Back on the boat and back to the blog at St. Augustine mooring

Summary for the days we've been here:
  We arrived January 19th after watching the wonderful birth of Isabelle, Sarah and Yeang's first and our fourth grandchild in New York.  All were born at Cornell Weill, First Presbyterian Hospital.  So much fun to be there and hold her, see her face to face.  Already she seems calm and wise.

   
















We drove our own car this time, again non-stop, 15 hours to St. Augustine

to find the boat in fine condition with no bird droppings.  Our inventive use of flags and tin foil worked.  Shawnee is the white one.

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It's nice to have our car here to drive to the beach,  

movies and explore. 
   Glad we could avoid the great snow drop of 2015 and be in warmer clime except our heater quit after one night.  We are like camping now without a campfire in the cold of 39 degrees at night and 55 during the day.  As soon as that sun goes down I am in the bed with 4 fleeces and a sleeping bag.  Our heat is one kerosene lamp in the forward cabin.  We turned on the stove and heated up terra cotta pots that held the heat a long time.  I placed one in the bed to warm up the sheets.  Still, cold is cold.  Drew worked on the Espar heater for 4 days with many calls to the Rhode Island Espar Service before giving up and sending the unit to them.  

Have no  idea when they'll send it back.  He said he had never had it serviced in 10 years since it was installed.  Plug-in heaters don't need service so why would this one?  It is a real incentive to sail south sooner.  On top of the cold we are just recovering from the flu/cold complete with severe congestion, cough and temps.  It kept each of us in bed over 2 days, taking turns dinghying Mazu to shore twice a day.  That's lingering.
    We found our two favorite French coffee houses have closed or stopped morning coffee service.  We found another one a mile walk to the north end, "Petite Pleasures."  Good walk and good coffee is worth it.  On our way we passed the old wall and gate to St. Augustine 1729.

  and the warrior outside of Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum

  Another favorite is Smokin' D's BBQ about 5 miles south on route 1.  It's "a  vegetarian recovery center."  Just like last year it serves every day until they run out.  Always cars there, always a fast moving line.  Deeelicious barbeque like I've had no where else.

  One day while the Subaru was getting its 30,000 mile service in Jacksonville we walked Neptune Beach and visited the Cummer Museum and Garden.  Put it on your list.  What a little gem.  The Cummers were Michigan lumber barons making a fortune and building a winter mansion on the St. John River.  The mansion is long gone, but the modern museum took it's place and is well endowed with major corporate and philanthropic supporters.  It has a cafe, shop, Meissen porcelain galleries, modern and impressionist art and rotating art exhibits.  The 2 1/2 acre garden is exquisite with English, Italian and Olmsted designs.  It's centerpiece is one of the oldest live oaks in Florida, just huge, spreading 150'. 
  

  I've walked through the sleepy, quiet, beautiful, Old Florida residential districts that dominate St. Augustine with Mazu. 
   Other days Drew and I have watched three great films:  "American Sniper" where the whole audience applauded the true story. "Into the Woods" was terrific, fun and such a great score.  And "The Imitation Game" a true story about Alan Turing, the inventor of the computer and code breaker during WWII.
  The good news is we bought a heater today so I'm able to write this in the warmth of the fore cabin. : ) now 65 degrees in while 44 out.  It runs on low with the engine running : )   : )  Other days the temp was 54 in and 44 out.  Now we have the lamp and the heater as our new heating system. 

Lamp and ceramic heater also view of vitamin C and cold meds.

  My job is to check tides for the possible trip Friday to Daytona (50 miles south) and search for anchorages though none we've seen have fit for us.  The requirements are a depth of 5.5' for our boat's draft and land access for Mazu's daily pit stops.  There is a notable ICW trouble spot at the Manazas River Inlet with bad shoaling/shallow spots.   We will not be going through the area, 13 miles south of St. Augustine at high tide given our early morning start.  That will be a challenge.  We have 10 hours of daylight at 6 k/hour so we figure we can make it even with all the low bridges.  Since we aren't sailing outside (because of high winds in the wrong direction) sailing 24 hours a day, it takes many more days to get to warm Miami.  We have to wait for 5 Bascule, draw, or swing bridge openings as we go the 50 miles to Daytona.  Now I am sitting in our sun room before the sunset, very cozy in a shirt, fleece, parka and windbreaker, very comfortable.  Searching the "On the Water Chart Guides, Anchor Guide for the ICW"  I find 2 anchorages possible, one 13' to 10' at the Memorial Bridge mile marker 830 and one a mile farther south in Daytona 11' to 7', slight current, both with shore access by dinghy.  When we get there we'll see ; -    Sleep tight everyone.  Thinking of you all in cold places for the most part.
  Think of Drew tomorrow replacing the impeller (engine part) and starting up the water maker.