We recently visited St. Augustine, FL. Founded in 1567, it is the oldest continually occupied city in the United States and is replete with a fascinating history and a plethora of sites and museums worth visiting. This post, however, is not about one of those places, but rather about a non-historical landmark one might notice while driving into town — the riverboat car wash.
Yes, while driving down Ponce de Leon Blvd, not long before turning down King Street to go to downtown St Augustine, there is what appears to be a full-sized riverboat alongside the road. It is in fact not a riverboat but Sporty’s Riverboat Car Wash. Cars drive up a stern “gangway” to enter the automated car wash, which is surrounded by a “moat” for runoff. The clean cars drive out the bow.
Sporty’s Riverboat Car Wash was built in 2005 and was inspired by a riverboat car wash in California. Yes, there are at least two riverboat car washes.
Recently, the 
I will admit to being dependent on GPS. I rely on it for both maps and apps on my phone as well as the chartplotters on several tablets on my boat. Nevertheless, until recently I knew nothing of 
Around six years ago, the media went slightly crazy when a fresh-faced 17-year-old Dutch engineering student, Boyan Slat, claimed to have designed a means for using currents to clean plastic from the oceans. He was 
Five years ago, 
Sixty-seven-year-old Igor Zaretskiy was in last place in the Golden Globe Race. His mast was seriously damaged, even after jury-rigged repairs. He had lost a hatch, exposing his cabin the elements, and his hull was so fouled that his boat, Esmerelda, was crawling along, at times at just over a knot.
Judie Johnson was swimming alone at Hahei Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand when she saw a huge shape appear from underwater. Initially, she thought that it was a dolphin but the black and white coloration made it clear that it was an orca. She found herself surrounded by three rather playful Orca whales — an adult, a juvenile and a calf.
A 
Last week we posted about the 
On November 8, just after 4 AM, the Norwegian navy frigate, 
The Royal Navy Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), 
Sadly, it apparently wasn’t a relationship meant to last. Earlier this year, Amanda Sparrow Large, 46, from Loth, Ireland was married to a Haitian pirate named Jack. Jack and Ms. Large were married by a shaman priest in a boat off the Irish coast in international waters. 
Researchers believe that wreckage found off the coast of Filey in Yorkshire is from the American warship 
After 
On 
British sailor