St.Augustine, day 3 – Flagler College and thunderstorm

Monday 11 June: St.Augustine, visit Flagler College
Last night we signed up for 24hrs unlimited internet on Glen’s UK Three package, so we feverishly complete and upload videos, and do as much on the internet as we can. We also book a car for this afternoon so we can go to Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. Very busy admin morning, after not much sleep last night.
At 2pm we go ashore to do the tour of the Flagler College which was the world’s best hotel when it opened in 1888. If you were super rich, you had to be seen here. It was $4000 to stay there even in 1888!! Now it is a college and we are shown around by a student. Amazing building for its period and kept pretty much as it was. Very interesting facts, we are fascinated with everything we learn new about the American history.
As we come out from the tour, there is a very dark sky and it starts to rain just as we walk to the dinghy. We take shelter in A1A pub on the corner, but when the wind and horizontal rain are coming down the street we worry what Cloudy Bay is doing on her anchor. So we put on our plastic ponchos and head off. The dinghy is already half full of rain water but we manage to get it planing and pull the bung out to drain. By the time we reach Cloudy Bay most of the water is out, and we are completely soaked.
Then the thunder and lightening start! And rain like we have never seen it. Before we went ashore, Glen had left the gas locker lid open to dry it. Now it is completely full of rain water with the gas bottles floating in it, such is the volume of water on the decks.
It’s a ferocious thunderstorm like we have never seen before, lightening and thunder one after another, after another. Fork lightening all around us, flash and bangs within less than a second between them ( i.e. very close!). We turn the engine on just in case we get hit (once struck you can kiss goodbye to being able to start the engine). And we tremble at the thought, expecting a lightening strike any moment. But after an hour of such intensity, it passes …. it seemed like a lifetime!
We were sure the anchor had slipped in the 30+kts squall, as we are positioned differently to our neighbors now. And it doesn’t help that our depth reading is sitting at 1.6m, only occasionally jumping back to 6m where we expect it to be. But when we can finally see the river bank again, it looks like we are in the original place and the other boats around have dragged. So relief all round. This is the kind of excitement we really don’t need!
As our pulse rate goes back to normal we bail out the dinghy again and head ashore to pick up the car at a Walmart, about 3 miles away. So nice to get a smart new looking car for once … and about half the price of the usual rent-a-wrecks in the Caribbean islands.
While we are there, Glen introduces Oana to Walmart. Her jaw is on the ground as we wander around taking in the enormity of the place. Just the fruit and veg section alone blows us away. Such variety at such low prices. We are clearly going to live well here. Except for the fact that these mega stores are never going to be walking distance from where we leave Cloudy Bay. So it’s a quick shop in Walmart then a stop in Dunkin Donuts. Oana has a soft spot for donuts but same as with American iced tea, the experience is “ticked and crossed” …. as in, ticked: done it, crossed: no need to do it again!
Back at Cloudy Bay we have a small drama whereby the swim platform remote control is dropped into the muddy water and it’s gone! No hope of retrieving it in this water. Hmmm we don’t have a spare. After getting into the dinghy we always raise the swim platform for security, using the remote, as we go ashore. We’ll have to come with a new method of doing this now, until we can get a replacement. The remote is supplied by an Italian company, so likely it will be a bit of a faff to get a new one. Fingers crossed on that one.
We take it easy for the rest of the evening and have an early night ready for our departure to Cape Canaveral in the morning. Yet another day of both excitement and drama on Cloudy Bay!