We are off to the St Augustine Mooring Field. I called yesterday afternoon to reserve a
ball for 2 nights…Sunday and Monday.
When I called on our way south, both north and south fields were full so
we didn't want to take the chance of getting into St Augustine and not having a
place to stay! The weather looks
unsettled for the next few days so there’s a chance we might be staying in St.
Augustine even longer.
Chuck started hauling up the anchor a little before 7:30
am. The anchor had so much mud on it,
he took longer than normal because he was trying to wash down the chain with
his bucket. The sun’s not up yet and
it’s a bit brisk! At first, I thought we
were the only cruiser up and moving but soon a catamaran came motoring under
the Twin Sea Breeze Bridges…and Chuck’s still on the bow working on the
chain. As we headed north, we heard
other sailboats the the VHF requesting openings at the to lift bridges in
Daytona. That was the main reason we
anchored where we did yesterday. We
didn't want to have to wait for bridges until we were away from the city! Later in the morning, we also heard some
sailors talking about the shallow water they were in but we couldn't figure out
where they were. We found out later from
sv/Island Jim that those boats had to be south of us and possibly crossing
the Mosquito Lagoon.
Even though it was cool this morning, we still had a
beautiful day to
motor on the ICW. The
sun finally broke through the clouds and the temps warmed up nicely…for most of
the day. The part of the ICW just north
of Daytona follows the Halifax River and is between the spoil islands and the
barrier island. The houses here are so
close to the water that it’s like we are motoring in their back yards…yet on
the spoil side, the wildlife abounds!
What a glorious day this has
turned out to be.
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| reminded us of Gypsy Angel |
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| sailing on the ICW |
The major trouble spot today is our passage near the Matanza
Inlet. I remember when we traveled
south, this area was well marked with 4 green cans that directed boats to navigate
very hear the west bank…G 81D, G 81C, G 81 B, and G 81A…but G 81A is missing…there it
is up on shore! Wow. I wonder why the coast guard hasn't
re-positioned it? As long as boats stay
to the west of these green day markers, it is plenty deep 2 hours before high
tide. It wasn't as intimidating on today’s
return trip!! There’s also an old fort
that was easy for me to spot today…Fort Matanza. For those brave enough to venture into
Matanza Inlet, anchor, and dinghy to shore, there is a guided tour of the old
Spanish fort. No thanks, I just like taking pictures from a distance!!
LOL
Once we passed through our last lift bridge today, the
Crescent Beach Bridge, the clouds begin to bunch up overhead and the winds
picked up quite a bit….up to 30 kts. It’s
not suppose to rain but I’m crossing my fingers…and it sure would be nice if
the winds settled a bit when we start to
search for our mooring ball at St. Augustine.
After we motored under the Mickler O’Connel Bridge, I get on the VHF and
Hail the St Augustine Municipal Marina.
It took several times before they responded. The dock hand gave us our assignment of ball
M31. Great! The south field is huge with 70 mooring
balls. We were given directions.
This is our first time mooring here and
neither of us could quite
understand what the dock hand told us. So while we were looking at the mooring
field and motoring toward it….and bump…hey Chuck is playing Columbus today and
found land! Ha Ha. I called the marina again and the dock-master
came on and gave us better directions.
We had to go north toward the Lyons Bridge and then turn west toward and
between R10 and R8 to navigate away from the sandbar! Once we got into the mooring field we
finally found M31 after dodging other moored boats. I snagged the ball and Chuck was able to
come to the bow and attach our bridle…50.5 miles and 7.5 hours later…not too
bad! We had stretches where our speed
dropped to 5.4 because of the current coming at us and other places where the
current was in our favor and we were cruising at 7.1 kts. We couldn't relax yet because they wanted
us to come to the Marina Office and settle our bill. We launched the dinghy and lowered our motor
and were off. It’s $20 a night and this
includes the use of their restroom/shower facilities, laundry ($1.50), and
their boaters’ lounge. They also gave us
a dinghy pass so we wouldn't have to pay the $10 dinghy dockage fee. Rita suggested if we ever were hungry for
pizza to try Pizza Time in historic St. Augustine. Thanks Rita for telling us
about this pizza joint!!
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| to the east of us tonight |
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| to the west of us tonight |
When I talked to Rita this afternoon, she me that they had a
great night at the Sisters Creek Anchorage…until Keith on sv/Rising Sun woke
them up at 5 am. The currents in this river
were so strong that somehow sv/Whisper and sv/Rising Sun swung around and were
hitting up against each other. The three
of them stayed up from 5-7 am to fend off each other’s boat so there would be no damage. Finally at 7 am, it was just getting light
that David and Rita decided to move out of the anchorage and head north. Keith is going up to Jacksonville to summer
his boat at Green Cove Marina. As Rita
started to motor toward the ICW, she went hard aground on a shoal just 30 feet
from the ICW. They had to call Tow Boat
US. It took the towboat 1 hour to get to
them and he worked another hour to unsuction Whisper’s full keel from the
mud!! Needless to say, Rita was quite
upset…crying, vomiting….you name it!
Once they were floating, they made their way north on the ICW and into
Fernandina Beach Marina to sit out the high winds predicted for the next few
days.
From there we cut up St. Francis Street where
the Oldest House in St. Augustine stands and a house that has a cannonball still
lodged in one of its sides… then on to Cordova Street. We passed some other unique and interesting
looking houses and buildings along this street. I think there is a problem with the ‘homeless’ in this town since within a few
blocks we stumbled upon two different guys just sleeping on the ground in among
the trees! Let’s get out of here!!
Other pictures from today. 
