St Augustine

We left Brunswick on Thursday, December 10th in a punishing 45 degree North wind. We anchored next to Amelia City on Amelia Island Thursday night. The winds reached near gale force that night and even though I had two anchors down, I slept fitfully because of the chorus of noises created by the wind as it screamed through the rigging of the boat. On Friday, we again sailed downwind through rain on a cold North wind. The temperature never climbed much above 50 degrees.

I can hear the folks back home say "wah" to sailing in temperatures above the freezing mark but I can't think of anyone except my brother-in-law, Erich, who actually spends a day exposed to the cold winds and who knows how the wind and rain can cut through the skin like a sword.

On Saturday we sailed into St Augustine into a slip at the municipal marina next to the Bridge of Lions. The rain continued until just after dark, ending just in time for the Christmas parade of boats. A couple dozen boaters had decorated their craft with hundreds of lights. They motored a circle in the basin North of the bridge. Some were so laden with lights that the helmsman must have had difficulty seeing outside of the boat to navigate having been blinded with Christmas lights.

Saturday night we discovered a Cuban restaurant that featured live Cuban music. The lead singer played a standard electric guitar and his percussionist surrounded himself with a circle of drums as we might have seen in the Xavier Cougat orchestra. But we were most fascinated with the accompaniment of the man playing a 10 string guitar. He produced a never ending series of single notes to compliment the singing.

On Sunday we walked the town. We saw the oldest house and ancient churches. We found a military hospital museum that displayed surgical instruments from the civil war era and the purveyor allowed me to ring the death bell--the bell that the doctors used to call the reverend to come perform final prayers for a dying soldier. We visited the University of St Augustine which was originally a hotel built by Henry Flagler who also built the railroad to Key West. The pictures above are mostly of that building and the courtyard.

Sunday night, Rich and Judy Bendick met us for dinner (thanks again for picking up the tab). Rich has been my friend since 1972. He and Judy moved to the Jacksonville area after he retired a few years ago so I don't see as much of them as I used to.

On Monday we cast off lines at noon and ran a short 13 mile sail to the Matanzas River where the old Spanish fort still stands. I'll post a picture of it in my next blog entry.