Goodbye Sarah and Fort Lauderdale. Move on to St Augustine
Shelena
Phil Scourfield
Sun 5 Jun 2016 03:22
5th June, 2016
Sarah treated us to an excellent meal on her last night at Shooters Waterfront restaurant. Immediately alongside the ICW where we had champagne and wine. Thoroughly recommended. See photo.
The previous day we took the water taxi to explore the area. We were treated to see where "A" list celebs had bought multi million dollar homes. We also saw the 285 feet motor yacht owned by the guy that created Microsoft Word. A hugely impressive craft.
However, our day started unexpectedly. I had bought a new Apple laptop and after just 24 hours, when switched on, it greeted me with a no entry style circle. That did not look promising. I returned the Mac to the shop and immediately it was replaced. "Never seen that before sir". I mention this mostly for what followed as we arrived at St Augustine. This time it was the yacht computer, Windows, greeted me with the dreaded blue framed BIOS screen that refused to be shut down. To the rescue Steve, a local expert in computers. This time it was not the disc that had failed, but the RAM. All had to be replaced in double quick time to enable us to continue our journey. I realised that without the computer working I was unable to make a satellite phone call or download a weather grib file. All necessary when out of shore distance for mobile use. Many thanks Steve Treaster. H feels that I possess some special force that science has yet to discover. That is not a complement; or perhaps it is!
St Augustine's Municipal Marina is first class. The Laundry room even had an annex to watch tv's as clothes slopped in their drum luxuriating in their clean. According to Helen, who reads about such matters people, in general, do not wash clothes often enough. Even a t-shirt with light day wear apparently must not be re-worn next day. Thank goodness for jeans that the research shows can avoid the luxury drum for a couple of weeks. This just shows the wisdom of a mug I saw in a gift shop. I do not need Google. I ask my wife.
St Augustine is very quaint. It was put on the map by one Mr Flagler. A rich man who had partnered with Rockefeller and ploughed his money into building hotels. The sort of hotel that cost a huge amount per night, where you must stay for 3 months and can only visit if invited by Mr Flagler! The hotel has become a State University for young women and is very grand. Only some US$30,000 per year fees which is pretty reasonable by US standards.
All is well on Shelena.
