Post Hermine Labor Day Weekend St Augustine Trip

The original plan was for about eight boats from the Queen’s Harbour Yacht Club to make the trip down to Palm Coast, tie up at the Hammock Dunes Resort Marina, docktail party, pool fun, dinners out, and a resultant good time had by all!  Hurricane Hermine put paid to that!

Castillo De San Marcos

It wasn’t that we got to enjoy Hermine in all of her glory, only the very windy eastern side of her, which meant no Thursday or Friday departures. When we went to call the marina in Palm Coast to cancel due to the weather, they told us that they had already cancelled us!

So we watched the weather and since Saturday through Monday looked doable three boats decided to make a trip down to St Augustine for what was left of the weekend.

Palm Valley dock

So Sonas left the Queen’s Harbour Lock around 9:30am on Saturday morning and had a very enjoyable ride south through Palm Valley, past Pine Island, into South Ponte Vedra and Vilando Beaches, took a hard right at the St Augustine Inlet, through the Bridge of Lions and hailed the St Augustine Municipal Marina for our slip assignment. M&M with Marian and Martin on board passed us just south of Pine Island.

M&M

After checking in and paying for our dockage, we walked Grace and put her back into the air conditioning on Sonas, and headed off to walk St George Street and grab an ice cream! As we were walking back down the dock Knot DrS backed into her slip signalling the arrival of Donald and Robin Spence.

We got a text from the Marian and Martin saying that they had planted themselves at Meehan’s Irish Pub and to get up there! So off we went for a couple of Saturday afternoon Smithwicks, Harps and Guinnesses!

After a quick shower we headed off to Catch 27, a small seafood restaurant on  Charlotte Street for dinner and, yes, more booze! Afterwards we wandered back to the dock and invited all on board Sonas for a night cap (or two). A nice end to a very enjoyable and full day. And I guess this is why St Augustine is known as that quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem!

Catch 27

On Sunday M&M was leaving early to get back for a previous engagement. After walking Grace we headed off to the Cathedral Basilica of St Augustine for 9am Mass. After Mass we hit a favorite breakfast spot, The Athena Restaurant where we pretty much have breakfast every time we come to St Augustine. Creatures of habit!

We returned to Sonas to get changed into our shorts and Ts and then went back into town to do some shopping. For those that haven’t been to St Augustine, there are hundreds of stores selling everything from your usual souvenir fair, to interesting seaside knick-knacks, to high end galleries. This trip we were looking for some inexpensive artwork for Sonas, as the previous owners had taken all of their artwork off, leaving empty walls. However, after a couple of hours looking, we still did not find anything that took our fancy. Plenty of very nice art for our home, but not suitable for the warm environment of a boat. Ah well, next time!

We spent the afternoon on Sonas at the dock watching the tourists play on the pirate ship and the local aquatic wild life!

Feeding turtle

We had previously invited Donald and Robin over to Sonas for dinner, where we had a couple of nice rib eyes with all the fixins’ in the fridge. But by dinner time we decided no one needed to be cooking so changed the plans and had dinner out. We settled on a small restaurant on a side street off King Street.

The menu for Cellar 6 looked interesting when we Googled it. And it did not disappoint. We sat at an outside table and watched the horse drawn carriages go by as well as a ghost tour.

After dinner we all returned to Sonas, sat up on the fly bridge and told our yarns (and drank) until after midnight!

On Monday morning we had planned to leave around 9am. This would get us to the Queens Harbour Lock right on high tide for an easy entry up the channel. As we were preparing to leave we had a gentleman in the slip across from us express an interest in having a look around Sonas. So Paul took him and his son through the boat, equipment, electronics and engine room. Then they stood BS’ing about boats for a time!

We did get off before 10am, headed down towards the inlet and retraced our path back to home port. Arriving home around 1:30pm.

Kyakers in our wake

A glorious weekend after all – no thanks to Hermine! The rest of the photos are here, music by the Barefoot Man. Click on the little square at the bottom right for full screen:

 

 

The Voyages Of Sonas And Her Crew.