Palm Coast to St. Augustine

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's) 

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 11 - April 11, 2017

We had a great morning at Palm Coast Marina! We had coffee from the marina office, had showers, did laundry, disposed of our garbage, topped off our water, and cooked breakfast on the NuWave induction cooker. "Same shirt, different day" works for awhile, but not indefinitely! I actually used a shaving brush and real razor instead of my electric shaver today! It is a 30 mile run to St. Augustine, so we cast off our lines about 9:30 a.m.

We gave Jim Bathurst's suggestion a try today and dropped our cruising RPMs to 2000. At first the wind was on our nose, our speed was somewhere around 4.5 statute MPH, and I was a bit skeptical. But bumping the RPMs up to 2200 did not really significantly increase our speed, so we dropped back to 2000. The Navman was reporting MPG that could only mean the fuel flow was so low that the Navman could not report it accurately. Then the wind shifted, and we started seeing speeds of 6 -7 statute MPH, and the Navman was still showing that it could not accurately report the economy on the low flow. I could only calculate the two days since we filled up in New Smyrna Beach, but we traveled 70.9 miles over two days and used 15.3 gallons (the 13 gallons reported by Navman increased by the known 18% Navman error), which still computes to 4.6 statue MPG, and half of that was at 2200 RPM and half at 2000 RPM, so I am pretty sure that the half at 2000 RPM would have been 5 statute MPG or better.

A "Hurricane" Boat

Another "Hurricane" Boat

We had seen quite a few "hurricane" boats back between Honest John's and New Smyrna Beach, but I didn't take any pictures. We saw a few more today, boats that were once somebody's pride and joy, tossed high up on the land, and apparently not worth salvaging, so there they sit to decay into the indefinite future. I got a couple of pictures today. Very sad.

We got to St. Augustine Municipal Marina earlier than anticipated, tied up at the fuel dock, and checked in at the office. Today we started spending a few dollars! Two nights here were $127! On the other hand we have lived on the cheap for the last 10 days so and we can "cost average" our stay here! At least that is my story, and I am sticking with it! They had a marina hand to catch our lines at our slip and we got tied up lickity split!

Patty on the Red Train

The first thing we did was to buy our three day tickets for the Red Train, a shuttle that winds all over St. Augustine with the driver narrating the history of everything we were seeing. You can get off anywhere and get back on the next train, since they run about every 15 minutes. We just rode the whole route to identify the places we want to get off and explore tomorrow! A lot of the architecture close to the marina reminds us a little bit of NOLA, but St. Augustine is its own city, and Henry Flagler was a huge part of what got built here. One of his hotels is now Flagler College, and even City Hall is a former Flagler hotel!

We capped off the night with our first real dinner out since we left Birch Bay. We chose Harry's Seafood Bar & Grille, which is less than a thousand feet from the marina. It is a wonderful place, with a pretty good musician, Aaron Esposito, playing tonight. He did special things with his loop machine and Super Octave pedal, all live but sounded like a full band! Seating was in an outdoor courtyard, and the food was excellent. I surprised myself by ordering Catfish Ponchartrain with Etouffee Sauce and Collard Greens that I washed down with a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA. Absolutely delicious! Patty had the Jumbo Shrimp and a glass of Robert Mondavi Cabernet. We both highly recommend Harry's if you are ever in St. Augustine!

We are back at the boat right now, excited for seeing St. Augustine up close tomorrow!