This is a bit of a longer post again, and a bit out of order as we are trying to catch up.

After Charleston, we decided to do another longer offshore hop straight to the inlet of Jacksonville FL. All the weather forecasts looked like it would be a brisk but ok passage. However, they all severely undercalled the actual conditions. We had wind in the high 20’s sustained and gusts up to 38 knots. Worse was that the seas were confused and crossed with maybe 6-7 foot wind waves from about 45º astern with a larger swell coming in from the side.  When they coincided we would get slapped sideways by a 10-footer. We had green water going over the whole boat. I had to clean salt off the bottom of our bimini (cockpit canopy) when we arrived in Jacksonville inlet.

However, WildHorse took good care of us and we didn’t have any significant problems, and were as comfortable as you can be in rough conditions like that. We were able to sleep and have hot food. We did discover a couple of minor leaks that we weren’t previously aware of, but that was it.  Other boats weren’t so lucky with shredded sails and other problems.

We spent a couple of days there cleaning the boat and resting, Then we decided to head back in the ICW to St. Augustine. This took 2 days, with a lovely night spent at anchor partway there in Hobe Sound. The water was finally warm, in the ’70’s. so we both went for a swim for the first time this winter.

We arrived in Saint Augustine and took one of the town moorings.  Florida started showing her weirdness almost immediately. The character of the ICW was completely different than previously, now much more urban and suburban, with many more drawbridges to deal with, and lots more rude power boaters.  St Augustine was fun and bizarre.  It reminded me of Southern CA but with more old people. It’s a place where you feel comfortable letting your freak flag fly!  We happened to be there on the morning of the Christmas Parade, complete with middle school marching band.

Hmmm, it’s like 70ºF.

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This was part of the official town Christmas celebration. Burning Man, anyone?

However, despite the weirdness, St Augustine was also a very beautiful city and has an interesting history. They claim status as the oldest settlement in the US, founded by the Spanish Empire in 1565.  It has a nice but very touristy old town, a Spanish castillo, and is one of two cities in North America with city walls, the other being Quebec City. The Fountain of Youth is rumored to be somewhere nearby, and there were certainly plenty of senior citizens around, maybe looking for it?  Florida started to grow on us, and we embraced the weirdness.

St A Harbor by night, all lit up for the holidays

From there, we headed offshore again to the Palm Beach/Lake Worth inlet. This time we had lovely clear moderate weather and had a fast and pleasant downwind sail with light seas. We made good time and arrived in the morning, tying up in West Palm Beach. We were the smallest boat there, nestled amongst the ginormous motor yachts and mega yachts.

Palm Beach. Florida is weird.

Lucie hanging out with FDR and Winston Churchill.

Palm Beach kept up its end of the Florida weirdness. We had tourists!  Mar-a-Lago with motorcades! Freaky people!  Golf carts on the street! Mega rich and mega poor people!  Teensy tiny dogs in baby strollers! Yee-haw, Florida!

Excellant local beer.  I particularly like the flaming trailer house.

From there we made our way down to Fort Lauderdale which is like Palm Beach with even more mega-yachts.  We took a marina slip there since we were planning on visiting Lucie’s sister Nicole and brother-in-law Andre at their winter Florida home in Davie.  It was very nice to take a break from the boat and visit with family in an actual neighborhood.  We have been here almost 2 weeks, and are back on the boat since Nicole and Andre went back to Quebec to spend the holiday with their kids and grandkids.

However, even in the quiet residential area, you can’t escape the Florida Man. They have a neighbor who is quite nice and helpful, but Nicole & Andre told a story of the recent excitement on the street when he got into a fistfight with another neighbor and was taken away by the cops for a couple of nights in jail.  The grandkids were visiting at the time from Canada and got an eyeful of Florida and the US!  He’s back now and all is good and quiet on the street again so far…

A new temporary neighbor on the dock in Ft Lauderdale

We are here in Fort Lauderdale waiting for good weather to hopefully cross to the Bahamas soon. We have stocked up on many items that are either hard to get or very expensive there, and are keeping our eye out for our weather window.  Last night, Christmas Eve, we hosted a fun dinner aboard with 4 new cruising friends, and had a wonderful time. Today, Christmas Day, we got up late and are cleaning and putting all the things away. We ate stone crab, and it is a pretty messy process… I am finding little pieces of shell under everthing.

We will try to keep posting as much as possible, but they might be fewer and farther between once we get to the Bahamas. We will see how internet access is there.

Happy Holidays to everyone!