Stay Over in St. Augustine FL

Nov 24 thru Nov 26

—Blogpost written by Bob

s/v Rainy Days will be in St. Augustine until December 5 when we proceed with our trip south on the ICW.  I will be publishing blogposts every three or four days throughout this stay over period. 

Sunday, November 24

It rained during the night last night but the rain clouds were all gone by the time we had breakfast on board (quiche) this morning.  Today's agenda includes doing laundry, lunch at Pizza Time, and grocery shopping while Maggie is still here--she flies to her daughter's house in Johnstown PA early on Monday morning.

Lola relaxes on the helm seat
in the Sunday morning sun.

A very nice name for a power 
boat, though not very creative.

Too much nautical stuff.

I thought that this boat's 
name was clever. 

Two of the many dinghies at the dinghy 
dock--the one with the X on 
the motor is ours.

We had a delicious lunch at 
this restaurant today!

This street musician played the violin and 
an electronic keyboard with her feet.

Near the end of the day, we took my folding bike into the marina facility where we locked it up at the bike rack.  This will provide some land transportation for me over the upcoming week or more.

Some type of sailboat involved with tourists
came into the harbor after dark.

Monday, November 25

My day started at 4:15 AM this morning when I motored into the dinghy dock with Maggie so that she could meet her shuttle to the Jacksonville airport.  It was 46 degrees outside.  When the airports shuttle showed up it had a flat tire and the driver wasn't much interested in changing out the flat tire.  So, Maggie called an Uber.  I went back to the boat and went to sleep for a few more hours.

It already seems like the next day!  I woke up for the good about 8 AM and made a cafe con leche using a new metal coffee filter we bought yesterday.  I poured heated milk through the (freshly ground) coffee in the filter.  I had to stir it with a teaspoon to keep the filter from clogging.  It was absolutely delicious!  Then, I had oatmeal for breakfast which was perfect on such a cool day.

At this point in the morning, I'm not sure what is on my agenda for the day--I think I'll just wing it today.  I have several things I want to do during our stay here: (1) make a comparison of marine chart cards at West Marine and possibly buy an updated card, (2) visit the Sailor's Exchange (a type of nautical flea market), (3) pick up a few grocery items we forgot yesterday (cherry tomatoes and a green pepper), (4) apply some Cetol on worn exterior teak, and (5) arrange for a shipment from Amazon.

This egret was very accustomed to people as
he allowed me to get very close
with my iPhone.

After walking my bike to a gas station to fill a flat tire, I rode my bike to West Marine and looked at the Navionics chart on a display chart plotter.  Specifically, I looked at the area where we recently went aground (on the Cumberland Dividing River) and I am convinced that the greatly increased detail of the Navionics chart would have prevented us from going aground.  So I purchased a Navionics+ chart card for all of the U.S. and Canada for a little over $200.  (I intend to use my existing C-MAP chart card for the Bahamas since they use EXPLORER charts for their Bahamas data.)

While out and about I stopped at Winn-Dixie and picked up the green pepper and cherry tomatoes that I needed for a pasta salad I intend to make.  So, two of my five week's goals have been completed--its time to take it easy.

In the afternoon I cooked some chicken thighs on the grill for the planned pasta salad.  (Maggie had cooked some pasta before leaving.)  I cut up half the chicken thigh into small pieces, added the cooked pasta, cherry tomatoes cut in half lengthwise, green pepper slices, and mayonnaise.  I put it in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch.

Tuesday, November 26

The outside temperature got down to 41 degrees last night! (C'mon, this is Florida!)  In the morning, I ran the engine for hot water and to generate some power quickly (the battery voltage had dropped to 12.25 volts which is very unusual).  I also noticed that the fridge was running a little too much and yet the box temperature was a low 36 degrees--I guess it is time to defrost it and adjust the cold plate temperature upward.  (I made a similar adjustment a few weeks ago.)  This was the first thing on today's agenda.

I changed the cold plate temperature set point
to 13 degrees F from its previous
setting of 12 degrees F.

Next up was to remove my new Navionics chart card from its packaging and install it in our chart plotter.   I took a photo of the chart plotter's screen before changing the chart cards.

This is a photo fo the chart plotter screen
with my old C-MAP chart installed.

This is a photo of the chart plotter screen
with the new Navionics chart installed.
(All chart plotter settings were identical.)

After changing the chart cards I took another photo of the chart plotter screen.  A brief comparison of the two charts reveals that none of the detail of nearby docks was shown on the C-MAP chart but was shown on the Navionics chart.  Also the C-MAP chart shows a big blue circle (lower right in first image) indicating an area of water shallower than 6 feet--this probably doesn't exist (because there are moorings located in this area) and was not shown on the Navionics chart.  I believe the Navionics chart will prove to be a big improvement on the ICW.  (Also, the Navionics chart card for all of the U.S. and Canada was $199 while the C-MAP chart card for the East Coast and the Bahamas was $250.)

Another point of comparison was going back and looking at the area in the Cumberland Dividing River where we went aground.  The black line that represents the path of the ICW was discontinued through this area on our C-MAP chart card. 
  

This photo of our chart plotter screen was the area in
the Cumberland Dividing River where we went
aground.  A path through this mess
was not at all clear.

The following photo of the chart plotter screen shows the same area using the Navionics chart card.

You can see on this screen image where our
track (the red line) stops and backs up
to find the deep water. (This image
makes a safe passage
look easy!)

My recommendation is that if you are going to be traveling on the ICW, Navionics is a much better choice for a chart card than C-MAP!  

After changing our the chart card I spent some time redoing our trip plan south from here.  We want to make a stop in Daytona, taking a slip for a couple days there instead of our usual anchorage in the area.  

A home made pasta salad was my lunch for today (and a few more days to come).

My home made pasta salad. 

Stay tuned for more activities here in St. Augustine--one of them is visiting the Sailor's Exchange tomorrow.

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