10 nights moored in St. Augustine

We managed to secure a reservation for a mooring in the St. Augustine Municipal Marina mooring field for 10 days over the Christmas holiday! Moorings are cheap (<$25/day), the facilities are nice, mobile pump-out is easy, and it’s a fantastic location in the heart of downtown! This time of year it’s also all lit up for “Nights of Lights.” While we still thoroughly enjoyed the historic charm of the “Oldest City,” it was really crowded in the afternoons and evenings with holiday travelers. It would have been a little crowded for my taste during normal times, and given the global pandemic we chose to retreat to the quieter streets or the boat to keep some distance at times. 

On the “fun” side of things, we visited the iconic lighthouse (holy crowded!), the Oldest House (good history lesson), and the distillery (we couldn’t pass up this favorite). We walked/jogged the streets and alleys, took in the lights from sea and land, ate lots of great take-out, and celebrated Christmas from our cozy home. We enjoyed the ease of Amazon Prime/Whole Foods delivery of our provisions, and Trent spend hours hanging with me in the laundry room/lounge so he could fully update his Xbox using the marina WiFi.

Lighthouse (left) and Oldest House (right)

Around town

Nights of Lights (and our contribution to the display!)

Merry Christmas!

On the “not-so-fun” side, we were beam-on to a 40+ knot blow on Christmas Eve which caused a few minutes of “discomfort.” We had some blissfully warm days, but also had to have the heater on a few times! We also suffered a propane leak (on Christmas Day, of course!) which required a long hike with a heavy propane tank to get it refilled and two hikes through throngs of tourists to get to the hardware store for parts. In the end, the Chief Engineer simplified our propane system a bit as part of the fix. He also recommissioned the water maker! Ok, that wasn’t so bad, but it was “work!”

A pesky propane leak resulted in lots of exercise, but the water maker is also back in business!

Time to get this party rolling south into the new year!