St. Augustine, Florida

The next day (26 March) we departed Smyrna Yacht Club at about 0700, heading toward St. Augustine, arriving at about 4:00 pm. The St. Augustine Municipal Marina is a very nice marina right in the center of the action downtown. Approaching the marina we saw to our starboard the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

Our boat was docked with the stern facing the Bridge of Lions. This bridge was originally constructed in 1928. The bridge in the picture is a temporary bridge until the new bridge is completed. This bridge has been under construction for some time and the predicted completion date is 2010. There seemed to be work going on around the clock, but we were not bothered by the noise. We were not at the boat most of the day while there so were weren’t bothered by the noise, and at night we were so tired that we slept through the noise.

Docked two boats down from us was a 1925 Trumpy, a beautiful classic boat. These boats are constructed of all wood and require a lot of maintenance. Most folks who own these boats have crews who maintain them daily. We have seen several of these classic boats on this trip, and they are absolutely beautiful.

Our original plan was to spend two nights in St. Augustine being tourists, but we were having so much fun we stayed an extra night. We rode the tourist train all around the city, and then walked most of it again. St. Augustine claims to be the oldest continuously occupied city in what is now the United States, and they have preserved much of the original city that was originally founded by Ponce de Leon, and Spain, in the mid-1500s.

After touring the city for a while on our first day out, we decided to go back to the boat shortly after noon so that Mike could get into his SCUBA gear and check out the bottom of the boat. During the run from New Smyrna Beach to St. Augustine, the boat seemed to be pulling to port for some reason, and we didn’t know if it was wind and tidal current that was causing the problem, or if we had something like another crab pot line wrapped around the shaft. After our experience with crab pot lines in the past, we had decided to buy Mike a wetsuit and a SCUBA tank in case he had to dive under the boat again. Holding one’s breath while trying to dive under a boat is terribly inefficient. So, Mike got into his gear and went under the boat. Other than a couple of minor dings in the props, and some barnacles attached to the shafts, everything looked pretty good. Consequently, we decided that we really didn’t have a problem. It was, in fact, the wind and tidal currents that were altering our course slightly to port.

We confirmed that the next day when at slack tide, we were running straight as a boat should. Problem solved. The dockmaster saw Mike getting out of his gear and came by to let us know that there were many Man of War jellyfish in the water and that he should be cautious. He said they have a pretty serious sting that can cause a diver prolems. Too late, we said, he was finished. I guess ignorance really can be bliss!! Certainly had we known, Mike would not have gone in the water. However, after hearing this bit of information, we looked all over and never saw one jellyfish. Maybe Mike scared them away.

By the way, we decided to move out of the St. Augustine Marina for our third night and anchor out in the St. Augustine harbor for free, which we did. We got the dinghy down off the boat and tied up at the Dinghy Dock with about a dozen other dinghies, and continued our tourist activities.

As we were returning to our anchorage, we noticed that several other boats had joined us in the anchorage while we were out sightseeing. As we approached a beautiful DeFever 49, we were greeted with “Hello Fellow Knoxvillians.” At first, we had no idea who was greeting us, but we soon learned they were friends, Chuck and Pat Berry, from Knoxville. What a great surprise! We were welcomed aboard their boat for drinks and a tour of their boat that they just took delivery of in January out of Fort Lauderdale. We enjoyed our visit with Chuck and Pat and hope to see them again along the way. We ended the evening with a beautiful sunset.