The last bridge before our mooring was one that opened on the hour and half hour. We just missed the 4pm opening and had to wait for the 4:30 opening.
I am usually the one who drives onto a mooring, but I was a bit nervous as I wasn’t sure how busy it would be. I shouldn’t have worried as our ball was on the outside. Nevertheless, Andrew was driving and I was on the foredeck.
Let’s just say it wasn’t perfect. The mooring line was hooked around the flat ball and I couldn’t pick it up. Andrew came to help while I went back to the helm.
One of the lines we use is very long and I had tied it incorrectly, leaving a long line to pull through the eye of the ball. Andrew wasn't happy about that as he had to redo the line while trying to hold on to the mooring ball. While he was hooking the mooring line, the boat hook, which I had pulled out to its longest length, bent in two. But we didn’t have to drive around again, all was saved.
We were all exhausted but we still had to go ashore and pay our fees for the ball. While Andrew was in the office, he asked if we could stay longer. The guy said he had just had a few cancellations, so it wouldn’t be a problem.
Sunday was very busy with lots of people and cars in the town. We decided to stay on the boat and do a few boat jobs.
Later that evening, Andrew was fooling around with the boat hook and it slipped out and half of it fell in the water and sank. I thought these things floated. We will have to get a new one!
We watched a wave of clouds coming towards us which resulted in a massive thunderstorm in the distance. Thank goodness it didn't come closer to us.
We needed to do some food shopping but the nearest supermarket, Publix, was quite far away. It was too far to walk there and definitely too far to walk back with shopping even if it is in a backpack!
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| Look at all those veggies! |
Early on Monday morning we went for a walk across the Bridge of Lions. We were hoping it would open while we were on the bridge but it didn't. It is a public holiday that day so it only opened on demand. We had expected the town to be very busy with people and traffic, but it seemed to be quieter than the day before.
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| Bridge of Lions |
The gas for the braai and one of our tanks for the stove ran out at the same time. We had heard that it is difficult to fill tanks in the US with our South African gas connections. Andrew phoned everywhere but they all said no, except for U-Haul.
As we needed gas urgently, Andrew and I left Laura on the boat, hailed another Uber and set off for the nearest U-Haul. The chap was very friendly and within half an hour we had full tanks.
We made a stop at West Marine to buy a boat hook. Andrew could have gone mad at West Marine. There are so many nice things to buy at rather pricey prices! It's been an expensive month as it is!
The Uber driver was very informative on the way back, telling us about the town and various buildings as we passed. He mentioned a whole lot of good restaurants which he said were excellent. Sadly, we won't be spending our ZAR at any restaurants! He also told us that Monday, although it was the actual holiday, was quieter because most people go out on Sunday and then rest at home on Monday! Good explanation.
Andrew had a look at the engine and found that an end cap on the water cooler was split. He tried to fix it but it clearly had been glued before and wasn’t a good idea to McGyver it again. He phoned around but nobody had it in stock. In the end he had to order it from the UK. Thank goodness for DHL, even though the shipping was almost as much as the parts. And we didn't have to wait too long for it, it was only going to take two days to get to us.
Andrew checks the input in the solar panels from time to time during the day. He discovered that the starboard panel, not the cracked one, was not putting in any amps. He took the connectors off and replaced them and it started working again. But when we came back from the shop, we found it had stopped working completely.
He tried everything, even swapping it over to the other side of the boat as the damaged one was putting in some amps. Nothing!
We were stumped! Andrew had no clue what could be the problem. There must be something wrong with the actual panel.
We were going to buy one, but ended up buying two new ones that should arrive on Thursday. As we were supposed to be leaving on Thursday, we extended our stay on the ball for two more days. Again, thank goodness for Amazon!
On Wednesday morning we left the boat early and hopped on the Old Town Trolley Tour. It is an open air trolley that makes 22 stops around the town. Sadly, most of the stops are at places where you need to pay another fortune to enter.
After that we walked to a second hand boat part store called Sailor's Exchange. Andrew is looking for stanchion bases to replace our broken ones. Although there is anything and everything you can think of, we didn’t find the triangular ones we needed. The guys there were so friendly and helpful. And we bumped into a couple we had met briefly in Marsh Harbour.
We walked back to the winery to catch the trolly again.
We got off at Ripley’s to see the huge statue of David which is hidden behind a very high hedge. Apparently it used to be positioned on the side of the road, but it was causing too many accidents!
There is a Montessori school over the road from the Old Jail. I went to see if they were open, but it seems that have closed for the summer holidays. I would love to have visited them.
After the jail we took the trolley back towards the marina. We had already been all the way around so we got off and walked down a quaint side street.
I really like this town. It has a nice feel to it. The houses are lovely and the shops are sweet. Just a pity there is no big supermarket in walking distance.
Thursday was washing day. Not my favourite thing to do but at least the marina had a laundry room which was air conditioned!
I got spoilt in Orlando, being able to just put washing on whenever I wanted to!
The parcels we were waiting for arrived on Thursday afternoon. The first thing we did was plug in the solar panels, praying they would work. They did! Of course the brackets we had were too short so we went looking for aluminum. We walked to Ace but they didn’t have any. At least we got a bit of exercise with a 5km round trip.
Andrew fitted the rubber end caps on the engine and it didn’t leak.
Sea Dancer arrived in the anchorage on Thursday afternoon. They invited us over for supper. Andre was cooking pork stir fry. It was lovely to see them again and catch up with all their news.
The following morning, after we had Sam clean the bottom of our boat (Andrew was NOT getting in this water) we went shopping.
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| Entrance to the marina |
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| Waiting for the Uber |
We stopped at Home Depot for the aluminum which they had, thank goodness. Then off to Publix for some food shopping.
Uber back and Andrew got to work setting up the brackets for the solar panels. It took him a while and it was after 7pm by the time he finished one of them.
We woke bright and early on Saturday, 1st June, to finish preparing the boat to leave St Augustine. Andrew went to get more water and then we went to get fuel as well.
Finally ready to go we dropped the mooring lines and followed the magenta line north.
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