1 LiveBloggin' the ICW: St. Augustine

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

St. Augustine

Good evening - it's going on 11, I'm sitting outside while waiting on a phone call and typing this here in St. Augustine, the oldest city in the US. If you haven't been here, put it on your list of places to visit, it's lovely, particularly the old Spanish section.
As you have probably guessed, the weather is lovely - much nicer than when I was here last year and the temps were into the low 40s at night. It's not quite swimming weather, although I paddled in the shallows when I took Aduana to shore for her morning walk. It makes me laugh when I think of Floridians calling diving into this at New Years a 'Polar Bear' dip. It's darn near warmer than Georgian Bay in the summer. True Canadians KNOW that a proper Polar Bear dip requires cutting a hole in the ice...
I sailed offshore from Brunswick GA into Fernandina Beach in Florida on Saturday - absolutely great sail, the ocean was calm and the day was sunny. I joined up with Ray and Joanne and Pat and Joe, who sailed down on Ray's boat, plus the Timinator® and his lovely friend Tammy, who drove down - what can I say, Tim's a powerboater. The plan was to head out to the Palace Saloon on Saturday evening, but everyone was pooched from an active day and hit the sack early. Naturally, the margueritas Pat was mixing had nothing to do with that decision. Great marguerita's Pat, how about the recipe???
Sunday, everyone just hung out in FB's lovely downtown, and Monday, I cruised the ICW to just north of St. Augustine.
Tomorrow, I'm meeting up with an old friend, Peter Sampson, with whom I once worked at Waterway Guide.
After that, it's off to Daytona Beach and join up with Nancy and Jim, two friends whom I met on the Erie Canal while they were bringing their boat south. 
Oh oh....Aduana the Wonderpuppy© is advising me it's time to get her to shore....she's got one paw on the computer so that I can't type easily...I'd love to know where she learned that trick from.
Oh, before I forget, came across something just fascinating on the net today....a letter from a former slave to his owner - it's here - makes for fascinating reading.