Bumming Around St. Augustine

We arrived in St. Augustine on Halloween and connected with our Looper friends, Scott and Rhonda Joiner. Rhonda had prepared a meal for us which we greatly appreciated after a long two days on the road. It's good to be back with them. Their Lagoon 38 catamaran, Mucho Gusto, is on the hard only about 30 yards from Mystic. We can see each other from the top of our decks.

Mucho Gusto

Mystic

Mystic looks a bit rough in the light of day. The finish on the teak is unsalvageable and will have to be sanded out completely. We hear that teak needs hydration and applying linseed oil before varnishing may help it adhere better. The plan was to do just that; but as we sweat bullets sanding and scraping, we decide that we would, instead, clean off the varnish and apply as many coats of linseed oil as the teak would absorb. It's a slow process but the finish is looking happier and hydrated!

Scraping and sanding...my never ending story

Dirt and grim on the deck
Peeling varnish

We're staying aboard Mystic while she's on the hard at St. Augustine Marine Center. It's noisy next to the carpenter's shed. The yard workers are super busy; moving boats, sandblasting bottoms and generally hustling non-stop all day. There's never a dull moment here. At night, everything clinks and clangs and shudders, sounding somewhat like an out of tune orchestra with an abundance of strings and percussion. Several of our lines were shredded since our last visit. Dave will have to go up the mast to run new halyards, check the spreaders, and make repairs to our wind anemometer and lazy jacks. We have our work cut out for us.

In spite of our list of projects, we found time for dock tales aboard Mystic and Mucho Gusto. We also made time to explore St. Augustine and connect with local friends. Al and Lora Robarge Feldman invited us to meet them at Salt Life for Tuesday night sushi. We had a great time meandering through ld St. Augustine after dinner. Our stops included Prohibition Kitchen and Trade Winds where the band Those Guys were playing. It was Scott and Rhonda's 40th anniversary. What a great way to celebrate love and friendship!

Docktails and Nibbles

Beth & Lora at Salt Life

Trade Winds Toast

Those Guys

Rhonda, Scott, Beth & Dave at Trade Winds

Cruising Team Rogers

Rhonda, Lora, Scott, Beth, Dave & Al at Trade Winds

We take daily walks out to the Dr. Robert Hayling Park that runs along the San Sabastian River, as well as into old town St. Augustine. Scott and Rhonda join us on a driving tour of the oldest city in America, including a stop at the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

Community Garden

Garden Art

The buggy shed

Hayling Freedom Park

Hayling Park Obelisk

Hayling Park ~ The Chimes Project ~ A place to make music

Dockyard sunset

St. Augustine Light

St. Augustine Light

St. Augustine Light

We ran the St. Augustine 5K which led us over the bridge of Lions and back to Francis Field on a beautiful Sunday morning. Due to a registration snafu, I was registered twice, Dave was not registered at all. I placed 4th and 7th in my age group. Had Dave been registered correctly, he would have placed 3rd in his age group. This made us laugh. The race claims to be the most beautiful run course in Florida. It is popular run, offering a t-shirt, medal, breakfast and live music in the park at the finish. It was a lot of fun. We'd definitely run the event again.

Breakfast in the park

The more time we spend in St. Augustine, the more local we become. We are learning the shortcuts around town. We've become regulars at the hardware and grocery stores and we are recognized as residents of the boatyard. We joke about it being time to move on.