SV Gallant Fox

The Sights of Old Town St. Augustine

St. Augustine's historic district is historical. And very photogenic. There was a time when northern Florida and southern Georgia were the border zones of Spanish occupation to the south, pressing on the British occupation to the north. St. Augustine was a Spanish colony back in the day, and the Spanish were sitting pretty with their Castillo San Marcos star fort (New! Sloped walls! Deflect non-rifled cannonballs!) located just inside the inlet to the Atlantic Ocean, with 270-degree views of upriver and downriver. NObody sneaks up on a state-of-the-art 16th-Cen. Spanish fort.

The Gator's Bellow

I'd recommend everyone visit St. Augustine, even if you must do it by land. The historic district is fairly compact and almost everything is within walking distance of everything else. The area is full of centuries-old buildings, many dating from the Spanish Colonial era. The structures' restoration and maintenance seem to have gone very well. A wide variety of restaurants are all over the place. And when you tire of historic structures, there is always Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not Emporium of the Strangely Odd. Or whatever they call themselves. Ripley's is definitely on GB's must-see list. If there's a wax museum around, we will be going there too. GB is a connoisseur of kitsch.

Myself, I shall visit once again the alligators, crocodiles and caimans residing at the Gator Farm over by St. Augustine's lighthouse and across the road. I love me some gators, and the Gator Farm has some big 'uns. When we visited there in February '12, I happened to be standing right next to one of the largest critters, and was treated to his bellow. The sound is...fascinating. If you have ever seen the film Jurassic Park, you know where the T-Rex is sniffing around the broken-down Jeep those stupid kids with the flashlight are in? Yeah, well, one of the sound effects they used for that T-Rex is a real-life alligator's bellow.

A New Posting Paradigm

MS here.

Thanks to GB, all of cyberspace is now current with much of what has kept us away from bloggerfying. I now find myself with an awesome combination of semi-connectivity, mostly-sufficient battery power, and random narrow windows of opportunity (!!) to actually write a thing or two. I will use the approach that Zen Buddhism teaches us: Start Where You Are.

I'll insert details willy-nilly. Which also keeps to the Zen code of conduct.

Where we are, right here, right now, on Thanksgiving Day 2013, is on an affordable buoy in the southern mooring field of the municipal marina of St. Augustine, Florida. We arrived on November 25, ahead of some some windy weather. A cold front - about the third in the past 6 days - dropped in on us yesterday which made for some lumpy water. Nevertheless we are safe and sound in the shelter of St. Augustine's river, well away from the incoming seas at St. Augustine's inlet. This morning, the air is chilly and in the 50s (F), but we have some sun breaks and once GB used our Honda gasoline generator to push our battery power above 13.25 volts, our recently-rebuilt, inboard Espar diesel heater ignited and is now warming up the cabin like a champ. In short: not a bad Thanksgiving morning at all.

The Boat - It Floats!

GB did an excellent job replacing thru-hulls.They are SOLID, baby.

Too bad the toilet irreversibly packed it in as soon as we left the pier. Looks like it's "bucket-and-chuck-it" time on The Fox until we reach Brunswick.

I pity the fools what anchor near us.

m

"So, What Else Happened After You Came Back to The Fox on New Year's Day?"

I'm so glad you asked.

The black plastic mesh landscape fabric we'd wrapped around The Fox before we'd left her, appeared to have successfully protected the topsides from the damaging effects of months of sun and bad weather. Upon removing the fabric we found The Fox grimy but with no obvious damage. Considering The Fox had weathered nine full months (March thru December) in Florida weather*, the boat was in excellent shape.

* Florida's climate is almost identical to Costa Rica's: damp, squishy, and never too long until the next rainfall. The difference between seasons in Florida, is that wintertime is just as wet as summertime, but summertime has the additional thrill of intense heat, tropical storms, hurricanes and lots of lightning. The poor Fox had to deal with such adversity all alone.

To GB's and my great relief, after unending rainstorms the 12-year-old Fox had sprung no leaks down below. Not one. We only saw a few isolated patches of mildew, easily cleaned with a swipe of a vinegar-dampened paper towel. However, as we revived all the boat's dormant systems we discovered that certain significant pieces of equipment had committed seppuku - probably out of spite for our long absence. Our repair list included: (1) the galley faucet (replaced - $$); (2) the rolling sun shade covering the forward berth's hatch (replaced - $$$ - amazing how expensive these small things are!); (3) the battery charger (replaced - $$$); (4) the 3 gel batteries, 11 y.o., that cooked themselves to death (replaced - $$$$); (5) the 12 y.o. filler hose to the port tank, irreparably split (temporarily spliced- $); and (6) the engine's impeller (replaced - $$).

This is why they say the word "BOAT" is an acronym for "Bring On Another Thousand."

By the time this post is published we will hopefully be back in the water and still afloat. I say this seriously, because one of GB's projects was replacing a couple of thru-hulls and golly, I sure would hate to see them...you know...fail. His work looks good though, so it's very likely that by the weekend we will be ever-so-slowly moving northbound along the Intracoastal Waterway to Georgia. It's a distance of about 100 miles that we hope to make by traveling an average of about 10 miles per day. After working so hard for so long on so many different projects, GB desperately needs some R&R.

See ya!

m

"Listen...Do you smell something?"

Scene 1: 7. Jan. 2013 - Today. Exterior shot of sky. A cool, overcast, winter Monday morning in the boat yard of Green Cove Springs Marina, Florida. Pan downward to boats in yard on jackstands. Sideways pan to ladder leaning against Gallant Fox. Our heroic duo have just climbed into The Fox's cockpit and have unlocked the companionway hatch, ready to begin another day of work before splashing the boat 72 hours later, on Thursday morning.

"What's that smell?"

"It's either teen spirit, or...THE BATTERIES HAVE COOKED!!!"

Scene 2: Seconds later. Interior shot of boat as seen from companionway. Mad scramble to remove all objects, including cushions, from saloon where battery box is located at base of mast while "Yakkity Sax" soundtrack plays. Gingerly removal of planks and battery box lid.

"Whoa, the batteries are toast, all right."

"Totally fried. Sizzlin' and bubblin' like three rectangular conjoined mini-volcanoes."

How did this happen? The sequence of events went something like this: