Sunday

2042 –fixing a head and minimizing messjness, obviously!!! Get your minds out of the gutter

We did it as the 2nd attempt was a success and the forward head is back up and running. Some serious perseverance and hard work by Steve (what you don’t see in the photo I was just asked to remove is Steve deep in the trenches, but I guess you will just have to use your imagination ) St Augustine has treated us well. The oldest city in America and what a beautiful place to be seen this time of year as it is all lit up for the holiday season. A couple days of rest seemed to fly by - myself still recovering from sleep deprivation. (Note: regardless of how much you may want to accomplish in a day without good rest the alignment of your inner spirituality with outer goals and aspirations can be difficult). A rough stream of conscious account of the past 2 days here: 4 cokes = wired at the A1A bar, temp going to bed Saturday 75, temp going to bed Sunday 45; Patriots game at Scarlet O’Haras; x-mas shopping down St. George Street; provisioning at a Wall Mart Superstore of all places!, coffee shops to include Café Cordova and Café something or antoher, awakening to rain pouring through all the open hatches at 0300.

A photo tour of St. Augustine here.

Late on the posting, my apologies, but journal entries from the trip that got us here….

Friday
2218 –“Pon Pon, Pon Pon this is the USCG South Carolina Chapter Break…” crackles through our handheld VHF. (this is the distress call one level less severe than Mayday Mayday) Keeping alert for the distressed vessel we did happen to find this lone floating life ring and but for the accumulated growth of many days a float it is safe to say it is not from the vessel in question. With not a breath of wind and sunny skies we have been comfortably motoring at 5 knots about 20 nm off the coast of Georgia and now find ourselves in the waters of Florida!! Perhaps the most excitement of the day being an overzealous attempt to fix the rapidly increasing foul smelling forward head. Note to all: DO NOT NOT ATTEMPT TO TAKE APART HOSES THAT ARE FULL OF SHI$%#* UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! At best adding a little flavor to the freshly baked bread an aborted fiasco do say the least. Today marks the official start of a trip goal of mine: Marine biology exploration - a passion ever since SEA. Taking photos of the first specimens and thus beginning the quest to unlock the secrets of the ocean in a quest to discover a miracle tonic that will alleviate world suffering.

Saturday
0530 – A near run in with a cruise ship, radar sensitivity problems, 2 hour sleep cycles, the lights of St. Augustine on the horizon. ETA 0730.