St. Augustine is Beautiful

We fell in love with St. Augustine. On the way back from Jacksonville we decided to stop and take a day off to explore this beautiful city. We toured the Old Jail -- very ominous, very scary. The warden and his family lived in a wing attached to the jail!

 Leeson and Dad home schooling! (Why, you...!)

What I want to do when they don't get along!

Leeson with the sheriff. (Kids, this only works in "Loony Tunes" cartoons.)

We toured the Pirate Museum which we highly recommend; check out the scavenger hunt for kids.

 

We then toured the old fort, the Castillo de San Marcos, learning about its history from one of the costumed volunteers.

(We assigned Leeson a 2-page essay about St. Augustine's history which he did a great job on. See his essay, elsewhere in this blog) 

The town has charming (NARROW) streets that remind one of European streets, since it was established and built by 16th Century Spaniards, after all... Very pretty! 

Photo borrowed from Miami411.com

Thanks for visiting -- keep coming back. If you have any questions, please comment below.

The Search Continues... Base of Operation Established

We went to Jacksonville to see a boat. It was a long way from our home base in Pompano Beach, about a six-hour dive. We have a home base because many places won't take our cat, Ying Yang.

The boat search has taken longer than we thought. Partly because the east coast of Florida is more expensive than the west coast. We were originally planning on camping but (a) ran into stowage issues (too little room for tent, sleeping bags, etc.) and (b) didn't feel we could leave our cat at the campground unattended while we looked at boats. Same with our son(!). We stayed in two places in the Ft. Lauderdale area which gave me headaches from mold. Ugh! So, in three weeks, we lived three different places. Now 2 and 1/2 months living as gypsies. We all want to settle on a boat and I am sure it would be easier if we were loaded with dough...

Top: A Beach in South Florida
Above: Our slightly sunburned son

We have met some interesting people in our search. Boat brokers, yachties, landlords, etc. 

BTW, do you know the written works of "Cap'n Fatty"? He's a funny and wise guy -- sailing the briny depths for 40 years. 

Buy this book from Amazon and we'll make a few bucks -- could help us go one or two miles farther!!

 

 

Great quote from our son:

"I don't like water -- it's evil."

He has also said that he hates swimming and water. He may not be the ideal candidate to go sailing for a year or more. But he's going anyway. He'll thank us later. 

APPROVED BY LEESON, a boy and his (Samsung) tablet.

candy for sailors by Zee and Lee

Today we went to West Marine (a chain of giant marine equipment stores coast to coast) for the first time ever...
Heaven, I'm in Heaven, lifeboats, hats, forestays, 
anchors aweigh! 

BTW, this anchor is available in sizes 100 lb. to 10,000 lbs. Whew. (Husband only available in 172 lbs.) Don't forget your Zodiac "yacht dinghy" for $41,000!

This intelligent shopper is careful with her money: "No, this one's too expensive, dear!" (True caption: "What's this thingamajig for?")

tick, tick, tick

Time...keeps on ticking...
and we're still looking...

Once in a while, we have to take a break .....here we are at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park...  Ninety degrees Farenheit and muggy.

Lee is checking Leeson's brain for ripeness (Nope, not ripe yet).

scary things by Zee

Who knew the boat search would take this long??? We found a couple boats we really liked but they were too expensive or had a "problem" which could have led to major problems. In one yard we saw a CSY walk thru -- a very strong and capable sailing vessel. The owner had customized the boat which is great but *this* was strange....using Italian halogen house-type lights on the ceiling, but the scariest thing was this black bumpy thing about the size of a lemon attached to the wall opposite the galley. It was black with another bit hanging below the main body the size of a grape. What was it?? 

Ugh! It was black mold.

Scary stuff, especially if it's not cleaned up ASAP. You would think if you're going to sell a yacht worth several hundred thousand dollars you might CLEAN it! My free tip to yacht brokers.

How Not to Captain a Boat (Thanks, YouTube)

(by Lee) 

You won't believe this video. Now you can watch two ships' captains crash their vessels together over and over in slow-motion. How I pray this never happens to me!