{"id":3977,"date":"2015-01-15T17:17:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T17:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=3977"},"modified":"2015-01-15T17:17:34","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T17:17:34","slug":"pandora-all-charged-up-ready-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=3977","title":{"rendered":"Pandora, all charged up, ready to go\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Thursday morning here in, well I want to say \u201csunny St Augustine\u201d but that would be a lie as it\u2019s frigging overcast for yet another day.\u00a0 And, I won\u2019t comment on how cold it is in the low 50s as my brother will call me names. \u00a0 He says that I am soft and that I have no idea what cold is as it’s 15 where he is in PA. \u00a0 Yes, Bill was pretty blunt about my lack of strength in dealing with the cold. \u00a0In fact, he, well, he called me a name.\u00a0 Something about my not knowing what cold was and that if I wanted cold, well he\u2019d some me cold.\u00a0\u00a0 Ok Bill, no it\u2019s not cold here and I am sure that I\u2019ll soon be sweating.\u00a0\u00a0 I totally hope so.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, even if Bill has no sympathy, I think it\u2019s cold and even a little rainy here in but I’ll try not to\u00a0c<\/em>omplain about it any longer. \u00a0\u00a0Well, not any more for today at least.\u00a0 Just to defend myself, there are plenty of locals who think it\u2019s pretty cold, so there. \u00a0I know this because I took a poll.<\/p>\n

Well, yesterday we got new house batteries for Pandora\u2019s so she’s all charged up again.\u00a0\u00a0 And, they only cost two boat dollars. \u00a0The yard that we went to was very efficient and it only took about two hours and some very strong guys to heft out the old ones and put in the new. \u00a0These batteries are much bigger than car batteries and weigh in at more than 100lbs each, and there are four of them. \u00a0It was great to today to wake up and see the voltage readings in a reasonable range. Amazingly, while they have been showing their age in the last year, the last set lasted over 7 years.\u00a0 That\u2019s a very long time for any battery. \u00a0I am not sure bit I think it’s something like 120 years old in dog years. \u00a0 It seems that the next owner of Pandora will have years before they have to worry about replacing them again.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s a big day here in St Augustine as it\u2019s Brenda\u2019s birthday and I want to be sure to do what I can to make it a great day for her.\u00a0 Alert!, alert!, this is not a dress rehearsal\u2026\u00a0 Got it.\u00a0\u00a0 So, early today I ran ashore early to pick up some croissants and made her a latte aboard,her first aboard in 2015.\u00a0\u00a0 While I was ashore, I also took a long hot shower at the marina so that I would be nice and clean somewhat less offensive when I presented Brenda with her birthday breakfast.\u00a0 What a great shower. \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ll bet that I was plenty pink when I got out as I turned up the temperature as hot as I could stand it. \u201cOK, Bob, enough about your hygine. \u00a0What’s with the pink thing? \u00a0TMI, TMI!\u201d\u00a0 Ok, I get it. \u00a0Anyway, it was good to be warm and clean.\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah, Brenda enjoyed breakfast. \u00a0 That’s one down for the “birthday coordinator”.<\/p>\n

Today we\u2019ll spend some time ashore.\u00a0 St Augustine is a lovely city with some beautiful architecture and great ancient trees lining the streets.\u00a0 Beautiful stately live oaks.\u00a0\u00a0 And, at night the trees on the main drag are all lit up with little white lights.\u00a0 Very festive.<\/p>\n

Henry Flagler, who is generally thought of as the \u201cfather of Florida tourism\u201d built two huge beautiful hotels here and a railroad to get customers here from the north.\u00a0 They both closed years ago as tourists gravitated to southern Florida, but one is now the home to Flagler College and the other home to a terrific museum.\u00a0 I wrote about\u00a0a tour of the college\u00a0on our last visit.\u00a0 You can read that post<\/a>\u00a0here. \u00a0(Editor: It was much warmer that day but who’s keeping score?)<\/p>\n

I am always struck by how beautiful the city architecture here is.\u00a0 \u00a0Wonderful views wherever you look.\"\"<\/a>Did I say that it\u2019s still cool here?\u00a0 In spite of the current \u201crelatively\u201d low temperatures, there is plenty of tropical foliage.\u00a0\u00a0 I am told that the temperatures in the winter tend to swing wildly with some days in the 80s and then, in only a few short days, temperatures dive into the 40s and 50s.\u00a0 Not cold by the standards of \u201cnortherners\u201d but plenty cold out on the water.<\/span><\/p>\n

On particularly interesting plant is the \u201cresurrection fern\u201d that grows on the limbs of trees and just about anything else that can hold a bit of moisture.\u00a0 \u00a0They get their name from the fact that they can shrivel up and look pretty dead when there is a drought and then are \u201cresurrected\u201d and spring back to life within hours when it rains.\u00a0 This was a plenty happy looking bunch growing on a tile roof over a door in the historic district.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>Anyway, sitting here in the coffee shop isn’t getting us out to walk around and enjoy the sights.<\/p>\n

How about finishing with a nice shot of the “birthday girl” in one of her hand knitted sweater. \u00a0She’s nice and toasty. \u00a0Good thing as it’s cold. Well, not that cold. \u00a0Yes, Bill, I am ALMOST sweating it’s so hot. \u00a0\"\"<\/a>Well, at least Pandora’s charged up with her new batteries and ready to go where it’s really warm. \u00a0 And, don’t forget, birthdays and the proper recognition of same isn’t a dress\u00a0<\/span>rehearsal\u00a0 I’d\u00a0better get on it. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Thursday morning here in, well I want to say \u201csunny St Augustine\u201d but that would be a lie as it\u2019s frigging overcast for yet another day.\u00a0 And, I won\u2019t comment on how cold it is in the low 50s as my brother will call me names. \u00a0 He says that I am soft and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3977"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3982,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977\/revisions\/3982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}