I woke up Wednesday, December 27 jumping from one foot to the other – my parents were arriving for a visit! They pulled into town around 1 p.m. after driving all the way from Michigan and it was so lovely to see them! After we finally found a parking spot, we went out for lunch and then we made a dinghy run to Alaya to grab all of our stuff. We packed all of our dirty laundry and our backpacks into their car and headed south to the condo we had rented on the beach, about 20 minutes south of downtown. We spent the evening catching up and opening our Christmas presents, my parents played Santa bringing gifts from Lucas’ family too. Thank you to everyone for the lovely gifts!
The next day was another fun one – my birthday! For anyone out there with a birthday near Christmas, you know it can be a struggle sometimes. That was not the case this year, I had an amazing day! The day started out with some laundry (I could fold it on a couch while watching Parks and Rec and wearing my pjs? Glamorous!) and then we hit the beach. It was a chilly, but most importantly, sunny day. Mom looked for shells and I looked for dolphins (Mom was more successful than I was this time).
We discovered that the beach was a drive-on beach, so after a long walk, we hopped in the car and took Dad’s new car for a spin on the beach “road.” Next up, was our big birthday shopping trip to Costco. We bought A LOT of stuff, mostly canned goods and other non-perishables that should last us a long time. Grocery shopping with access to a car – such an innovation to us! A gourmet birthday lunch was had at the Costco food court. We unpacked the refrigerator items at the condo and then headed to downtown St. Augustine.
Dinner reservations were at 7 p.m. but I wanted to take Mom and Dad for a dinghy ride to look for dolphins before dinner. We managed a sunset dinghy ride in the harbor. Just as we were about to call off our birthday dolphin search so we could head to the restaurant, I saw a flash of a tail – a birthday dolphin! Victory!
Dinner was another success! We sat on the restaurant’s elevated patio and could see all the city lights while dining (thank goodness for the overhead heater). There was one more special event planned for the day – a double rocket launch! The first launch was scheduled for 8 p.m., so we didn’t dilly dally at dinner and walked briskly to the historic fort downtown to watch the spectacle.
None of us really knew what to expect. My brother had given us a heads up about the launch earlier in the day and we had heard from other cruisers that you should be able to see it from the harbor. St. Augustine is about 130 miles north of the launch site. We stood there on the fort with a bunch of other people watching the live stream of the countdown on our phones while looking south.
5…4…3…2…1 Lift off. All of the sudden, we saw a huge flash that lit up the entire southern horizon. It was pure magic. A few minutes after the launch, we saw the stages separate and could even follow the first stage’s journey back to earth. We then watched the rest of the rocket hurtling across the horizon heading (from our perspective) right by the full moon.
One of the things I love most about my family is how excited we all get watching cool shit happen. Whether it is a whale sighting on a beach in California where none of the other beach dwellers even look up as we scream running/laughing down the beach to follow it or a rocket launching a secret mission into space while we clap, ohh and ahh, there is something so fun about witnessing these beautiful things loudly together.
It was hard to believe but the birthday magic still wasn’t over – we still had one more rocket launch to watch. We made our way back through the city of lights to our car and drove back to the condo. The next launch was scheduled for 11 p.m. (a big ask for this birthday girl who likes to go to bed at 9 p.m.). We walked out to the beach and watched another space miracle hurtle into space over the dark black Atlantic Ocean. Now that’s what I call a birthday!
What do you do the day after an amazing birthday? Well, when the Hardcastle family is on vacation, the answer is always more fun stuff! Friday dawned a sunny but windy day. After another lovely beach walk, we headed back into town. Today’s mission was to break Mom and Dad’s sailing curse. They swore that every time they had set foot on any sailboat in the past 40 years, the wind dies. I had witnessed their power a few years ago when we tried to take them for a ride in our first sailboat.
We had lunch on Alaya while Lucas and I gave Mom and Dad their safety briefing. For newbies on a boat there are two rules – 1. Stay on the boat 2. Don’t hit anything hard. I was introduced to these rules by Chris, one of my favorite sailing instructors in North Cape Yacht Club’s Adult-Learn-To-Sail program a few years ago. With the crew fully briefed and the wind still blowing, we cast off our mooring lines and headed under the Bridge of Lions.
It was blowing 15 knots, so we set out the headsail and then turned off the engine. We were sailing! Mom and Dad’s curse had officially been broken.
We had a lovely sail back and forth in the outer harbor, sailing north on the ICW for a few miles. Dad even took the helm for a bit on our way back south. He and Lucas had a slight navigational miscommunication but luckily Pierre saved us from breaking rule number 2 (don’t hit anything hard).
As we motor-sailed back towards the Bridge of Lions, we noticed a bunch of pelicans diving in one spot and then a fin. Dolphins! We watched a literal feeding frenzy, the dolphins and pelicans were having a feast on a school of fish. A local fishing boat sped over to get in on the action and caught so many fish in their net that they couldn’t pull it back onboard. Another boat had to come help them tow the fish-laden net back into the harbor. In our 2,000 miles of sailing, we’d never seen anything like this frenzy and I’m so glad Mom and Dad were there to watch it with us.
We made it back to our mooring ball without any more incidents. Dad was helping me clean up some lines on deck when I heard the unmistakable sound of something falling off the boat…Dad had accidently dropped Mom’s phone over the edge (he missed his pocket with all the layers he was wearing). Miraculously, the phone bounced on one of Margaret’s pontoons and landed unharmed inside the dinghy. Lucas saw the whole thing happened and he said he could see my Dad’s life flash before his eyes! We almost broke rule #1 but Margaret saved the day!
After such an eventful day, we were exhausted but there was one more event planned – a homemade chicken pot pie! I brought all my pie baking supplies to the condo and we feasted on a delicious pot pie around 10 p.m.. Mom and Dad schooled us in how to play “real” rummy (we’d apparently been playing a beginner version) and then we collapsed into bed. Another wonderful day in the books.
The following morning was our last day in the condo, so we cleaned up (I had finished our 5th load of laundry the night before) and then headed to Alaya. We had to somehow get all of this stuff back to the boat. It took a few runs but we got it all onboard. Organizing it was going to be another day’s problem.
Mom and Dad had a few more hours to kill before hitting the road, so we squeezed in one more activity – a visit to the Alligator Farm! It was basically a zoo full of alligators, crocodiles, birds, snakes and many other creatures. We even got to witness a feeding demonstration in the main pond. The barrier between the employee and 150 motivated alligators was a little too small for our liking.
After one last lunch together, we said our goodbyes and parted ways. It was incredibly sad to say goodbye to my parents, I really enjoyed their visit and I’m not sure the next time we will all get together again. I hope it will be sometime soon. Thanks for everything!!
