Along that Georgia/Florida border there was tons of fishing - mostly shrimping, I think. We spent a fair amount of our sail from Cumberland avoiding fishing boats, and at one point Cody decided to hail one who's course seemed unclear. He asked me, "Does that say Miss Madeline?" I pulled out the binoculars and looked, scanning only the second word. "No, it looks like Magdeline." He hailed on the radio, "Miss Madeline, Miss Madeline, this is the green sailing vessel off your starboard, come in." (yes, I told him Magdeline, he knew it was Magdeline, it came out Madeline anyway.) No response. He tried again. Again, no response. Well, they seemed to be trying to go in across our bow, so we pointed out to give them time to get across us. Coool, no big deal.
Later in the day the thunderclouds started to build. We had heard that Florida is sort of infamous for it's daily summer thunderstorms, and were reluctantly (on my part) prepared to encounter them. We decided to pull down the jib, reef the main, and motor sail. We were scantily clad (swim wear, because the day was hot) but put on our life jackets, hooked into safety lines, and fastened everything down. As we approached the dark cloud and the wind pushed it over us we were overtaken by the ship we'd been hailing on the radio earlier. On closer, or perhaps more through, inspection, we saw that it was actually called the Mary Magdeline. Not only did that make more sense as a name, but it also explained the radio silence. We followed the Mary Magdeline into the storm.
Now, I'm not Catholic, nor remotely religious, but I have read a lot of Dan Brown novels and I'd be lying if I said I didn't take some comfort in following the Mary Magdeline through that storm. What was the part about the Last Supper? And Tom Hanks at the Louvre?
Anyway.
As we entered the worst of the storm the winds picked up to nearly 40 knots, the rain felt like hail against the skin, and visibility was limited. Lighting struck all around us, thunder echoing off the land so we heard it twice for each strike. The ocean looked crazy between the wind, spray, and rain. As the wind gusted up Cody released the main sheet so our fully reefed sail wouldn't catch any wind, and it beat furiously against the lazy jacks. Cody said, "Can you hold the tiller? I need to pull down the sail." Up until then I'd been sitting just behind the cabin, holding on to the seat, looking down to keep the rain and nightmarish visions of death at sea from my eyes. I took the tiller while Cody ran up to drop the sail, hoping that lightning didn't decide to hit the mast while Cody was touching it. Once the main was down life got a little less crazy. The noise of the outboard always intensifies even innocuous situations, and combined with the sound of the storm and the flapping of the sail the noises were almost overwhelming.
But like all storms, it passed. In a blink of an eye we could again see the shore, and the wind diminished. The sky lightened somewhat but the rain contined. Freezing cold, we dug out our long-since-stowed Grundens and bundled up against the rain and cold air. We had 5 more miles until we reached St. Augustine and we left the sails down and the motor running.
St. Augustine used to be a haven for cruisers, but the city had a problem with derelicts on derelict boats anchoring off of their lovely downtown area and de-classing the place. So, they put in a big city-run mooring field and told everyone they had to anchor elsewhere. Our guide book (Skipper Bob's!) recommended motoring up the river a bit and anchoring near one of thee marinas. We passed many, many derelict boats anchored near the river or at some sort of shady marinas. I like to think we're fairly unjudgemental people, but we like to maintain our boat and our property and it's hard not to say, "Okay, so, you live on that boat, maybe wanna scrape the 2 inches off moss off the top of it?" That makes me sound like a jerk. Well, sometimes I am.
Anyway, we motored up the river and saw what I firmly believe was a sea monster finning (twice) and found the recommended anchorage. There was room for exactly us, nothing more. We dropped two anchors, then dinghied to shore to get dinner at Hurricane Patty's. After a long day of sailing and getting soaked we needed an adult beverage or two. We got dinner and then went to the bar to watch the World Cup, but it was super crowded and we were a little overdone by then, and headed back to the boat.
We had long heard tales of a wonderous place in St. Augustine called the Sailor's Exchange, where one can buy and trade used or newish boating gear. We wanted to go there, but we also needed to do some grocery shopping, so we deferred the fun stuff until after the business. We asked the dockmaster at the marina if we could leave our dinghy there and he allowed it, no charge. We walked a mile or so to Target, because we needed propane and stuff and it looked like one of those super Targets where they have groceries too. On the way we walked by a fruit stand (Henry's Tomato Stand, to be precise) and could get our produce there on the way back. En rroute to Target we found, bless my soul, a Dunkin' Donuts! We aren't huge Dunks fans, generally preferring coffee with, you know, flavor and quality and stuff, but we are New Englanders, and as such we can't help but see a Dunkin' Donuts and feel a little homesick. Stop we did, and got some cold berverages and maybe I had a donut, too. Donuts are sort of like unicorns, too. Delicious, ubiquitous unicorns.
After this little side trip we arrived at Target. I love Target. It's a guilty pleasure. Cody hates it and says it smells funny. Whatever. I was so happy to be in Target I was nearly in tears. We had a successsful shopping trip, where Cody found a tank top he'd long been searching for, then walked back to the boat, stopping at Henry's Tomato Stand and loading up on delicious and dirt cheap produce on the way. After unloading at the boat we set out for Sailor's Exchange.
It did not disappoint. We spent an hour digging through boxes of hardware and piles of sailcloth. The only problem was, we didn't really need anything. We walked up to the counter with a canvas tarp (for shade and rain), a couple brass clips, and an old, smallish propane tank. Cody asked the man behind the counter if they had any Dometic coolers. They're these really neat fridge/freezer coolers for boats that plug into an AC or DC outlet. Cody had been researching them to determine if we had enough charging power to keep one on, if it would fit in our space, and if it would completely bankrupt us. They did have one, in their warehouse, that was just like new. It was the larger size than we'd been looking for, but the price was right (or, so wrong it was right?) so we decided to get it. The man helping us was awesome and had one on his own boat, En Vie Dansante, which as it turned out was on a slip at the marina near us. He arranged for Cody to come with him to work in the morning to pick up the Dometic and get a ride back. That afternoon he and his wife gave us a ride back to the boat and invited uss to come over for a glass of wine. En Vie Dansante is a really nice 35 foot cat - not too big, not too small, and really nicely laid out.
After a lovely hour of drink, snack and conversation we took our leave to walk around downtown St. Augustine. It's a really nice area, dominated by Flagler University and lots of Spanish-stylle construction. We walked to the A1A Brewery and just made happy hour (on a cruiser's budget you can't underestimate the power of happy hour). Then we walked down the dock to check out the amazing galleon ships we'd seen docked when we'd come in the day before. They charge to tour them, like a museum exhibit, but we talked to a guy who was crew on the larger of the two, El Galeon. It was built in Spain in 2009 and they'd sailed it over to the US. Interesting fact, square-rigged boats can't head upwind. Makes sense, but I'd never thought about it. The guy looked at us like we were idiots when we asked how close to the wind they can sail. Anyway, the other ship, the smaller, Nao Victoria, was a replica of Magellan's ship - the first to circumnavigate the world - and had recreated his historic journey. Anyway, big wooden boats are cool, and having the guts to jump on one to sail around the world is pretty rad.
As we were walking off the ship we saw a sea turtle! A bigger one, about a foot and half long, happily eating plantlife off the dock. We walked around the historic fort and the older parts of town, all very neat. We'd both been wearing our flip-flops and mine had been bothering my feet, so we ended up walking around town barefoot and I felt like a dirty vagrant. Not to worry, our friends on En Vie Dansante had given us the code to use the shower at the marina, so we were able to wash up when we got back.
The next day we retrieved and set up our fridge, picked up our part for and fixed the foot pump, and generally prepared to depart. We decided to walk to see a movie at a theater (X-Men, because we're not very sophisticated film-viewers), and then got caught in a storm on the walk back. We hung out in front of a gas station until Cody started feeling awkward, then took a cab back to the boat. It was an insane torrential downpour, and we waited for it to subside before paddling back to the boat.
I really intended to make this one post, but it's grown far too long and who the hell would read it? I mean, has anyone even made it to this point??? If you have, I'll reward you with pictures.
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