Saint Augustine

We traveled from Jax Beach down to St. Augustine in ~5hrs. down the ICW. We anchored for the first time here and it was not easy due to the strong winds and current. We put out two anchors just in case one got loose the other one would catch the boat. We anchored out right in front of Castillo de San Marcos. We met a lot of people here in the boaters lounge with really cold A/C, which had free wi-fi, cable tv, and a spacious laundry room/ area. The bathrooms were the nicest out of all the marinas we have visited. They were like nice hotel bathrooms with tiled showers. :) The location was great too at the city marina because it was right in the historic district with tons of places to see and restaurants to eat. We were also close to Sailor's Exchange, West Marine, Target, Winn-Dixie, Barnes & Noble, and many other places of interest, which we could get there via bike. We took it easy here and changed the transmission gear oil to correct our reverse issue. We met Paul & Malinda from Daydream who were fellow cruisers that were actually going up to GCS to work on their boat, where we had just left. They had cruised the Caribbean many times for many years and were at the end of their cruising days. We also met Al from Bojangles who had just finished circumnavigating the world and he told us about his travels and where to go and not go. He also talked to us about HAM radios and their usefulness on a boat. There were a lot more people in and out of the marina and we met people who worked in the area to get enough money to go cruising again or for the first time. We heard some crazy stories while we were in the boaters lounge as well. One was with some drunk guy that swam to a boat anchored out and began to raid the galley (kitchen) of some lady's boat while she was asleep in the middle of the night! He was caught by the police and did no real harm. Another incident was when the weather was rough a guy who was single-handed sailing put only one anchor out, which came loose with the rough waters, had his boat nearly crash against the walls of Castillo de San Marcos because he was on land and luckily a few neighboring sailors jumped into his boat quickly before it was rammed against the rocks. No thanks to the SeaTow people who were standing around watching and waiting for the owner to get there so they could charge him. We enjoyed St. Augustine more than Jacksonville and found some good places to eat as well. We liked the organic food from Casa Maya (chips & salsa and the flank steak sandwich "Pepito" were delicious), the Blackened Tilapia and Pulled Pork Sandwich from Havana Village Cuban Restaurant were also good, the HK style noodles from Fusion Point were tasty as well. Word of advice, you don't need to bother with the French deli & bakery place as it was not impressive with their pastries in the slightest and the other French bakery place was disappointing in their selection and high prices, the sangria special at J.P. Henley's was watered down so stick with the decent beer selection (food was ok), don't try the Mojito Margarita at Alcapulco it was not right, and Harry's Seafood & Grill didn't have good She-crab soup and the gumbo was a bit watery. Back to the boat story, the weather ended up getting worse and we were getting beaten up by the waves. It was like we were in the rough seas inside the cabin and it was hard to do much and even sleep sometimes. So the next morning, we decided we had enough and we pulled up anchor to move to the other side of the Bridge of Lions, which was so much better! We had the help of the bridge and the docks of the marina to reduce the waves hitting our boat. We could sleep much better on this side of the bridge. It was a tight fit, but we found a place to anchor our boat amidst all the other boats anchored out here. Once we anchored our boat we tied the dinghy to our cleat just like always and we went into the cabin to rest. I was writing in my journal and JR went to take a nap, until I decided to go outside to write. As I walked out to the cockpit, I found the dinghy was not there! I immediately looked for the rope and found it still secured to the cleat and then I thought maybe the dinghy drowned since the rope was still intact so I quickly pulled up the rope. I found it was very easy to pull up and nothing was attached to the end!? I determined at that point the dinghy must have gotten loose from the rope with all the rough waters it had undone the knot that was tied to the front of the dinghy. I looked around the horizon to see if I could located the dinghy and I couldn't see it anywhere. So I yelled to wake JR and tell him that the dinghy was gone. He immediately ran out of the cabin and appeared beside me looking around for the dinghy and he found it slowly drifting towards the rocky wall in between two docks. We were very lucky to have seen it when we did and that the boat didn't continue traveling down the ICW. JR hailed the city marina on our VHF radio for some assistance and they were able to find a fellow sailor, Sandy and her poodle, to go get our dinghy for us. We were grateful for her help and thanked her for her trouble, but she wouldn't accept any money we tried to give her. It was very kind of her to help us when we needed it. We felt the need to help others who didn't even hail us a few days later. They were drifting and having difficulty starting their engine for their dinghy. We watched them from our deck for a little while and then JR decided to go out in our dinghy to offer a tow, but they refused and continued to work at starting the engine. Eventually, we saw them get the engine started and travel to the marina. It was rough waters here because the inlet to the open ocean was so close and there were no obstructions to slow the rough seas and calm the waters. But if you ever anchor here stay on the south side of the Bridge of Lions and you will be much better off. We had the weather front stuck on top of St. Augustine for a week, which we were waiting to clear out so we could go out to the ocean using the inlet here. But after waiting all that time, we decided to not wait any longer and just continue down the ICW instead of going off shore.