December-1 2007

December 2007
Well here we are back in our favourite St Augustine Marinaat Camachee Cove for refitting and Christmas. It is between 70 and 80 F by day and humid. An osprey likes to roost near us and we are pleased there is too little room at our masthead to accommodate him while he shreds his still flapping lunch, spreading blood and bones at deck level.
We have also decided we need a vacation. Some may laugh at this but it is good to have time away from the boat doing something different in area we cannot easily visit in ‘Lady’. The plan is a few days at Sanibel Island on the Gulf Coast of Florida with a trip to our friends Paul and Shirley in Stuart near West Palm Beach. We plan to hire a car and it should be great fun if the weather is as kind as it has been early in the month. Now we have a vehicle in the US we can use this insurance for rentals.

The major refit items being undertaken are: renew collapsed hosing on cockpit bilge pump, replace broken T-junction in hot water system, replace electric booster diesel pump in genset supply, repair and re-varnish shower grating, replace crumbling plastic shower curtain track with new aluminium one, replace and splice new plaid rope for anchor snubber, renew gearbox ATF, replace 4 cabin light fittings, fit UK residual current device to isolation step-up transformer fitted in Spring, replace main fresh water electric pump, replace sundry O-rings, grease and service anchor windlass, fit external 100 db anchor alarm repeater for deep sleepers, replace Navtex, replace fishing lures, update C-Map cartridges for Bahamas, replace MOB equipment batteries, complete disassemble and refit for head (marine toilet), gelcoat nick repairs in cockpit, new genoa sheets, new anchor chain markers, drain genset coolant and replace anode if necessary and lots more...

...including having the main compass and the life-raft serviced and replacing the built in computer. It’s a good thing we can get all we need locally or by mail order. We tend to work an average of about one day in three so that we have fun too and that items cost about 50% of UK prices. Living aboard certainly wears out your gear more quickly and salt and high humidity don’t seem to be much help either!
One of our outings was to Fort Matanzas at the Matanzas Inlet a little south of St Augustine. This was established nearly 300 years ago to prevent any invasion force from approaching the town by the ‘back door’. The dastardly French attempted this but had not heard of hurricanes and were driven on the shore near the inlet. The surviving Huguenots were then massacred by the Spanish - Matanzas means massacre and the name stayed. The fort built here has been occupied by the British too when they occupied the area later on.
The Fort was put back to its original state by the National Parks Service and is visited by a free ferry. The guide is in period costume and speaks as though living in the original Spanish garrison. We enjoyed the visit immensely and have always wanted to anchor by the fort but knew it was too shallow. This year the channel has been dredged so who knows.
Cedar trees near the fort have been aged at over 300 years and must have been here with the Spanish when the fort was built!