San Sebastian River

 What a long day!  As a reward to ourselves for all the hard work and perseverance we left our hotel on the San Sebastian River and walked to the local pizza restaurant, ate a great pizza and drank Sam Summer Ale!  




With our sails wrapped and a haul out time of 9am, we released the mooring ball just before 8am.  And we hit the first snag.  The Bridge of Lions apparently only opens on the half hour (not what I had read) so Paul had to "hover" for more than 30 minutes.   

I used the time to finish packing and cleaning as much as I could while sweating profusely.  Humidity was in the low 90s.  Absolutely crazy.

Just as we were turning into the San Sebastian River, two eagles soared above us while fishing - pretty cool!


The river was thankfully deeper than documented but came with a wicked current.  The marina we were headed for was around several bends.

The swift current was headed back to the Matanzas River causing Paul to abort his first approach, turn around and retry from a different approach.    Much better the second time!

The basin for haul out is lined with multiple fenders and broken boards.  I am guessing the current causes many boats to "bump" into the sides.  Proudly, we did not!  (I also used our fenders to prevent bumping.)

Apparently this marina is very popular with the catamaran crowd.  Row after row are lined up precisely.

And we saw Amazing Grace!  She was the first boat we put an offer on back in January of 2023.  We were so convinced this was the boat for us.  Now looking at her, not so much.  (Burnt toast theory at work!)

We are already so much happier with the staff here.  They took the time to place her carefully not only in the slings during the haul out but also putting her on the blocks and stands.  They power washed the bottom and scraped the few barnacles that had moved aboard.  

We managed to complete the dinghy tarping, buy and install a dehumidifier (last minute decision that we felt necessary in this humidity) and clearing the deck of all lines, fenders and cushions.  By 4pm we had reached our limit and called it for the day.  Tomorrow we will clean out the fridge and freezer and make a trash run.  

By the time we had loaded the cart with our luggage, backpacks and go bag everyone had left the yard.  We could not get out!  All gates were locked and we wandered around looking for help.  Finally a Yanmar dealer let us cut through his shop so we could call our Uber and get to our hotel.  I guess we need to clarify how to enter and exit the yard!

The plan - finish our closing in the morning, head to Daytona and continue enjoying AC, long showers and someone else cooking and cleaning!



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