Adventures at Sea

Friday, May 11, 2012. St Augustine Municipal Marina BOATS AND BICYCLES (AKA "SWIFTS" & "BEACH CRUISERS") After an overnight stay at Halifax Marina in Daytona on Tuesday, we arrived in St Augustine Wednesday around 11am. We struck up a conversation with a charming young man, Patrick, who came over to our boat to tell us how much he liked our "Swift", referring to the swift trawler style of The MollyBelle. He wished that his trawler could go as fast as ours. Pat and some friends are traveling from their home port of Savannah to the Bahamas. One of his friends asked me if the white "beach cruiser" on the bow of the MollyBelle was mine. I guess he figured who else would ride such a big bike with foot brakes! Anyway, he said he thought it was cool. We spent some time visiting our respective boats. Pat's trawler is about the same length as ours--42 feet, but his seems much larger because of the way it is built. They departed on their journey south that afternoon, but not before extending an invitation to stay at his mother's dock in Savannah. Boaters are the friendliest people! We also met Brian and Rose who are on their way home to Greenwhich, CT, from the Bahamas. Brian gave us some tips about places to visit on Long Island Sound. St Augustine is a very old historic city and Captain Dick believes the best way to view old historic cities is on a bicycle. So, yesterday morning with much trepidation I got on my shiny new big "beach cruiser", with foot brakes and 3 speeds and proceeded down the cobblestone streets of St Augustine. It took a while for me to overcome my fear of falling and crashing into cars, pedestrians and other bikers. Dick will tell you that I still have not overcome that fear. There were some interesting sights to see--whenever I could take my eyes off the bumpy road and loosen my grip on the handle bars. After lunch we bicycled to the Fountain of Youth to drink the fabled water that will keep us young forever! We made it back to the boat safe and sound and hopefully no older than when we started out!