Hi,
It's Tuesday and we're at the St. Augustine Marine Center about ½ mile down the river from Riverside, where we've been for the past week. We get hauled onto the hard tomorrow morning, for 6 months. Everyone on this dock is SO transient… waiting a day or two to have their boat hauled or something fixed before they go home or keep sailing. Riverside Marina was a "neighborhood" of familiar faces, even though people moved on from there, too. We have at least 2 more days before we can head for home but this has been a Most Productive stay in Florida. (We left Green Turtle Cay on April 16 and got to Cape Canaveral on the 18th.) Now, five years of collected "stuff" has been looked at, sorted, thrown out and/or is on it's way home. Finally I feel like this is a more doable kind of lifestyle. Even though the 2 weeks on either end for getting the boat "commissioned" or "de commissioned" is tiring and a bit hectic, at least we can leave clothes on board and enough food to get us through a day or two before we actually get to a grocery store.
St Augustine has been the BEST place to do all this. The old town and harbor are full of fascinating things to do and see. They make a fabulous break from the hum-drum of sorting, packing, cleaning, etc etc. Also, on this dock we are practically in the marsh. There are so many birds I forget what they are all named. And every now and then some dolphins "sneeze" by. LOL! We've seen more manatee this trip than in all the other trips combined. By the way - did you know that manatee can't burp? That's one of the reasons not to give them fresh water. Not only does it lure them to the boaters (which is dangerous) but they swallow air with the fresh water and it can build up in their system and kill them! That is second-hand info but came for one of the EPA-type people. Just thought I'd pass it on.
We haven't kept up with the Blog this year but it has been a wonderful winter. This is our fifth season of being snow birds and it is beginning to feel very good! I guess we've found our "Harmony" after all. Hope to see you all again, soon.
Florrie
as artist
Florence Bramley Hill
