Eclectic title, eh? The trip to St. Augustine was good. As good as traveling on Easter weekend can be. Sunday may have been Easter but Saturday was Freakin' Idiots Day. They were everywhere and they seemed to think we were some carnival sideshow act and of they got real good and close they might see something good. We chose the ICW to give the engine a good workout on our first day...plus we absolutely had to be in St. Augustine by Monday, so sailing wasn't an option. And seeing as the winds were against us for a good quick run we did what we had to do. We did get the jib out several times anyway to motorsail so my sailing jones got its fix.
Sunday was much better - traffic wise. More stressful navigation-wise. We had a 5 mile stretch where the average water depth was 5'6". Seeing as our keel is 6', I'll let you do the math. Yes, we were plowing the field. We slowed from 5.5 knots to 2.3 as we dug a furrow in the ICW. Waiting for tide wasn't an option and the tidal change in the Tomoka basin is minimal anyway. Yargh. I want to get a John Deere sign to hang over the side or a JD hat for next time we have such a situation.
BUT...
St. Augustine is absolutely beautiful. We can walk anywhere except to the grocery. That's minimal, cab fare is less than $5. Such a beautiful city...you can smell the old everywhere. Yes, there is some kitch and some Gatlinburg thrown in for mama, papa, and the 2.5 kids who come here on vacation...but that's fine. I am happy and we've stayed busier than a 3-legged dog trying to bury a bone in the ice. But it's a good kind of busy. You can get a 3 day unlimited bus pass and go further. There's a chocolate factory, a winery...so we'll play tourist for a few days. We paid for a month of dink dock/shower/laudry. Actually very nice facilities, free internet, clean, and freindly staff. So we plan to explore to our heart's content. It's a nice place to be for now...The anchorage is peaceful but the wind...
The current and the wind certainly work against each other and as a consequence we actually have to conserve power... the heavy current tends to keep us off the wind so our normally efficient wind generator is rendered useless. The solar panels are doing their job but we can't charge everything, watch a dvd, and do whatever whenever... it's good for us to not get spoiled. It makes us thankful on those days when we do have unimited...
I'm tired of writing. Laundry is almost done. We'll take everything back to HP, make lunch, then sally forth into the town. Let's make our presence known.
Spellng errors are a result of temparary lazy syndrome. We've had company for the last week and I am beat. I enjoyed writing this but somehow I just can't bring myself to critique it so carefully as to spell check. Live with the errors. | 
