Palm Beach

We made the two day run from St Augustine to Palm Beach, FL. We left St Augustine on an ebb tide. The entrance was really rock and roll and a little on the white knuckle side. You have 4 or 5 small markers that weave between the breaking seas on the banks on either side of you for a mile or so. By the time we were outside it was Stugeron time. This is my anti-seasick standby. It really works well for me and I always used to say that it had no side effects. I’m changing on that one. I end up with really sharp and in focus dreams that seem to have a plausible story line. As opposed to my normal psychotic dreamspace.
The trip down was about 60% sailing, with one night of motoring. We did listen to a somewhat bizarre Coast Guard rescue unfold over about 6 hours. The cruising 42 ft boat Gaia (Delaware) offshore of Cape Canaveral with 1 person onboard apparently made contact with the  CG indicating that they thought they might be having a heart attack – chest pain and tingle in the left arm. The CG called over the VHF radio for any vessels in the vicinity to assist. After about 3 hours or so a CG helicopter and a rescue boat arrived on scene. They board the boat and found no one onboard. This started a large search pattern, something like 20 x 40 miles, for the helo and the rescue boats. As of today, no one has been located.
We are anchored just south of the Lake Worth entrance in Palm Beach. Lots of high, high end homes on the waterways here. The water temp is 78*F – yea. Getting close to letting me get in. We plan to be here a couple of days and try and hook up with my Aunt and Uncle before heading down to Ft Lauderdale.
Paul 

It’s a Small World – the Paparazzi Are Out

I got this e-mail the other day from our friends Steve C and Diane back in Washington. Looks like the paparazzi are making bucks taking photos of us.

Hi Paul,
So, Diane and I decide to spend what is left of our meager pittance on a New Years get away. We find a little place on Whidbey near Coupeville to stay. A place called " Cozy Harbor Cottage". So we get there. And it is really a place above a couples garage that they rent out to travelers who are visiting Whidbey Island. No view of the sound, about 5 miles from Coupeville and in a residential neighborhood. Pretty bland location.
So we go inside and it is nicely decorated. Of course in a nautical theme, but not overdone! Nice new kitchen and spa tub. So we settle in among the nautical nic naks. Floats and cheap model sailboats from World Market, etc. I am reading Model Railroader and glancing at the art on the walls and low and behold I see some photos of sailboats. The kind you see at K mart for $3.99 in the clearance bin.
But on closer inspection I see the Jeorgia! A black and white taken out in the sound, You and Chris are manning the helm and are under full sail, Weird Huh. Some one must have taken it from a race a few years back with a telephoto. Odd I say.

Best to you both in the new year.
Steve and Diane.

_____________________
We rented a car at the Enterprise weekend deal of $9.99 a day Monday to Friday. This setoff a mad dash to to stock the boat up for the up coming Bahamas trip. Everyone says that food is way expensive there, so bring all you can. We did two trips to Costco, easily topping the required $100 minimum.
With a little luck and good weather we should be leaving St Augustine tomorrow, saying good-bye to the state’s oldest mini-golf and the the 1880’s based Alligator Farm tourist trap. I still haven’t gotten to enjoy any of the famous Manatee Chowder yet.
Paul

Saint Augustine Lights

“There is no life like the sea, where reality falls so short of romantic expectation”

Joseph Conrad, ‘Lord Jim’

The St Augustine Lighthouse, this one built in the 1870s. The predecessor was a Spanish watchtower built in the 1500’s. It is the site of the oldest aid to navigation in North America.

Even in daylight the structure works- definitely ‘visually conspicuous’.

The Lightner Museum, across the street from the old Ponce de Hotel. If you look close enough you can see a ghost horse walking his carriage and ghost tourists past the building.

The central plaza in St Augustine. This was the site of one of the pivotal civil rights marches led by Andrew Young in the 1960’s, leading to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Sit-in at the downtown Woolworth’s 1964- who knew Florida was such a political hot bed?

Proof that Chris got her Christmas cards in the mail before mid-night on the 25th.

Happy New Year and good luck in ‘13!

Paul and Chris