After a long day motoring up the ICW, we anchored near Daytona and the next day arrived in St. Augustine.  Note to selves–think twice before traveling the ICW on spring weekends.  Every idiot with a small boat was out there!  The ones with bigger boats were clueless and passed us at high speeds giving off huge wakes.  We saw very few cruisers…they were probably out in the ocean avoiding the mess!

Getting into Camachee Cove marina in St. Augustine was a challenge.  Tiger Woods’ yacht ‘Privacy’ was docked at the entrance so the idiots in small boats were coming by to gawk.  I had the air horn ready to blast them but we managed to get around and tie up at the fuel dock.   Skip couldn’t figure out why the boat stopped when coming into our slip–we were aground in low tide!  Once it came up a bit, we could move the boat closer to the dock.  Lady of Lorien was docked next to us.  They successfully installed their new batteries and were working through their list of chores.  Angie served us a lovely dinner of the mahi that they had caught in the Bahamas.

On Monday, we used the courtesy car from the marina to hit Publix and West Marine–the necessities of life!  We also stopped in an electronics store where Skip found us the perfect DVD player for the boat.  He had been searching for a player that was small enough to fit in the TV cabinet.  This one was perfect!  We also stopped at a wonderful fresh produce store that was right next door to a fresh seafood store.  I made shrimp stir-fry for dinner using our fresh purchases!

The refrigeration service man came on Tuesday morning to fix the issues we’ve been having keeping the icebox cold.  He removed the rum from the cold plate and put in the correct anti-freeze.  The rum was only slightly green from the little bit of antifreeze mixed in!   I did a few loads of laundry and worked on some of the many cleaning projects needed on the boat (polishing stainless, cleaning lifelines, smearing vinyl protectant, etc.)  The clothes and blankets washed in US water seem so much cleaner! 

Since we were tied up alongside a floating dock, I was able to clean one side of the hull with awlcare.  The salt made a mess of our beautiful blue boat!  After lunch, we moved the boats to the outside piers so we wouldn’t have to worry about getting stuck at low tide.  A gorgeous motor yacht had backed into the slip next to LOL.  We asked the dock hands for help in getting out of the slip so a guy stood by in a small launch.  We sure didn’t want to plow into the million dollar Hinckley!

In the afternoon, we took the courtesy car again for more shopping forays.  Mike drove us to the outlet mall.  We didn’t have a lot of time (because we started getting really hungry) but we did hit a good outdoor store and a camping/RV store.  I’ve never been in an RV store–they don’t have any in Maryland that I’m aware of.  You can find some pretty neat stuff.  We got the gizmo for playing Mexican Train dominoes that makes the choo-choo sounds.  They also had some little wooden racks for holding dominoes–what a great idea!  We tried to play on our cockpit table one evening but the boat was rocking too much and the dominoes kept falling over.  I also found a little battery-operated fan to put at the bottom of the ice box to help circulate the cold air.  I looked all over for one of these!

We made our way into the historic part of St. Augustine for dinner at Columbia.  We ate there last time and it was delicious.  They have the best house salad ever!  All 4 of us got the combination dinner sampler which consisted of beef, pork and an empanada cooked Cuban style along with plantains and yucca–yummy!  They also make a really good Mojito as their signature drink.

Our early morning start was a little delayed because Mike and Angie’s alarm clock didn’t wake them.  I knocked on the boat because we didn’t see them getting read!  We motored all day and are now anchored off Cumberland Island just north of the FL/GA border.  Tomorrow, we will head out the inlet for an overnight passage to Charleston.  This is my first time doing an overnight passage and I’m very nervous–not so much about handling the boat or sailing at night but whether or not I can stay awake when needed and avoid getting seasick.  The weather looks good so I hope it will be a smooth trip…