St. Augustine, Florida--June 18--2?

Got into St. Augustine late afternoon on Thursday, June 18, outrunning a nasty-looking storm west of us. We are hoping to haul the boat on Monday at the only place between here and Brunswick, Georgia, where we'll be for the hurricane season, that can haul our 22-foot-wide boat. Meanwhile we are enjoying St. Augustine.

In the late 1800s, St. Augustine became a vacation spot for the very wealthy. Henry Morrison Flagler set out to develop the east coast of Florida with the goal of exceeding expectations of the wealthiest American tourists. Flagler College now occupies some of the elegant buildings and has undertaken the restoration of them.

St. Augustine is a tourist mecca identifying itself as the oldest city in Florida settled by the Spanish in 1565.

The pirate ship below gives daily tours around the harbor entertaining its guests with lots of pirate drama.

Another attraction is the sailing ship, Freedom, which caters to the tourist crowd looking for a sailing experience.

We lucked out on our way there when Mike caught a King Mackerel which we later had in the form of ceviche as well as grilled for dinner.

New Smyrna Beach, Florida -- June 17, 2009

Just a brief update--we are moving up the coast of Florida. Spent several days in Fort Lauderdale, then a week in Lake Worth; then on to Stuart. Yesterday we left Stuart, sailing overnight to New Smyrna Beach, just south of Daytona Beach. We were poised for a possible shuttle launch as we passed Cape Canaveral. However, at 3:30 a.m., the Coast Guard announced that the shuttle launching had been scrubbed. We were so disappointed as we had an excellent vantage point in the Atlantic Ocean just east of the Space Center.

Tomorrow morning we leave for St. Augustine.

USA

Well, we made landfall--USA--on Thursday, June 4, at about 4 p.m. Lake Sylvia, Fort Lauderdale, was the locale. Thrilled to have decided to keep on going once we reached Gun Cay in the Bahamas. We had sailed all night from Frazer's Hog Cay in the Berrys--a beautiful night sail. Made the decision around 6 a.m. and went for it. Bad weather was predicted for Friday so we were glad to tuck in on Thursday afternoon. And in fact there were some bad thunderstorms on Friday that we were glad to have missed. The only bad thing was that we had to motorsail the entire way. Made good time, but we hate to miss a sailing opportunity. Saw several freighters like this as we made our crossing.

Left this morning for Lake Worth. Anchored here about an hour ago. Having lots of trouble with power so we're all set to take our Xantrex in to the dealer tomorrow. OH, well, ....Could have happened in the Bahamas or elsewhere. At least, we're in the vicinity of a dealer.

The palm trees surrounding the homes in Lake Worth were beautiful.