Sailing Sirius

We take off on Monday, Nov. 11, which is a calm, warm day. We leave at a time that will get us through the Jacksonville railroad bridge at the appointed time. There has been maintenance problems with the bridge so it is only opening for a couple of hours each day.

Along the way, we are seeing white egrets, ospreys, and dolphins. We anchor in a quiet spot on the St. John's river near some homes and spend the first of many nights at anchor. Ahhhh.

Tuesday we get an early start to arrive in St. Augustine before a front comes in bringing high winds. Luckily it is still calm when we arrive, so it is an easy docking even with a cross current.

St. Augustine is a favorite city and we take advantage by visiting several restaurants we like there. Tops is the Columbia, a Cuban restaurant family- owned for 75 years or so. The seafood, the sangria, and the Cuban coffee - yum!

Not all play though. We engage First Mate Yacht services to chech our engine's wimpy outflow (used a chemical to flush out the heat exchanger), mount the solar panels, and re-position a Y valve.