29 53.6N 081 12.5W
Around the world with the Aqualunies
Jonathan & Gabrielle Lyne
Tue 14 May 2019 17:13
HAVANA TO ST AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA
Slipped at 7.30 am. Alongside fuel dock to pick up some fuel. Cleared Customs, Immigration and had phone unwrapped at 8.40. Sailed and motor sailed until we reached the Gulf Stream around mid afternoon.
Two nights of night watch as we sailed up the east coast of Florida with the Gulf stream helping us on our way with 3 knots of current taking us along and increasing our speed.
At 19.30 hours on Sunday, May5th we arrived in ST. AUGUSTINE and were directed to pick up a buoy just before the bridge which was quite fun in a strong current coming in with the tide. We flew our ‘Q’ flag under our US courtesy flag. We were not met by immigration or called up by them for all they could know we could have had a load of illegal immigrants on board who could have gone ashore unnoticed. We were quite surprised that nobody had monitored us coming in. We tried to call them up but to no avail. So different from Cuba where they monitored our arrival and departure from all anchorages. We were hungry and not much left on board to eat so we decided to be illegal immigrants and go ashore for dinner. Forgetting that in the States everybody eats early and restaurants stop serving food early!! We did manage to get in and served, just.
MONDAY MAY 6TH.
Jonathan spent most of the morning trying to get hold of immigration and left messages we tried to check in by phone and discovered we were being charged for minutes used on that number!! We downloaded the CBP roam app to check in on line that got us somewhere and we ended up having a call from an officer on the American phone J had got last year. They said we had to take a taxi to the airport, four miles away, to check in……… We had been told St. Augustine was a port of arrival for yachts but that appears to have changed. Fortunately the officer who met us at immigration was fast, sensible and had all our old details up on the computer we also had our cruising permit fro the USA which we picked up in Porto Rico. The officer said we were lucky not to have called into Miami as first port of call as, because we came direct from Cuba, they would have taken away our cruising permit for the States and we would not have been allowed to enter!!! Different rules for different places and he said he was not going to throw us out!! So having arrived the night before we were able to take down our ‘Q’ the following afternoon and became legal immigrants.
We walked around the old Spanish colonial town in the afternoon and went for dinner at COLLAGE, which was heaven on a plate just some of the best food we have had in a long time. It is a small, busy restaurant in an old colonial house, with brilliant service and ambiance. Definitely Michelin standard if such things existed in the States.
TUESDAY 7TH MAY
We had a tour of the Oldest House in St. Augustine and how life was lived in the 17C. It was informative and fascinating.
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