Saint Augustine is the home my Grandfather Emerson’s brother Wayne. We were able to visit him last fall on our trip south. We had a very enjoyable time visiting with he and Carmen. To all my friends, Wayne is 96 as I recall so you could (hopefully)  have to put up with me for quite some time!!!

Later in the day SV Cutting Class arrive St Augustine from their homeport in Connecticut. You might recall we had a terrific visit with Dan and Marcia last summer when we visited.  In addition friends Bert & Pru (Exuberant) and Ted & Sally (Amici) also arrived so it has been quite a reunion in St Augustine!

The Admiral touring downtown St Augustine

The only town I have seen where the Presbyterian church is much more ornate than the Roman Catholics!

We saw a bit more of St Augustine this visit than last yet more to see on our next visit!

I thought the monument to the Spanish Trail was cool. Portsmouth VA is the zero marker for modern day road measurements.

During our visit with Wayne and Carmen the Admiral had the foresight to ask if there was anything we should see while in St Augustine.  We had no idea there was a copy of the “David” here and thankfully it was brought to our attention!

As far as the Privilege part of the title. Once again we are reminded how lucky we are. The visit with my Uncle Wayne and Carmen, reuniting with friends we have traveled with, seeing what the David really looks like and finding out there is such a thing as a Marty Balin store, well how could we not feel privileged!!!!

BTW, Wayne we will be seeing you in the spring so be well!

Ever since out “first visit” to Cumberland last April we have been looking forward to our second visit! We were not disappointed with fabulous weather and a terrific visit. Our overnight passage from Charleston landed us anchored on the shore of Cumberland Island.

The ancient Live Oaks covered in Spanish moss and just beautiful to look at.

The wild horses look like they had a very good summer.

Early one morning we saw a Ballistic Missile Submarine returning from a patrol. It was certainly an interesting site.

Our friends Greg and Marie Rodgers arrived in the anchorage aboard S/V Second Sally and it was great to catch up with them. BTW, I installed a Single Side Band (SSB) Radio this summer aboard Magnolia and Annette and I have each received our operation licenses. Using our radio we are able to stay in touch up and down the east coast and out into the midwest with fellow cruisers and friends such as Greg & Marie.   

After a brief visit to Fernandina Beach we continued south on the ICW and as we approached the St Johns river at Jacksonville, whom or better said what do we see but the USS Gettysburg one of the original 26 now 21 Aegis Cruisers.

She was in dry dock to obviously going through some sort of yard period.

There was a fairly significant weather front passing through this week so we were looking for a place out of the way by ourselves to hide out.  We found the perfect anchorage off the ICW at Pine Island, about 10 miles north of Saint Augustine.

As you can see it was the perfect spot and had the anchorage all to ourselves. This allowed us to put out 125 feet of anchor chain which meant Magnolia was going no where.

In the Chesapeake Bay we often squalls that pass through in a few minutes. In this storm we had winds of 25 plus knots for 12 hours with a maximum of 35.7. Gale force winds are 33 knts.  Through it all vessel and crew did just fine.

For a little information on how we spent our day waiting for weather to pass I encourage you to take a look at Annette’s Seamless Sailor Blog Post. Hope you will have a chuckle! We are off to St Augustine in the morning.