Next stop, Daytona Beach

We had a very quiet night on our mooring last night as compared to Thursday night when the wind howled and waves bashed against the boat all night long.


After about an hour of getting the dinghy motor off the dinghy and back onto our boat and then hoisting the dinghy itself onto our stern (I'm telling you right now there are dinghy davits in our future!) we left St. Augustine at 11 AM, much later than we wanted to.


We're going to have to anchor tonight but unfortunately there are very few choices within our time frame of motoring. We'll either have to anchor early or late and I don't like doing this at night.




Wilbur keeps his ears open at all times. I think he's hoping someone on shore will call out to him and beg him to please come live with them so he can get off this crazy boat.

There's just something about horse drawn buggies that everyone seems to like. Unless of course you're on an episode of Seinfeld and someone has fed the horse a can of beans.

















Here is a foggy view of the Bridge of Lyons last night from inside the Knotty Cat.




Last night we went to Tini's Martini Bar with some fellow sailors. We met Greg (whose boat is named Harvey) back in Jacksonville Beach and caught up with him again in St. Augustine. He invited us and another couple, Connie and Andre, to join him. This is the first time we've actually had a chance to go out and socialize with cruisers we've met via the intracoastal and we had a great time.

I mean really, how can an evening that involves chocolate martinis be bad?

We're hoping yesterdays replacement of the impeller raw water pulley holds up today as we now head to Daytona.

Stuck in St. Augustine

You're not going anywhere buddy!

After Wilbur's great escape we're trying to keep a better eye (and grip) on him.










We arrived in St. Augustine, FL on Monday after an uneventful day in the canal. We had no sooner anchored on the northern side of the Bridge of Lyons that Joey and Christine from Bright Eyes came zipping up to us in their dinghy. They'd been at the beach and were on their way back to their boat when they spotted us.

I'm sorry to say they left early the next morning though and are already in Daytona. We thought we'd be right behind them but that's not happening now.



Here is our Knotty Cat as seen from the bridge. Yesterday we moved to a mooring as it's been very windy and the
currents are pretty strong.

For the first time during this trip we finally put the dinghy in the water and hooked up the motor. We were all happy when the motor fired up nicely.

A view of the A1A restaurant from our boat.










St. Augustine really is quite beautiful and I guess we could be stuck somewhere a lot worse.

Right?

So why are we stuck?

After running around town all day, once with Wilbur and once without, we decided to fire up an engine in order to charge up some equipment. I'm not sure how long white smoke was pouring out of the exhaust before I discovered it when I went up to the cockpit. We now need to get a new pulley for our raw water pump. Hans discovered that the opening where the screw holds it in place is now 'out of round'. He checks the belts etc... every day and he was sure that everything was nice and tight.

I have to say though that this bothers me a lot more than the fact that my nose tells me we have a leaky hose in the holding tank.

Stinky stuff I can handle, engine problems disturb me!