Sailing to St. Augustine: Travels of Dursmirg by John M. Grimsrud

I consider this book of adventures, laced with history and delivered with humor my best. It explains how we got to St. Augustine, people we encountered, and how they impacted and steered our destiny. Stormy financial conditions forced us to embark on investments that enabled us to use runaway inflation to our advantage. Our adventurous end games led us to new fun filling educational horizons that made our lives rewarding, fulfilled and memorable. We were totally surprised, amazed and gladdened at our destination.

EXCERPTS:

On June 22, 1972, after five years of dedicated effort, our home designed and built Dursmirg was launched. The television and radio stations plus 2000 spectators turned out to witness the sinking— some may have been disappointed.

My wife Jane and I designed and built our dreamboat, sailed away, and lived with nature, out of the sea and off the land for fifteen glorious years— mission accomplished.

For four months we had been traveling through the waterways of America, pushing east and then south all the time. It was an enchanting journey, and in more than one place we felt the temptation to stay, but there was always the thought of Florida driving us on.

December 20, 1972, Jane and I opened a bottle of Champagne that we carried on our maiden voyage from Superior, Wisconsin. We celebrated the successful completion of our five year boat building project, it was our third wedding anniversary, and our triumphant arrival in Florida. Our team of two pulled together to make it happen. We didn’t watch TV for five years and exchanged that time to build our dreamboat and learn the trades required for our escape while we still had our exuberant youth.

If you didn’t need to make any money, had a sailboat to live aboard, a bicycle to ride, and knew how to live out of the river, it was a terrific time to be in St. Augustine, and we were there.

Read more about the Travels of Dursmirg on my author's page.