We have now been at Rivers Edge Marine up the San Sebastian River in St. Augustine for a good 2 weeks. It is a nice marina with a floating dock, and everybody is very friendly. We have bicycles, so we can get everywhere fairly easily, and downtown St. Augie is only a 5 minute bike ride away.
Hurricane Dorian’s approach was a tense time, and until the storm passed we did not know if it was going to hit us or not, so we prepared accordingly. We prepped, stripped, battened, duck taped and double lined Ronya, took down the genoa, and found a place to put the dinghy in the garage of someone we mat at the marina. Ronya looked naked, and we felt sad leaving our home the next morning to fend for herself.
Our friend Elena from Key Largo had generously offered us her house in Jacksonville to stay during the storm, and we gladly accepted. We rented the last minivan in St. Augustine and put everything valuable that was movable into the van. Loaded up with our watermaker, sewing machine, freezer, clothing, expensive spare parts, our bimini top so Anya could fix it on the sewing machine, and things we wanted to save, we had no idea we still have so many things we can load up a minivan and still have stuff left on the boat! Last came the cats in their carriers, and off we went to play house for 2 nights. The house has a small back yard, and the cats loved it. So much grass to chew on!
Fortunately for Florida, Hurricane Dorian passed us without much incident, and when we came back to the boat everything was fine. Undoing the preps was much faster, but of course we left some things prepped, storm season is not over. Two days left on the rental car, so a road trip to Wauchula to see Autumn and John was in order! We got to see the production of their legendary Stream2Sea products right at their location, and spent a wonderful time with them at their beautiful little farm with all their animals in Wauchula.
Back in St. Augie, we settled in to watch the next storm approaching, but that one turned away without causing much apprehension. Anya is helping Autumn reorganize her backoffice, and Rob is still trying to find a job, we do have another 6 weeks here in the slow storm season. Meanwhile we are making trips on our bicycles to see some of the cool stuff in St. Augie, like the beaches!
