Saturday, November 15, 2008

We're in Florida


Well it's been a few days since we've posted anything and there is much to talk about. We are now in St. Augustine Florida and have finished our second day here. We spent one night at anchor and are currently tied to a dock in the municiple marina. But let me back up a minute.


On our trip down from Jekyll Island we spent two nights at anchor. The first night was just south of Fernandina Beach Fla. Lots of cruisers go there, but we didn't go ashore to find out why. Lots of noise and smelly paper mills. So we had a noisy / smelly night and moved on early the next morning. It was about then that we began to worry about our cell phone. No service since we entered Florida. It was like going to a foreign country. No cell phone service could be a big deal. If you get into trouble on the waterway it's the cell phone that gets you help. So when we pulled into St Augustine, the first order of business was to call Tracfone and find out what happened. Apparently our digital phone was becoming obsolete and at least in this part of the country we needed a GSM phone. Getting set up with a new phone was amazingly inexpensive but took most of the day.


We spent yesterday at anchor and paid $10 to use the marina facilities. This was a test exercise since it will be our mode for much of the time in Florida. It's simple economics - $10 versus $90 per day. We got an amazing bonus with our stay at anchor - viewing the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor. It was a night launch and at this distance we saw a bright orange streak until the first stage burnt out and was discarded. It was pretty thrilling.


We spent today biking around St Augustine and taking in the historic sights. The weather has been hot and humid the last several days, but a cold front is supposed to be coming tonight. Several sailboats in the marina are planning on going outside tomorrow to take advantage of the fair winds for south bound boats.


Carol snapped the picture of the egret on our dock. These birds are pretty tame and would probably come into the cabin for a snack.

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