In Jacksonville we stayed at the free Metropolitan Park Marina next the Jaguar Stadium. Apparently during games the marina is packed tailgating football fans on powerboats. We'll certainly be departing before participating in that scene. Oddly, Leela and Kuivato were the only two boats in the marina that night. Graham, seeing how tired we all were, ordered pizza to be delivered to the boats. As we were eating, Tim felt something hard in his pizza, thought it was was rock and was shocked to find it was half a lower molar that had split away from a big filling. Why do these things have to happen while you are traveling and away from your trusted dentist? Tim wasn't in any pain, but what to do next?
Fortunately my friends Sally and Dan McCue, who live in York in the summer and at our next stop, St. Augustine, in the winter, were able to connect us with a pilot friend, Dr. Bob Thousand. Dr. Bob was apparently quite happy to help fellow sailors and the first thing he did was invite us to tie up to his dock for as long as we were in town. He and Jane have a fabulous location overlooking Salt Run on Inlet Avenue on Anastasia Island within walking distance across the Bridge of Lions to downtown St. Augustine. We are one of 5 boats the end of his 200 ft dock with eight slips.
Dr. Bob had us meet him in his kitchen at 0700 The next morning after our arrival to examine Tim's tooth. His diagnosis was that Tim would at least need a crown, maybe more serious work. The problem was, due to the holidays most labs that fabricate crowns were closing the next two weeks so we needed a dentist who had the equipment to make the crown in house. Dr. Bob fortunately was able to set an appointment with Dr. Michelle DeFelice, a fellow boater. Monday morning, Tim hopped on Dr. Bob's bike and headed 4 miles to the appointment and I followed when I join him after some errands with Janaki and Graham. The office had a Cerex machine which takes digital photos of the area where the crown will go, creates a digital image of the crown, and then sends the image to a CNC milling machine in the next room which cuts the crown from a square block of porcelain.
Greg, a live aboard at the dock, has a sailboat that he has completely outfitted from the Sailors Exchange, an incredible used marine gear store in town. He has been quite helpful showing Tim around Dr. Bob's tool room and sharing boating maintenance gems. Tim donned his scuba gear to check how the bottom paint was holding up and the sacrificial zinc anodes on the propellor shaft. Kuivato's bottom looked fine even after three years in the water; however, the zincs mounted in the Spring were completely gone, not a good thing since the propellor then becomes the sacrificial zinc :(.
Bob and Jane generously lent us their bicycles for our visit which have been invaluable. We have put many miles on these strand cruisers and had lots of fun riding them day and night. I wish I had taken a picture of Tim riding home from Sailors Exchange with the 6 ft stainless steel tube plastic tied to the bike frame and hatch screens dangling from his backpack, or biking with the plethora of groceries we purchased from the Farmers Market a few miles down the road on Anastasia Island. What a hoot!
One night we hosted a cocktail party aboard Kuivato and invited Dr. Bob, Jane, Janaki and Graham and neighbors, Vince and Nancy. Vince and Nancy picked up Janaki and Graham walking home from the Farmers Market thinking they looked like fellow sailors and surprise, they happened to be Dr. Bob's neighbors! All of our guests that evening had had extensive sailing experience over the decades of traveling to the various islands in the Bahamas so the conversations were educational and stimulating as you can imagine.
This is the view of the pelicans on the dock that have entertained us during our visit.
St. Augustine is a beautiful historic city with it's Fort Castillo De Marco, magnificent homes dating to the early 1700's, Spanish influenced architecture, and lots of interesting bars and restaurants.
Here we are Christmas Eve at the Tini Martini Bar in town.
We have learned some new nautical terms in the past few weeks. last night's sunset was 5:31,Civil twilight was at 5:57, nautical twilight 6:27 and astronomical twilight was at 6:56. Civil twilight is when the center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. At this time the horizon is clearly defined and the stars are visible. Nautical twilight is when the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon. At this time generally objects are distinguishable but normal outdoor operations are not possible. Astronomical twilight is when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon. Sky light illumination at this time is solely from the stars or moon if it is present.
Christmas Day we went for good long run/walks and cooked up a dinner of spiral ham, turnip, scalloped potatoes, kale salad, and fruit salad. Phil Decker, a former Eliot resident, joined us for Christmas Dinner. He sailed his Catalina 27 Catmandu south to St Augustine this fall from Washington DC, and has been living at the City Marina for 6 weeks. What fun to connect up with Portsmouth friends during our travels.
After a week in St Augustine it was time to move on; we also knew it was time because the fresh water tanks were empty and the holding tank was full. The bikes were returned to Dr. Bob's garage (we had become quite fond of the bikes!), we said our goodbyes and thank you's, and cast off at high tide to avoid plowing through two feet of mud like we did when arriving. We fueled up, watered up, and pumped out at the City Marina; then Kuivato was once again southbound on the ICW heading for West Palm Beach, our last major stop behind crossing for the Bahamas.
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