Saint Augustine – Part Two

In St. Augustine, we learned all about coquina. Coquina is a porous limestone available in North Florida. It was used by the Spanish as a building material during their control of Florida. The original homes in the area are built with coquina blocks and are covered with concrete or stucco or their era. The outer layer keeps the water out of the porous rock and prevents mildew inside the house. The material is compressible and has millions of tiny air pockets (think of Styrofoam).  Because of the light weight, it made the stone very workable for the masonries of the era. However, it also had another quality. The material proved to be resistant to cannon balls. The porous qualities let the stone absorb and deflect the impact of the cannon ball fire without cracking the stone. It was explained to me as comparing a bb hitting a Styrofoam cup. Beginning construction in 1672 , the 17th century Castillo de San Marcos is unique in North American architecture.  It is the oldest masonry fortress in the United States and it is a prime example of the “bastion system” (star shaped) of fortification.

Castillo de San Marcos – Entrance

350 Year Old Door

OMG – It’s so Hot in Here

Barracks

Courtyard

1743 Cannon

Paul admires the Spanish Craftmanship

Sentry Guard Turret

As the area changed from Spanish rule to British rule, the Brits added wooden upper floors to the Spanish built single story coquina homes. Our guide would point to the older homes and constantly say, “Spanish lower, British upper”. Pretty soon we were able to recognize for ourselves the original order homes and the added floors.

St Augustine’s Oldest House – circa 1702 – Spanish lower, British upper

This is an area we began to question. Above is a picture of the oldest home in St Augustine. Next door, to the west of this house is a home with a cannon ball stuck in the coquina. The story goes; a cannon ball was fired from a ship located to the east on the Matanzas River as the town was under attack. Our question is, if the oldest house in St Augustine is located next door to the house with the cannonball and stands between the target and the ship; shouldn’t the oldest house have a hole all the way through it? If it is truly the oldest house, it would have been there before the house with the cannonball blocking it from the ship. Just saying.

Cannonball in Wall

Today was very hot. Touring the fort was like walking into ovens. The roof of the fort in the hot sun and breeze was cooler than the rooms. I do not know how the Spaniards survived the heat. I would have died. Especially when you think they were wearing uniforms.

Markland – Need I say More?

We decided to take a tour of the local distillery. It is free and air conditioned. And, they give you a free sample at the end of the tour. Say no more.

St. Augustine Distillery

Bourbon is Aged for 4 Years

Over $4 Million in Aging Inventory

Bottles are Hand Labeled and Corked

Oh Yeah – Free Samples

Followed By A Stop At The Crucial Coffee Cafe To Sober Up

 

 

Saint Augustine – Part Two

Saint Augustine – Part One

My mood has past and the sun is shining in our world once again. We love St. Augustine.

St Augustine Florida claim to fame is they are the oldest city in the USA. This year, St. Augustine celebrates 450 years as a city. If you are here for any length of time, more than 30 minutes, you will know this. It is everywhere! The year 1565 will be embedded into your mind forever. Every other business is The Oldest (fill in the blank) in America. We both laughed when we were on trip advisor looking for a place to eat lunch and came across a restaurant whose claim was St. Augustine’s NEWEST restaurant. These folks have a sense of humor.

The Alcazar Hotel – Now the City Hall and Museum

The Alcazar Hotel Courtyard – Opened in 1888

We are staying at the City of Saint Augustine Municipal Marina. We are in the heart of the historic district. Besides being centrally located, the marina is top notch. On a bit of a side note, the folks here go out of their way to ensure boat owners are happy. The facilities offer the nicest laundry room and lounge we have experience to date. The docks are new and the staff is knowledgeable of things nautical. Because of currents in this area, it can be easy for a boat to get in trouble in the marina area. The staff works the dock lines for anyone coming or going to ensure safety. We are really enjoying this place. They even have a free shuttle (tips encouraged) to take the transient boaters to the grocery store, hardware store and market. We took advantage of the ride and stocked up on fresh food and fruits.

We ordered some parts for Cream Puff and spent the next few days roaming around the historic district waiting for the arrival of shipments. I think the coolest thing about St Augustine is the ability for small businesses to thrive here. There is not a single chain store or restaurant to be found in the historic area of town. The narrow streets are lined with cafes, arts and craft stores and gift shops. We later found out that the historic area has ordinances preventing chain stores, new style construction, and demolition. This is to ensure the beauty of the historic area remains unchanged. The area has more bed and breakfasts than we could count. Within a few blocks of the marina are at least 100 restaurants adding to our enjoyment here. We love locally owned and operated restaurants.

While in St. Augustine, our friends Paul and Karen caught up with us on their boat. We plan to summer together but are independently making our ways up the east coast. When they arrived, we had all of our repairs done and could spend some quality time catching up a sightseeing. We are both feeling better about life on a boat. It is a good thing.

Ponce De Leon Hotel Courtyard – 1887 – Now Flagler College

 

The Ponce De Leon Hotel Courtyard Fountain

Aviles St – Oldest Street in the USA

Narrow Streets and Old Buildings

Lei’s Linens

Cruisers Grill – Oh, they mean the bicycle.

Arrrgh!

A Reminder of the (not so old) Old Days

Carriage Rides

Yacht Freedom Transits The Bridge of Lions

The Pot Shop (not what we were hoping it would be)

Saint Augustine – Part One

Shake, Rattle and Roll

Approach to St Augustine

 

Ah…land ho! The sight of St Augustine, Florida was just wonderful. We originally planned to be in St. Augustine for a week but we think we will stay two. During each leg of the journey from St. Petersburg to St. Augustine something on the boat simply decided it didn’t want to play anymore.

As we readied the boat to enter the tricky entrance to St Augustine I joked that our adventure so far has been mostly shake, rattle and roll—and in more ways than one.

As Mark has said in the blog posts before this one, we had to motor more than we wanted/expected. While we are motoring things on the boat are vibrating. The shaking can sometimes cause parts and equipment to vibrate loose or apart.

With the wave pattern we have had on the past few trips we have been crashing through waves. We had reefs on one side, the Gulf Stream on the other side, the winds almost on our nose and nowhere for Cream Puff to go so we were banging through waves—and things were rattling as the boat was rolling. This had me thinking about the other different shake, rattle and rolls we had going on since we left St Petersburg.

We decided a long time ago to write about not just the blue waters and sunny skies but the process and lifestyle as well. I have to say; even the bad days still beat fighting the rat race.

Shake: Shakedown Cruise: A nautical term used when the performance of a ship is being tested. Generally when the ship is new or refurbished. To test the boat’s equipment and crew.

We’ve been calling our first season as cruisers our shakedown cruises.  The boat is not a young pup anymore. Cream Puff is 15 years old. Our equipment ranges from brand new to 15 years old. We knew that the boat had not been worked hard in a long time (i.e.: engine, generator, pumps, rigging….). We did what we could in the few years before leaving on our adventure. We expected things would break along the way. We had no idea some of the brand new items we just replaced would break as well.

Rattle: It wasn’t just the rattling from the vibration of the engine or the bone rattling crashing over and through waves. The other type of rattling was of the nerves. Things were breaking on a regular basis and it was starting to get to us.

We know from experience that things are going to break. We’ve owned boats before. Since Mark’s post last week we have received a lot of emails from fellow cruisers that solidify this fact. The internet and cruisers blogs are full to the brim with just this truth. I’ve yet to be in a marina where there was not at least one transient boat stopped over for repairs.

This is one of the reasons we decided to spend the first part of our cruising life near the coast of the USA. We would not be too far from land if we needed to tuck in someplace quickly due to weather or repairs. We would still be near stores that are familiar so we can learn to provision. Parts or items we need would either be available nearby or arrive quickly when ordered. Once we leave the USA receiving shipments will be more expensive and a bigger ordeal. We have a lot of firsts and new things to learn as new cruisers. We hope being near the USA will be familiar and take a few of the unknowns out of the equation until we get settled into our new lifestyle.

Roll: Roll with it. Must haves for this lifestyle: A sense of humor, a sense of adventure, the ability to think and act quickly and the ability to do most of the repairs yourself. We learned a long time ago that with boats we just need to shake it off, whatever it is, and move on. Oh, and have a great network of boaters both on the internet and as friends for advice.

I am pretty sure Mother Nature and Murphy’s Law teamed up to have some fun. They got together in Key West for a long needed vacation, got a bit too drunk and decided to get into some mischief. They saw Cream Puff and her newbie cruising owners, smiled and said to one another, “Watch this!” As we entered the slip in St. Augustine they sobered up. I think they saw us sit down with a sigh of silent resignation, looking around the boat at the broken equipment and wondering what we should do first. They probably said, “Let’s let those kids have some fun” because St Augustine offers some of the best a cruiser (especially a new cruiser) could hope for in a marina and tourist destination. Please read our posts on St Augustine that will follow this post. Arriving at new and fun destinations like this makes the rest of the trip worth it.

Some sailing friends caught up with us on their boat while we were here. They will be buddy sailing with us for the next few legs. We also met some seasoned cruisers who reminded us why we chose this lifestyle. Once we are rejuvenated we will be ready to tackle the next leg of our adventure. Thank you St. Augustine!

Shake, Rattle and Roll

Dream Big

One of the best deals in Ft. Lauderdale is the water taxi. The fare is $26 per person for an all day ticket. For us, this was less than renting a car, no worries about parking, no worries about traffic and okay to have a couple of glasses of wine with the evening meal. In fact, they somewhat encourage drinking on the water taxi. They will even stop at the fuel dock long enough for riders to run in and buy a six-pack.

The fuel dock

The water taxi runs to the major areas of shopping, restaurants, marinas, hotels and beaches. But, perhaps the fun part of the taxi is looking at the homes and mega yachts lining the ICW (Inter-Coastal Waterway) that runs through Ft. Lauderdale.

When riding in the evening hours we notice that most had very few lights on. It dawned on us these homes are second or third homes for the owners. It made us wonder what their full time home looks like. The larger homes pictured here are so expensive they are out of the price range of even the largest lottery jackpot winners. They are owned by business tycoons and company founders who have amassed a fortune. The homes probably complement a collection of properties.

There is a small part of me shaking my head at the gap between the haves and have nots. This is wealth beyond most people’s imagination. But, I figure it’s their money, they can do whatever they please with it. I like to think most people in this caliber of wealth are charitable and give back to a society that has rewarded them for their risks and business ventures. And besides, it makes for a fun ride on the water taxi looking at the mansions. I mean, who wants to take a boat ride through the ghetto, right?

One truth to Ft. Lauderdale; no matter how big your house or boat is, someone else’s is bigger (or soon will be). Enjoy pictures of our ride on the water taxi. Keep in mind these are all single family homes (not condos or hotels) and private yachts.

(click any picture to start a slide show).

The Jungle Queen tour is so hokey it’s fun.

A party on the sand bar.

If you thought the houses were big, here are the boats…

The Chart House Restaurant

Cindy and I traveled often to Ft. Lauderdale and the Chart House was one of our favorite restaurants. We sat many times on the outside dock enjoying fabulous food watching the yachts pass on the ICW. As we watched the boats, we would say, “We sure wish we could afford a boat”. Now, we pass by the Chart House on a boat and say, “We sure wish we could afford to eat there”.

 

Dream Big