St. Augustine

Our cruise from Daytona to St. Augustine was very interesting with changing landscapes and lots of houses to see. In this narrow "cut", the roofed docks line the shoreline, each with a very long walkway leading from the house.

The AGLCA websites and e-mails we follow were abuzz about how to safely pass through this section of the ICW near Matanzas Inlet. The shoaling is so bad here that the inlet is closed to navigation. (An inlet is a passage way from the ICW to the Atlantic, for some reason on the west coast of Florida, they are called passes). The dredgers can't keep up with the constant shoaling in the channel and we had been told to hug the red markers to avoid the shallow water. The crew of this large sailboat evidently didn't get the memo because they were hard aground when we came though, even though they were within the marked channel. The TowBoatUS captain trying to pull him off called us on the VHF and told us to pass between them and the shoreline to stay in the deepest water. He also asked us to throw him a little wake to try to bounce the boat off as he pulled, so we tried. But the little Shingebiss couldn't do it and he was still stuck as we passed though

The anchorage we had planned on that night appeared to be very shallow as well, so we decided to continue on to St. Augustine where we stayed 3 nights at the Rivers Edge Marina. Between the BOATUS discount and the "third night free", we got a great deal and were close to everything we wanted to see.

St. Augustine is billed as the oldest city in the US, originally settled by the Spanish in 1565 and has been continuously occupied ever since. The city is filled with old buildings, narrow streets, and lots of tourists. Henry Flagler (remember him? he built the famous 7 Mile Bridge in the Keys for his railroad) built the luxurious Ponce de Leon Hotel in the late 1800's where his invited wealthy friends came on his railroad to stay for the winter.

After coming through the gates, this is the view of the front entrance. Flagler College now owns the building and the hotel rooms are now dorm rooms. The tours given by the students focus on the architecture and history of the building. It was the first building in Florida to have electricity, the towers are water towers, and Tiffany stained glass is featured throughout.

This is the lobby, the woodwork and fresco painting are incredible. The dining room, now the students' cafeteria, is especially opulent, but I couldn't get any good pictures in there.

So Henry Flagler decided that he should build another hotel across the park from the first one so that the less wealthy folks would have a place to stay as well, and here is that hotel. It is now a museum, so we toured that one too.

The ballroom was up here on the third floor.

Castillo de San Marco was constructed by the Spanish in 1672 to defend the city from invaders. The fort is maintained and run by the National Park Service. Here's the exterior view, there is only one entrance, over a drawbridge. You can see it in the middle of the picture.

Here is one of the bunk rooms, where the soldiers slept.

Of course, they had plenty of cannons up on top of the walls....

... and this is the view of the large courtyard as seen from the tops of the walls.

The next day we biked out to Anastasia Island to see the famous and wonderfully preserved St. Augustine Lighthouse.

We climbed up 261 circular steps to step out on the observation platform where the view was fantastic. This is looking northeast over Salt Creek and the ICW.

Just had to take this shot of the stairs looking down from the top.

We pulled out of St. Augustine today and passed under the Bridge of Lions. The bridge dates back to 1927 and restoration has just been completed. The cranes you see are busy tearing down the temporary bridge that was put up to use during the restoration, just another example of how St. Augustine cares for its history.

Tonight we are anchored out north of Jacksonville, near Amelia Island. Tomorrow, after four wonderful months in Florida, we will cruise into Georgia.