing. SO peaceful.
Wednesday: today we only moved the boat about 5 miles to the St Augustine Municipal Marina. When we were in sight of the marina, we called on the VHF radio. They gave us directions to a mooring ball. We were settled by noon. We spent the afternoon planning our trip to Green Cove Springs to become residents of Florida. We have to have 2 pieces of mail arrive at that location from some business to show that is a permanent address. So we spent the afternoon trying to get that set up. We also spent some time changing addresses since we had wifi again.
We went to shore late afternoon, paid for our mooring ball, then walked around town. Before we left the dock, Dave had to fix our dinghy motor. The water discharge was clogged with barnacles (little ones). We found a paper clip that he could insert to clear it.
There is so much history here. St Augustine is the oldest continuous settlement in the US, about 445 years now. So the part of the old town, which is near the marina, has narrow streets and old buildings. St George St had only pedestrian traffic. There are lots of shops and a few restaurants. We ended up at the Columbia. It is a Spanish restaurant that was started in Tampa in 1905, with only 5 locations now. I had eaten at one in Clearwater Beach, FL about 10 years ago and remembered how good it was. We had their Sangria that is mixed table side with fresh fruit, brandy, an orange liqueur, and a white sparking wine. Dave had their Spanish soup (a bean soup) and I had their 1905 salad. This was also mixed table side. Their unique ingredient was Worcestershire in their dressing. Very good. Dave had a combination dinner with 3 meats and I had Merluza “A La Rusa”-Spain’s favorite fish, breaded with Cuban bread crumbs and grilled, garnished with a Russian sauce of lemon butter, parsley an hard boiled eggs (chopped), served with yellow rice and vegetables. Wow! We had a very heavy box of leftovers. And their signature dessert was Flan, which is Dave’s favorite. Another reason we took half of our meals home. We want to return to try their paella. They also had hot Cuban bread with the meal.
Needless to say, we went for a long walk after dinner. We continued along St George St then headed towards the water to see the fort built in the 1600’s. Too late to tour, but walked the perimeter. We headed back to the boat along the water. But we heard Irish music coming from an Irish Pub. So we stopped for one beer. The music was only a recording. But they will have live music Friday night, so we may go back.
Thursday: boat projects
We plan to wait out some rough weather this weekend then go to Green Cove Springs on Monday with a rental car.
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| 2 Spanish Galleons docked in St Augustine. the smaller darker one had been in Ft Myers Beach while we were there |
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