Happy New Year!

Well, shiver me timbers -- a pirate ship in St. Augustine harbor

Just when we wondered how we so quickly got to 2010, we’re beginning a new decade. We’re sure it’s going to be a fabulous year.

We’re in St. Augustine; at 8:30 a.m. it was 57 degrees, on its way to a projected high of a sunny 74. 

A train/trolley tour of St. Augustine on Thursday took us through downtown. While there are lovely areas of the historic district, the city that bills itself as the oldest in the country also is one big theme park. T-shirts, pirate hats and any other kitschy items abound in store after store along St. George street and its narrow alleyways. This is the season for the Night of Lights, though, and the same historic district twinkles with white lights at night.

We’re at a mooring at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina, just off the Bridge of Lions, and within sight of the lighthouse and just past the Castillo de san Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the country, begun by the Spanish in 1672.

We dinghyed (who knew it was a verb?)easily to the historic district the first time, but then the equally historic 9.9 Evinrude gave out. Philip tore it apart, hoping it was a fairly quick fix to replace the impeller - no luck. He figured we needed a reliable motor for the Bahamas anyway, so a new motor would be our end-of-the-year purchase.

We were so fortunate that Peter Sabo, one of Philip’s former boat yard owner-colleagues, lives here and still owns and runs the Camachee Yacht yard and marina. He called him early in the morning and Peter had not only located an inventory-clearing 9.9 Yamaha at a dealer in Jacksonville, but he and his wife, Susan, zipped over in their center console and took us back to their lovely home at Porpoise Point at Vilano Beach. (They live next door to a house bought by Fijian golfer Vijay Singh for his girlfriend; Singh’s wife lives about 20 miles away).

Peter loaned us his truck, we drove to Jacksonville, bought the motor and made a grocery run. Peter brought us back to Epilogue by boat and helped Philip haul the new motor to the flybridge. We were so thankful -- Peter gave up a large part of his day to help Philip. Wow.

Capping off a serendipitous New Year’s Eve day was a six-course dinner at an incredible little French restaurant near the waterfront. Bistro de Leon is owned by a couple from Lyon and meal was one of the best we’ve had -- mussel saffron soup, escargot and porcini tart with arugula salad, flounder stuffed with scallops, fresh lemon sorbet, beef tenderloin with porcini and trio de gourmandises for desert. Heavenly! We watched fireworks from the flybridge and uncorked a bottle of champagne to toast the new year, via telephone, with Lisa and David in Portsmouth, N.H., and our friends partying in Black Rock. All the boats in the harbor blasted their horns at the stroke of 12 to welcome 2011.

Wishing you all a healthy, joyous, prosperous new year, brimming with life’s adventures -- be they on land or sea!