The Final Leg, St Augustine.

The night on the mooring ball was nice. It was a bit chilly, but bearable.

We are truly not setup for being on an anchor, or ball for an extended period of time. For example, at this point we have no heater. The generator died within a month of purchasing the boat, and we have yet to replace it. This is because of two reasons. The first reason is because I have decided to avoid an 3600RPM unit. These are everywhere, and can be had for almost nothing. The other popular option is an 1800RPM unit. The later being quieter, and vibrating less. This new design has not had enough time to get cheep. I have not seen a decent one for less then $4000. Solar. This is going to be on the yacht no matter what. I have the option of adding more. The first big stop sign for solar is 800 watts. The most expensive part of a solar system is the MPPT solar controller. The largest, common, one of these that can support 800 watts of solar. They are $500 on their own, where the panels themselves are under $1 a watt. Honestly I do not want more then 600 watts of solar, as this would make the stern of the yacht look like the van from, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

So the second renewable energy part is a windmill. The most difficult part of this is the mount on our yacht. If we had a ketch, and we do not, then mounting on the top of the mizzen would be an easy task. However unless we kept the windmill less then an 8' diameter, this would put us over the magic 65'. The second issue is keeping it from exploding in a storm. If it was lower I could go tie it off before a storm. I however will not climb up a 55' high mast in bad conditions. The best solution is after we rebuild the boomkin to mount it on a pole, on there. Wow, does our boomkin need a rebuild. So, alas, we find our self marinaless, unheated, on a mooring ball. After about 8 phone calls I found a nice place, on a side river on the back side of St Augustine. $10 a foot, plus the complementary fee of $100. This place is run down, unmaintained, with dangerous docks, and showers that will make you more dirty then clean. Frankly, we love it. It is quiet, cheep, and the boats here are in good shape, and not abandoned. The dock master is friendly most days, and when the marina nearly burnt our boat down, they repaired it :P lol. Our last day on the mooring ball we went walkabout in town all day. We ate some more food that was mediocre. We also found some great local businesses. One of them had white truffle oil. I got a small bottle, and its the real deal. Goodbye bland french fries! Another thing I noticed about the town is the homeless population is right in the public view. They are also treated well in town. I noticed a few little things. One had new shoes, another had a hand made blanket. They were all just begging on a pedestrianized street. There was even one playing a accordion. They also all had dogs. I guess this might be begging tip number one, make yourself and your dog look pathetic, get more money. I will have to take Daphne to town someday and see if i can make $10 an hour... :)