The photo shows me leaving Jacksonville for St Augustine. Well, okay ... maybe that boat is just a little bit bigger - and with a few more amenities.

Monday morning I got a call from John, the rigger. It seems on Sunday, he had dropped his cell phone with all its information into the water. Sooo ... can I remember all the measurements and dimensions taken Saturday evening - two nights ago, he asks? We went over everything and agreed on all the numbers. He had an interesting way to get up the mast. He used my halyard with his block and tackle and pulled himself up with his block and tackle, so I didn’t have to winch him up the mast. He came Tuesday evening to replace the shroud. The new fittings look much better for the boat. The old ones have always looked anemic.

It was another motor in the ocean today. Water was oily looking, and when some wind did come, it was on the nose. Because my paddle wheel is stuck, my true wind speed is wrong. I’ve learned to idle the engine to find out what the wind really is. The true wind speed reading is too high and makes me think I can sail when there really is not enough wind.

The current was pretty strong when I came in the St Augustine Inlet. I ran the engine hard to barely make three knots. Without the current I would have been going more than twice that fast. I am on a mooring ball. It is dead quiet. After my week of sporadically bouncing around in Jacksonville, sometimes rather violently, this is heaven.

The dinghy is finally unpacked and running. The only disconcerting part was when I first connected the hose from the tank to the engine. The engine fitting had an audible hiss. Not good. I fiddled with it and after a moment it stopped, but I think I am going to order a spare hose now.

Tomorrow my brother Mark arrives with a van full of gear to equip his boat dry docked here in St Augustine, just up the river and around the bend from here.