23rd November 2019   (Happy Birthday Dad xx)

Sleeping in late we had a lazy morning and cooked a nice bacon and eggs breakfast before we lifted the anchor and headed off down the ICW, it was only a short 1 hour trip and we were at the Lions Bridge, St. Augustine.  

Lions Bridge St Augustine in the background, you can see all the masts in the Marina on the other side of the bridge

The anchorage area was pretty full as we approached the town marina - which is just after Lions Bridge, a low bridge that swings up - to open- on the hour, to let the yachts and tall masted boats through.  It was so busy we could not find a vacant spot to anchor so we called the municipal marina to enquire about a mooring ball, but no they could not accommodate us, "now we are stuffed" says Craig, then we notice there may be room for us on the opposite side of the river, we moseyed on across and yes there was ample room to drop the anchor and let enough chain out to allow for the strong currents and reversing tides.

Saturday morning we dinghied ashore, the deal is you have to pay the Marina $12.50 plus tax to be able to use their dingy dock, this allows you to tie up and gives you access to the showers, washing machines and Wi-Fi (although we were too far out to have constant Wi-Fi, it did come through to the boat from time to time but in a way that is so frustrating waiting and waiting on a page to upload and then it drops out  - gone and you have to start again, so in the end it was easier to go without Wi-Fi.

Marina and bridge looking from shore

St Augustine is such a pretty town but very touristy.  It is the oldest city in the US it was first settled by the Spanish and has some spectacular Spanish architecture beautifully restored and immaculately presented.  Opps the Spanish came and kicked out the indigenous tribes who first inhabited the land.

The first stone fort to be built in America guards the city and is open to walk around, where we were anchored was just opposite the old fort, we nearly shit ourselves the first time they had a cannon fire re-enactment it was so close to us and so loud, we then had a laugh at the new arrivals to the anchorage who would have had the same reaction as us.

Out walking we passed through the town gates and into the old city, so many tiny buildings with history information plaques and gorgeous restored buildings hosting cafes, restaurants, bars, ice cream parlours, chocolate shops, art galleries, clothing shops, tap breweries, souvenirs and everything else in-between.   

Flagler College campus 

The City Gates

See the little red train, there were heaps of them taking tourists sightseeing around the city 

There are some stunning buildings Flagler college is a liberal art college located in the Ponce De Leon Hotel that was built in 1888.

We had a lovely walk through the old town and visited the Aussie Kookaburra Café where we had sat and booked our visas and flights to Canada 9 months ago.

later in the day  we stopped for a beer  and started talking to  a guy at the bar and he explained it was "Night Of Lights" and tonight is the night they turn on the lights so its a big party night, and one of the busiest days in St Augustine.  Every business owner is committed to lighting up their building with lights and the local council string lights in the trees, along the fences, they totally light up Lions Bridge, everywhere you cans string lights, basically the town turns into an illuminated wonderland, its actually quite spectacular we have since learnt that St Augustine is one of the biggest destination in the US for viewing Christmas lights.  its a tradition for families to visit to see the lights and they come from everywhere.  This guy we were chatting to only lived 30 minutes away but he and his wife had booked a room so that they could have a party and not have to drive home.

We were back on the boat by about 8.30 just in time to see the lights go on, on the bridge actually the big cheer that we could hear from the shore made us go up and have a look to see what was going on.  The place was so crowded mostly families, all American but with so many different ethnicities, everyone got along and were courteous to each other irrelevant of their background or race.

So many people

The town square, also had the original building that was used as a slave market !! 

"Palm Trees"

It really was quite magical at night, not so much in the heat of the day 

Lions Bridge and the Marina at dusk

When we were chatting to the guy in the bar he had suggested we grab a slice of pizza and now we know what he was referring to, the  "Pizza Time" shop its "Voted number #2 pizza shop in America",  we did not know it was here and stumbled across a line of people waiting to order and we couldn't resist trying it out. Definitely delicious Craig declared it was the best pizza he had ever tasted, We did go back for seconds later in the week.

We filled our days walking to the various stores we needed to visit you know all the usual supermarket, laundry there was a marine consignment store, where we picked up an anchor for our dingy.  

Later in the week we designed and ordered boat cards.

Everyone has boat cards and they are actually really useful so it was time to get some for Adriana, the office works type store Staples did an online service where you could design and order then collect from the store.  But of course nothing is ever easy.  We could not pay online with our Aussie credit card so off I went to organise.  I had found out there was a bus that would take me there, the bus service only runs past these shops about 6 times a day.  I caught the bus there, it was funny waiting at the bus stop I was chatting to this guy who I think was the local drug dealer, he knew a lot of people who went past and he tottered off a couple of times with them, but came back, and then he did not even get on the bus when it eventually arrived.
I made it to the shop and caught a different bus back that dropped me on the way, at a major intersection it didn't go down the road I needed and I had to walk for miles back.  Then the next day was Sunday and there was no bus service !! We had to wait for the Monday, I caught the bus to the shop but missed the return bus and it was like 3 hours until the next one so I walked the 8.5km, It took me all day to just to pick up the boat cards.

St Augustine has a great cruisers net, every morning at 8am they broadcast over the VHF marine radio they do weather, fishing, buy and sell, marine services and social events, that's where we heard of the Thanksgiving Pot Luck Lunch being held on the Thursday so we decided just to hang out and stay for a few more days.  Thanksgiving was a hoot the organisers cooked the turkey and ham then everyone brought along a side dish to share
we or should I say Craig made a beautiful couscous salad, there was everything including homemade corn bread and baked beans that are local southern specialities, there were salads and roast veggies, scalloped potatoes and even mac cheese.

Plus a huge table laden desserts with lots of pumpkin pies.  We sat and chatted to a few couples who are out cruising and also on their way South to the Bahamas.

Thanksgiving Lunch with the Cruisers Net

I spotted the young couple who were anchored just in front of us and headed over for a chat, turns out they are not a couple but on 2 separate boats, Stella is French and has been living on her steel hulled boat for a few years, she has sailed from Martinique and is sailing on her own and working when she can. Alexi is from Isles De Madeline and knows everyone that we met there, it was lovely to talk to him, he is heading to Costa Rica with a quiver of surfboards.  I am in awe of these two sailors doing it all on their own.  Alexi left St Augustine on the same day as we did, Craig has been txt and talking to him most days.

We had fun in St Augustine it is a lovely vibrant city and the yachting community was very welcoming and friendly.  But its time to move on. 

Alexi and Stella's boats anchored behind us 

Our next spot on the map is Fort Pierce, we visited FP on our quest to buy Adriana, on St Patricks Day last year, I remember there was a great market happening next to the marina but we were too busy looking at boats that we missed it, so hopefully it will be on when we are there.

The conditions were right to exit the St Augustine entrance around 1pm so after motoring past Stella and Alexi to say goodbye we headed out the channel, we had called the local Tow Boats US to check the condition of the entrance - that it had not shoaled over, he said we were ok to go but to stick to the red markers in the channel.  

The seas got a bit lumpy as the exiting current hit the ocean but it was not as bad as anticipated.

Our route is straight down the coastline with one land mass to round at Cape Canaveral.       We put the sails up as soon as we were past the entrance markers and we managed to sail the whole 160 nautical miles.  It did get a bit heavy in the middle of the night and we reefed in the main to slow us down. But allover it was a good fast sail, we had one concern the coast guard radio messages emitted on VHF 16 kept giving warning messages for an injured Southern Right Whale, mother with calf in the area and we were a bit worried we might hit her, it was a real possibility and well you know how your imagination can run wild....in the dark in the middle of the night in the middle of the ocean.

Around midnight we started hearing Coast Guard messages tell us that there was to be a Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral and all waters in the area would be restricted from 10am, our timing was good and we were well past the restricted area by daybreak.  As we sailed past we could see the area lit up onshore and using our binoculars we could see the rocket !!!

They actually called off the launch that day as the high atmosphere winds were too strong but it was launched the following day, it was taking supplies to the International Space Station. We thought we might have been able to hear it but all we could see was a wiggly white line in the sky.

We were not close enough to see the rocket launch as it was delayed by one day but this is what we did see

We did cross into the gulf stream and one point as the water again turned the most incredible blue and the temperature of the water went up to 26c and it was very turbulent a sign of things to come when we cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.

We motored up the inlet and anchored just off the ICW,  After we dropped the anchor we had a big tidy up heated up some lunch and rested for the afternoon.  I think we were in
bed asleep before dark  (5.30 - 6.00pm)  We are getting better at sharing the night watches and taking 2 hour shifts but yeah your tired for the next couple of days.

We had read that there was access to a Publix supermarket at this end of town that's why we stopped there we were up early the next morning we need to get organised for the Bahamas !!!

There was a marina right next to where we were anchored and there is a restaurant where we can leave the dingy while we go ashore and hey we are happy to have a beer on the way back, but we thought we should just check with the staff not just walk off and leave our

dingy there, lucky we did apparently the supermarket has closed for renovations and no there are no other shops nearby only if you take an uber, so back we went in the dingy and had to think of a plan B.

We had met up with Jane and Steve (Canadians) in St Augustine and they too are headed to Fort pierce and we had arranged to catch up, they were planning to anchor around the corner under the fixed bridge, so we upped the anchor and headed towards the bridge only to find it was high tide and Adriana was not going to fit underneath it.  We swung around and headed back down the entrance channel, to where some other yachts we had noticed were anchored just off the main channel, this was a good spot for us nice and deep with plenty of swing room and the water looked nice and clear. We had not been able to make water in St Augustine as the water was murky and there was too much water traffic around it was full of fuels and undesirable stuff, so our tanks were getting low.

We didn't need to fill up with diesel just yet so no filling up with water when topping up the fuel.  But this water is beautiful and clear so good for using our water maker to make drinking water.

Our anchor held first go and we settled in to life at Fort Pierce, there was an old/ pretty unsafe dingy dock opposite where we were anchored but we climbed out and locked the dingy to it.  We have started locking the up the dingy as we are approaching the more populated cities.

Dolphins

They are hard to capture on film, but there were plenty of dolphins around 

That's where we found the electric scooters they are a great idea but their allowed range is limited so we could not get to where we wanted to go also the next time we looked we could not find any close by, they had all been used and left on the other side of town.   

We decided just to walk the 6km to Aldi to get started on our provisioning, it took us an hour or so walking along Highway 1. plus I had to walk over a huge bridge.  Craig had to hold my hand and talk to me the whole way I don't know what I'm scared off but I hate walking over heights.

Wonky dingy dock with Adriana in the background

Fort Pierce has a great Saturday market and we were lucky enough to be there on a Saturday, there were some great food stalls, perfect fruit and veg, live music and interesting art.

Fort Pierece Inlet from where we were anchored looking out to sea

We filled two trollies to the limit and caught an uber back to the dingy, luckily the uber that arrived was a big SUV. The dingy ride home was a bit treacherous and then we had to

put everything away, we had bought a lot of meat (chicken, mince pork and sausages) that we separated into small batches and stashed in the freezer.  We had bought about 30 toilet rolls, they went under the spare bed.  4 bags of flour, 10 potato chips and the same in corn chips then so many tins of things like peaches, stag chilli, packets of pasta, a big bag of rice enough to last us 4 months, food is expensive and not always available in The Bahamas.

We still have to get the fresh fruit and veg and the BEER.

There was no room for me to sit !!

Our freezer blew the little computer type fan that keeps the motor cool, we ordered 2 new fans and a replacement water pump (just in case) from Amazon and again we had to cancel the order as they never actually arrived. 

We still had to source a replacement oar and pin for the dingy that we lost in Hurricane Dorian we were struggling to find a supplier who carried the spare parts.  

Along with Jane and Steven we visited a marine liquidators warehouse and picked up a few bits but nothing that we were trying to source.
With Jane's help I found a cheap wetsuit, some fins and a full faced snorkel, I will have to be brave and get used to snorkelling hopefully the new full face type will be better than the old snorkel in the mouth style.  I also picked up a snorkelling buoyancy vest that I did not know even existed, this will help me stay afloat and give me confidence in the water - well I hope so anyway.  It was great going with Jane and Steve they have been to The Bahamas 3 times and were full of advice and being Canadians they were more than happy to share their knowledge.

One evening the boat anchored next to us invited us and the other boat close by, to go over onto the beach next to where we were all anchored, they were going to light a fire and cook some sausages, we were like yes this is the life, we had a lovely evening around the fire having a beer and hearing the other 2 couples stories.

BUT we did get attacked by "no - see - ums" tiny little sand fly type bugs that bite - the next day was not too bad but the next night it felt like our legs were on fire !!!

I am adding more bug spray and soothing gel to the shopping list they have the same "no - see - ums" in the Bahamas.  And I can confirm the itching is intense and lasts for days.

While we were waiting on the parts Jane and Steve departed on their way to The Bahamas we will catch up with them hopefully just in time for Christmas Day.

I hoisted Craig up the mast to replace the globe on the mast light, using the winches Craig is still worried I will let him drop too quickly !! 

Generally we tidied up  provisioned did engine checks all the maintenance stuff ready for our passage over to the Bahamas.

As it was nearing Christmas we were privileged to have the prime location to watch the annual Christmas boat parade.

They were mostly motor boats with Christmas Carols blaring from the speakers

The bridge in the background is the one I had to walk over !!

But we hit a problem, when we did our big shop at Aldi we bought a few kilos of meat and on our return we had to use both our drop fridges tuned on to" freezer" mode, we had been working with one as a freezer and one as a fridge.  The one that had been the freezer started to overheat, the little fan that cools the motor down was not working also the small fridge that was turned off and used to store our beer, now had to be turned on and used to store veggies. The fan in that one stopped working as well.
After numerous phone calls we eventually found a fridge mechanic company who would help us, but they would not come on to the boat while we were on anchor their insurance would not cover the mechanic visiting our boat, we were not prepared to go into a marina at $2.50 per foot $US mainly because who knows how long it would take to get parts if we needed them and we didnt want to get stuck there.

To cut a long story short Craig with the help of the fridge mechanic and google sussed out the problem, He ordered 2 small computer type fans costing us $180, they took about 3 days to be delivered to the Fort Pierce Marina and on fitting them we found that they were both totally wrong.

Craig managed to rewire the fans and bypass the contoller, they now run 24/7 instead of running in cycles.  We couldnt wait any longer we needed to head off down south as beleive it or not the weather was turning cooler day by day.

Our last was to pick up the beer.  We walked to a local liquor outlet and purchased 35 boxes of beer (12-18 cans per box) this allows us 2 a day for the next for months the girls In the shop were really funny trying to act nonchalant at such a big sale and we were extremely lucky the father of the guy who owned the shop just happened to be calling in to the shop as we were ordering an Uber and gave us a lift back to the dingy dock, the trip back in the dingy was worse than the one with the groceries.  I really thought the bottom was going to come away from the sides of the dingy and again there was no where for me to sit, but we made it and then spent the next hour or so stashing the beer away.

So after 10 nights in Fort Pierce  we upped the anchor and motored out of the inlet back into the North Atlantic, next stop West Palm Beach.