Florida's First Coast

We are now certain that we no longer have any barnacles on our keel. For not once, not twice, but three times this week did we manage to scrape those guys off; and you can be sure that none of those times was intentional!

We spent the better part of the week anchored in the Ortega River which branches from the St. John's River. A view of the Jacksonville skyline enhanced the scene immeasurably showing particularly well at night. Our anchorage was a convenient spot from which to visit with Joyce's brother, Mike and to re-provision. It's pretty impressive how much an inflatable will carry. Funny how priorities change after living and cruising aboard a small boat. Not only were we thrilled to find the well stocked grocery store nearby, we were also able to take in a movie as well. What a bonus! Equally important, an evening spent with the Herring clan enabled a very nice meal, laundry and a long hot shower. And to top it off we borrowed Mike's car for a day that helped us with errands!

The 23 mile trip back down the St. Johns River took us past Mike's office building in downtown Jacksonville after which we rejoined our path down the Intracoastal waterway. We had heard so many nice things said about Beach Marina that we decided to stop for the evening. Too bad. As our approach to the marina coincided with low tide, we called ahead to insure that there would be sufficient water for us to enter the basin. We were told that with our four foot draft, there should be no problem provided we stay in the middle of the channel. We slowly motored into the narrow channel and began our approach to our assigned dock when suddenly, someone in a wetsuit on the dock is yelling at us that there is a steel pipe running across and below the channel that we may not be able to cross. Guess the guys on the radio forgot to mention this one little tidbit. With no place to go but forward, we slowed even further as we approached the floats marking the submerged pipeline. Ever so slightly we felt the keel ride up and over the pipe while just a few yards to our left, a great white heron stood ankle deep on the same pipe calmly looking for dinner oblivious to our precarious situation.

Once secured, we made the two mile jaunt down to Jacksonville Beach. Notice the smile on Joyce's face as it's November and she's walking on the beach in shorts. Also notice the smile on her face at seeing palm trees, blooming plants and trees with leaves this time of year.

We left Jacksonville Beach for St. Augustine the next morning at high tide with plenty of water now over the pipeline. (The tidal range here is almost 5 feet.) Since the cold front passed on Tuesday, the winds have been persistently blowing hard out of the northeast at about 20 knots. As such, our plan was to tuck up behind Conch Island in Salt Run south of the inlet. While it would be a long walk into town from this position, it also promised to be much less exposed, less crowded, and with much less current than the more popular anchorage immediately off of the city marina. We successfully threaded our way across the notoriously shoaly St. Augustine inlet and began our approach to Salt Run. But even as we approached the first marker, things were not looking to good at all. Our depth sounder showed that the channel was much shallower than the charted depth and we also noticed that a dredge boat appeared to be covering the entire width of the channel. We slowed down to minimum steerageway but even still, the following wind and white capped strewn sea was pushing us down towards the channel much faster than we cared to go. Then that sickening feeling as the keel makes contact with the earth below. Aground. Oh *#$%^&*!!!! Even if we did get off, we obviously weren't going to Salt Run today.

Running aground; so much to consider and often so little time. What's the state of the tide? Is it ebbing or flooding? Pushing us on or helping us off? What about the wind and waves? Where is the deeper water and what's the best direction to go to get off; forward or back the way we came? What's the bottom like, hard or soft, sticky or sandy? Just how hard are we aground? In the best case, it's low tide, no wind or current and the bottom is soft mud from which you can plow your way out. We had just about the exact opposite. We knew that it being high tide with a 5 foot tidal range, if we didn't get off soon, we would end up very high and very dry a few hours later. So with a mighty thrust in reverse, after a few tense minutes, we felt the ground ease its grip and we were momentarily free. We quickly spun the boat around and beat a hasty retreat away from Salt Run.

The entire time, while it seemed like eternity, wasn't more than 5 minutes. But during that time, an event that happened to some friends last year keeping running through our minds. They ran aground in the ICW at high tide and the boat was left leaning over on its side when the water went out. Later that night when the tide returned, the boat stayed stuck in the mud long after there was enough water to refloat. This caused significant flooding below, ruining many books, supplies and equipment and soaking cushions.

Now that we were free, we were not looking forward to the alternative anchorage. The anchorage on the Matanzas River in St. Augustine has attained a bad reputation. Not only is it plagued by a strong reversing current, the protection from the wind and waves is not terribly good. Factor in a crowded anchorage with boats on too short of scopes and it is easy to see that the reputation is not altogether undeserved. We would have our share of problems here but let's not get too far ahead.

We entered the anchorage just behind a boat we recognized from Annapolis. Beginagain is just about the homeliest boat ever built of fiberglass. Many a night have we walked by the Annapolis dock where Beginagain runs daily sailing charters wondering just who in their right mind would pay to go on this boat. Not by shape alone has this boat won our disgust, but the boat is usually in dire need of several good scrubbings to remove the accumulation of filth. And both we and she seemed to be heading for the same big hole in the anchorage. Just about this time we noticed why there was such a big hole amongst the sizeable fleet; a large ketch had sunk there with nothing but the masts protruding above the water. I have to hand it to Beginagain; she didn't seemed perturbed at all by the sunken vessel, plopping her anchor down nearer than anyone else dared while Joyce and I went off looking for someplace way away from this wreck. It just plain gives me the creeps.

Matanzas means massacre. Late in the 1500's the Spanish massacred the French ending the French occupation of outposts in what is now Florida. The British kicked the Spanish out in the 1700's only to have the tables turned a few years later. The Spanish occupied Florida until the U.S. kicked them out in the early 1800's. Florida likely would have remained a mosquito infested backwater unless one Mr. Henry Flagler recognized some potential and started investing millions into such things as hotels and railroads. It was during the late 1800's that Flagler built the Ponce de Leon Hotel, the finest in its day, in St. Augustine. The former hotel is a masterpiece of Spanish Renasissance architecture. Ponce is now Flagler College, but was changed little during the 1967 conversion to a school. The massive ornate structures on the outside and intricate wood and marble on the inside are still in place and equally impressive. Nice place to go to school!

Also during our visit, we toured the local San Sebastian Winery. It was of course a sales pitch to purchase their wine, during which they served ample taste samples. Just wish we had some lunch first!

St. Augustine is also the first place that we seen, shall we say, vagabonds. While in the harbor there were several derelict boats, on land there were a few more, persons that is. Along the main tourist strip, called the Spanish Quarter, street performers of all types vie for the tourist dollar. One fellow painted himself silver from head to toe and pretended to be an animated robot. The fellow pictured played no less than seven instruments and sang besides. He took over an hour to assemble all the instrument on himself. While playing he did sort of a pigeon walk in small circles in order to use his heels to work the drum and cymbal. Hope he doesn't have to go to the little musicians room very often.

Back to the anchorage and our third time cleaning the bottom of our keel. To limit the amount your boat swings when in an area with a reversing current it's usually a good idea to put out two anchors, one up steam and one down stream. This is particularly prudent when the anchorage is crowded and the other boats are doing this as well. The draw back is that now you have to deal with two muddy anchors and its sometimes difficult to know whether the second anchor is going to set until after the current reverses. So we tried to stay on one anchor, but found ourselves uncomfortably close to another boat when the current changed. The next morning we re- anchored at high tide just inshore of all the other boats, again on one anchor. But of course at low tide we discovered why there were no other boats where we were; there is no water! Aground again, but not too seriously. We pulled ourselves off and finally, finally got the message that we really needed to use two anchors from the start.

After two nights in St. Augustine, we had enough. We probably would have stayed longer but with the current and winds continuing briskly out of the northeast and the poor anchorage, we needed to find a place with a bit more security. So with great effort, we upped both anchors that had done a pretty fair job of burying themselves well and headed off for Daytona Beach. We made Daytona about mid-afternoon that day and found a nice protected place to anchor. While this anchorage has been much better than those previous, getting here ended up being a bit tricky. We navigated carefully through an unmarked channel over a shoal to get to deeper waters. But we are happy to report no further threat to any barnacles that have managed to reattach to our keel.

From here, will probably stay a few days and then make our way down to Eau Gallie for the Seven Seas Cruising Association Gathering next weekend. Still looking for our first manatee so we're keeping a good lookout.