Good Bye St. Augustine

It is with mixed emotions that we leave St. Augustine this morning. We are certainly glad to be cruising again after more than six months of inactivity, but we are sure going to miss this Old Town and the friends we've made here.

When we arrived two days before Hurricane Matthew, we were quickly welcomed, secured, and made to feel part of the community. After Matthew we were impressed with the positive attitude of the locals as they got their town back in shape.

Soon we bought some bikes, learned our way around town, and developed a routine of Sunday morning breakfasts and Wednesday night happy hours at Ann O'Malley's. We met new friends and spent lots of time with old cruising buddies. I even did the Wednesday morning Cruisers' Net for several weeks. We almost felt like locals and more than once tourists asked us for directions, so we must have looked like locals too.

And we got a lot of work done on the boat. We refinished all the sole pieces, removed the old teak decks, put down Kiwigrip nonskid, and installed new lifelines. But it wasn't all boat work. We also found a dermatologist who fixed Malcolm's ear, and we traveled to Costa Rica to get Malcolm's hernia repaired.

So as we head north I'm thinking our next stop is going to have to be pretty amazing to top St. Augustine, Florida.