St. Augustine

On the way south we spent just one night in St. Augustine but decided it was worth a lot more. So as we spent three nights on the way north.

It's a great old city which believes in recycling old buildings and building a new Bridge of Lions to look just like the old one. The jewels of the historic area are the old Flagler built hotels, the Ponce de Leon and across the street the Alcazar. These hotels were built in the late 19th century by Henry Flagler of Standard Oil fame as winter resort hotels for the wealthy. Today the Ponce is home to Flagler College and the Alcazar is the St Augustine City Hall and home to the Lightner Museum.

In the early 20th century Otto Lightner, a Chicago Publishing Tycoon, bought the Alcazar which occupies a whole city block, for $150,000 as a place to showcase his collections of stuff. Today you can tour the Lightner Museum and see a fascinating display of 19th and 20th century memorabilia as well a large section of very well preserved hotel architecture. A demonstration of self playing musical instruments is fascinating. After the tour you can have lunch in the deep end of a former indoor pool in the old hotel. The restaurant is run by the famous Athena and the food is terrific, reasonably priced, and accompanied by live piano music. Nice!

Headed Home

We're on our way to New Smyrna Fla. and homeward bound. We decided to skip the Bahamas mostly because by the time we got near a weather window, the pull of going home was stronger. Having the Abaco's as a side trip on the way home was probably a flawed plan from the beginning. But Bahamas aside, we had a great winter in the Key's and met lots of new cruising friends. We'll spend a few days at each of our favorite stops along the way and be home in New Bern around the middle of April.

Coconut Grove Sailing Club - Again

We left Islamorada Saturday afternoon after waiting for an approaching high tide so we could negotiate the shallow spots on the ICW just east of our anchorage. Well we ended up getting stuck on a low spot on the way out and had to wait for the tide to come in some more just to leave. Then at high tide we started bumping and slowing as we made our way east on the waterway. Not a good thing at high tide, so we turned around and headed west back to Lignumvitae to anchor out one more night. Then on Sunday we headed out under the Channel 5 Bridge and east in the hawk channel. We had a high speed trip down to Ocean Reef Fla where we anchored out in the mangroves. Monday brought more brisk winds and we had a fast beam reach sail up to Miami.

We are currently waiting for a crossing window to the Bahamas, but there is nothing in sight. This is a not a bad place to wait! Great restaurants, a nice club with a good dining room, a Fresh Market within walking distance. Yesterday we walked the three blocks up to the Coco Walk mall and watched The King Speaks in the multiplex there. Terrific movie! This weekend the Barcardi Cup week of racing starts and it's centered right here in Coconut Grove. Lots of racing and an art show to boot. So we'll wait here at least through the weekend and see what the weather brings.