Eclectic St. Augustine

As we wandered and explored St. Augustine, I snapped photos of anything that caught my fancy and many times these pix just don't fit anywhere into a blog post. Still, I wanted to share them with you. This post is a pictorial catch-all for those photos that previously didn't have a place. Hope you enjoy.

The Blue View - Finding the Gulf Stream

We are very conservative sailors. We reef down before we need to when we see potentially bad weather approaching or in the evenings when we can't always see a squall coming our way until it is on top of us. Likewise, we use less sail than we did a few years ago - we'd rather trade a few miles of distance each day for a more comfortable ride. We call it 'leisurely sailing' (although in our younger years we undoubtedly called it 'old fart sailing'). A good day for us now is 150 nautical miles, just over an average of six knots.

That said, we are certainly not opposed to going out of our way a bit to find a friendly current or avoiding an adverse one. We had a fast passage from Brisbane to Sydney Australia one year by taking a free ride on the the East Australia Current. Our only 200+ nm day was thanks to the extra 3+ knots that we picked up from the Agulhas Current off South Africa. On the other hand, we tried our best to avoid as much of the Humboldt current as we could, as it was against us for most of our trip down the west coast of South America.

Now as we head up the east coast of the U.S., we are hoping to add 50-75 nm to our daily passages by taking advantage of the mighty Gulf Stream, just as mariners for the past 400 years have done. Its location is fairly constant along the south Florida coast, but the course it follows varies as it travels further north. For the modern day sailor, however, locating the Gulf Stream is much easier than it was even thirty years ago.

A hundred and fifty years ago, mariners would use Maury's Pilot charts and the captain's acquired knowledge to follow the most likely course of the Gulf Stream. By taking periodic sun and star sights using a sextant, the navigator would compare the distance made good to the dead reckoning position and get an idea of how much current was present. In the twentieth century, but before GPSs and satellite imaging, the offshore sailor would head eastward to the 100 fathom depth contour. He would then set a course to follow a few miles east of this contour. (This is the edge of the continental shelf, where the depths quickly drop from a few hundred feet to several thousand feet. (Interestingly, the Agulhas Current follows a similar depth profile off the South African coast.) He might also measure the water temperature to adjust his course, as the temperature of the water in the Gulf Stream is several degrees higher than the surrounding water.

These days, locating the Gulf Stream is quite straightforward. There are daily updates of the thermal satellite images of the Atlantic coastal waters. By going online prior to our departure, I can download the latest images showing the precise location of the Gulf Stream. I use these images to plot a series of waypoints on our chartplotter that will get us to and follow the current. Once we are in the Gulf Stream, we can measure the strength of the current by comparing our 'Speed Over Ground' as measured by our GPS to our 'Speed Through the Water' as measured by the speed transducer on the hull. The difference between the two is the speed of the current.

Technology is wonderful. No doubt, in another thirty years, on-board computers will monitor weather conditions and adjust the sails to maximize our velocity made good, smart radar sets and AISs will monitor other vessels and automatically avoid collisions, and satellite imagery will plan the fastest route. I'll opt for a system that includes a setting that adjusts the ride - where a setting of 1 is the most comfortable and a setting of 10 is the fastest.

Then all I'll be needed for, assuming we are still around and capable of climbing aboard, is to compile the list of repairs to be done at the next exotic port of call.

Otto Lightner's Museum

There are probably more museums in St. Augustine than churches. There's a Pirate and Treasure Museum, the original, kitschy Ripley's Believe or Not Museum, Potter's Wax Museum, the Spanish Quarter Museum, the Spanish Military Hospital Museum, the Lighthouse Museum, the Old Jail Museum … the list goes on and on. But the gem of St. Augustine is the Lightner Museum and if you're being choosy about which museum to visit, this is the one that should top your list. It's outstanding.  

Otto Lightner (1887-1950) known as “America's King of Hobbies” was a self-made, wealthy newspaper editor and publisher. He was the owner and publisher of Hobbies, an antiques and collectibles magazine during the Great Depression and advocated collecting. "Even with no money … everyone should have a hobby. Everyone should collect something". Whether it be matchbox covers, cigar bands or buttons, he endorsed collecting. He took his own advice, starting his own collections and buying other people's collections. He bought large homes in Chicago to house his collections. In the 1940s, he moved to St. Augustine for health reasons. Henry Flagler's flagship hotel, The Alcazar, had long since been abandoned and was in shambles. He bought it for $150,000 … pennies on the dollar … restored it and moved his sizable collections into it. Dubbed the “Smithsonian of the South”, the Lightner Museum opened in 1948. He donated the complex to the city of St. Augustine with the proviso that it would forever house his collection of collectibles. Since the early 1970s, St. Augustine's city offices reside in the old Alcazar next to the Lightner Museum.

The appeal of this museum is not just the collections, which are substantial, but the rooms and surroundings in which they're displayed. From the moment we walked in the door, we were mesmerized and nearly overwhelmed by the grandness of all we saw.

The collection, valued in the millions, is as diverse and eclectic as people's imaginations. On the first floor, there's a collection of shaving mugs, cigar bands, an Egyptian mummy, a dinosaur egg, a shrunken head, a whole room dedicated to musical instruments, steins and mugs, dolls and toys, ladies' hats and gloves and purses, Valentines, human hair decorations, a stuffed African lion once presented to Winston Churchill, a stuffed American crocodile hanging from the ceiling, steam engines, a huge, life-size carved bear, seashells, artwork, sculptures … I could go on and on and on. It's bizarre.

We took the elevator to the top floor ballroom and starting working our way methodically from one exhibit to the next, one gallery to another. I can imagine orchestras playing and people gliding to waltz music on the polished wooden floors. It's exquisite. Beautifully crafted furniture was on display along with huge ceramic vases and sculptures and artwork. From the gallery rails, we looked down on the restaurant far below which once was the largest indoor swimming pool in the country.

In another gallery on the top floor, we viewed textiles, a vast button collection, lace, quilts, cigar box labels, and cross-stitched samplers, Burmese carved furniture and everywhere more artwork and ceramics.

We looked down on the exhibits of cut glass and art glass and fine china in a gallery on the floor below. Gleaming chandeliers caught the light and added even more dazzle to the scene.

One darkened room held a stained glass collection with full sized windows and gorgeous signed Tiffany lamps.

I was intrigued by a ceramic ape (?) which sat alone atop a grand piano. The docent said it fell into the “grotesque” category, but there was no description of the piece nor information about its origins available.

I'm leaving so much out because the extent and diversity of the collections just boggle the mind. Tiffany to typewriters to toasters, blown glass, suits of armor, lanterns, paper dolls, the hotel's old sauna and even a room dedicated to the grandeur of Downton Abbey … there are obviously very few things that aren't collectible by at least someone.

Needless to say, we left with sensory overload. This is a place you could easily visit over and over again and see new and fascinating things each time.