May 17-19, 2020 St Augustine adventures

Sunday May 17-Dave spent some time in the aft starboard lazerette searching for a source of the water leak.  He noticed that the 2 hose clamps on the engine exhaust hose were wimpy.   Dave replaced that through hull in 2018, before we went up the East Coast to Maine, which is when we first started taking on water, interesting!  At the time, the hose clamps looked fine, so he used the old ones.  He felt moisture there, but never saw a track of water from that source.  Fuel, oil grease and hot water have to flow through this large, stiff hose.  He decided to get new hose clamps, ones that you can really crank down on with a ratchet wrench to tighten the hose clamps.  He’ll check at the Sailor’s Exchange tomorrow.

We took advantage of the shower house at the marina and had long hot showers on shore.  We had a late lunch at Harry’s on the waterfront.  There is always a waiting line to get a table there.  I stood in line while Dave and Pete took the shower bags back to the boat.  Their timing was perfect.  This is a New Orleans style restaurant with AWESOME food.  

After dinner, I walked to the Basilica for their 5:00pm mass.  This was the first weekend they were open for mass during the COVID 19 pandemic.  Everyone had to wear masks.  The pews were marked to make sure people were spread apart for social distancing.  I try to make it to mass when we are here.  And it’s a beautiful church.

dolphin in our anchorage

Monday May 18-We walked to George’s diner for breakfast/lunch.  It’s a Greek diner on the way to the Sailor’s Exchange.  Great food.  

At the Sailor’s Exchange, we bought 17 feet of the used engine raw water exhaust hose.  Dave measured by extending his arms within the boat and thought we needed 12 feet.  He didn’t think the owner wanted to cut it to length, because no one would need the short piece left.  One end was damaged, so he charged us for 15 feet.  Dave also found the hose clamps he wanted for the engine exhaust hose.  He didn’t think to measure that hose, so took a guess on the size he needed (which he later found out were too small).

We headed down the street back to the boat with all three of us carrying a chunk of the hose.  It reminded me of a group of little kids walking and holding onto a rope to keep them in line and together.  The joys of not having a car.

fun tiki hut on the water

Tuesday, May 19-  After hot showers on shore again, we headed south.  It was a much nicer day, so we went out the St Augustine inlet onto the ocean.  It took us 9 hours to exit St Augustine, sail south, enter St Mary’s inlet and anchor near Cumberland Island.  Probably takes an hour by car.