Florida!!

After waiting for the weather to improve in Brunswick GA, we left with a north wind behind us to tackle the shallow Jeckyll Creek....no problem!...and the last three sounds and rivers of Georgia before finally entering Florida.

shrimp boat getting ready to put out his nets

The day, unfortunately, turned out to be very windy which, in turn, kicked up the water, especially in the sounds, as they open to the ocean and feel the tides more.  Wyvern and her intrepid captain handled the inclement weather with their usual aplomb, but we did see a shrimp boat hard aground!  Her crew had already abandoned ship in the wee hours of the morning, so no rescue required!

We finally crossed the state line in to Florida at about 3:00pm, and dropped the anchor in Bell's River, just north of Fernandina.  We have heard good things about the town, however, the winds were 25 knots, and we were anxious to keep moving the next day, so opted for the anchorage.  Luckily, our poor old propane heater worked for two, final, hours after we had anchored, so we were able to warm up the boat and get some of the chill off before the heater gave up the ghost and refused to re-light!  This was the last straw!!!  We DEFINITELY had to find some warmer weather!!!

The next morning we headed out and made our way down the Amelia River to Jacksonville Beach, where we stopped for the night at the marina there....under sunny skies!!!  Whoo hoo!  Now they did cloud over and things cooled off in the evening, but that was okay, we had electricity, so plugged in the heater for the last time????

The next morning we headed out and made our way along the Tolomato River and admired the beautiful homes lining the waterway.  We were seeing for the first time, the Florida communities that use waterways instead of roads!  Pretty cool!  We also passed through some beautiful marshland on our way to St. Augustine, where we picked up a mooring.  The sun was shining and I am pleased to make the long-anticipated announcement!!!...... The butter is SOFT!!!  Not melting, but that's okay, that's probably too hot!!!!  Also as we were getting our dingy ready to take in to town, a manatee swam by the boat!!

how the 'other half' lives!!!

St. Augustine is a lovely town with all kinds of old world Spanish charm about it!!  Ponce de Leon arrived here shortly after Columbus discovered the Americas, ousted the local natives who had been here for 700 years, and set up a Spanish military outpost. Along the way, the French have also inhabited the city, only to be ousted by the Spanish again, and then finally the English took over, trading the island of Cuba for it!  Interestingly, because the Spanish also brought the Catholic church with them, and it was the ultimate authority on how people led their lives in the new community, as long as people were Catholic, there was very little concern about the nationality or colour of their skin, so the Spaniards, the local Ticuamu Indians, and immigrants from South America, all co-existed and inter-married, creating a diverse, cross-cultural community.

There is still a Spanish fort, called the Castillo de San Marcos, built from the native coquina stone, formed when shells  have been compressed in to limestone.  The interesting thing about this material, is that when the English fired their cannonballs at the fort, the balls would simply lodge in the wall without breaking it, so there are a number of indentations in the wall still there!  Needless to say, there are a number of houses and walls still standing that are made with coquina.  They also used to make walls with mud and whole oyster shells, called tabby, however there are not too many of those left.

The old downtown St. Augustine is very busy with tourist stores and attractions so can be a bit overwhelming, but George and I also enjoyed getting off the beaten track and walking down some of the side streets, one of which led us to the beautiful Sisters of St. Joseph convent!  The streets themselves are fairly narrow and, in the old town, often still 'paved' with brick, so interesting to walk along.

Sisters of St. Joseph Convent

coquina

the Lightner Museum

Flagler College

dining al fresco!!

old entrance to the city of St. Augustine

St. Augustine's Bridge of Lions

Leaving the St. Augustine mooring field we finally did it......we ran aground!  To be fair, it was on an unmarked shoal in 13' of water, so impossible to avoid it, unless of course, you already knew about it.  We got towed off fairly quickly and easily, so no damage done, however it is an experience we are not anxious to repeat!!

That day we took a spot on a dock at the Seven Seas Marina, just outside of Daytona Beach.  We walked over to the beach the following morning, but no racing cars to be seen!!!  Actually, we were further south than where they race the cars, however, there were tracks on the beach!

Daytona Beach!

After Daytona Beach we anchored in Titusville, where, some time in the night, a planehead filefish jumped into our dingy and proceeded to flop around, poking it's very sharp dorsal spine in to our inflatable floor and deflating it!!!  Unfortunately we didn't find him until the next day when we were anchoring, so too late to save the fish, and we have been trying to save the dingy ever since....so far have found and patched three holes!  As of yesterday, the floor seems to be holding air again, so hopefully we have found them all!!!  After Titusville we passed Cape Canaveral and the space launch site at NASA.  We actually saw a rocket launch as we were returning to our boat by dingy one evening in St. Augustine!  The evening was really clear, so we watched as it dropped it's various engines, and then as it went through the atmosphere and finally disappeared from view!  Very Cool!

I know this doesn't look like much...but it was really far away!!

NASA and launch platform?

We discovered the Flying Filefish Fiasco when we were anchoring outside Cocoa, so ended up staying at anchor and on the boat for two days, waiting for the dingy repairs to take effect!!  It was windy, but warm and sunny, so very relaxing not to be able to go anywhere for a change!!!  George actually took advantage of the lull in activity and tightened up the stuffing box, so good to get that done, as it was starting to drip too much!!

planehead filefish after killing dinghy

putting books to good use as weights for the 'glue job'!

2 holes patched...1 to go!!

We are now at the point in our trip where we are once again able to consider going outside and sailing on the ocean for a while.  To that end, we have stopped at Vero Beach, about 15 miles from Fort Pierce, where there is a good outlet to the ocean.  We will stay here for a few days, get some chores done that we want looked after before we leave for the Bahamas, and then see how the weather looks on Sunday or Monday for a day sail to Palm Beach.

Meanwhile we are going to explore this delightful town!  It is nicknamed Velcro Beach because so many cruisers arrive planning on staying for a couple of nights and never leave!  And it seems for good reason!  The cruisers are very friendly here, as is the overworked staff!  We are close to the beach and there is a free bus service in the county, so easy access to beach and shopping!  As of 'press time', we haven't had a chance yet to do any sightseeing, so will include some pictures and any stories on my next blog!  This is a busy marina for cruisers, so, for the first time we have had to raft up to another boat while on a mooring ball!  It has worked out very well.  Our neighbours are two gentlemen, Bill and Vern.  Bill owns the boat and Vern is helping crew it down south.  Bill's wife will join him later and Vern will head home for Christmas with his family, but meanwhile we have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them, and having late night chats over our respective cockpits!  Another first while we were here.....I went swimming off the boat!  Yesterday was very warm, so when Bill and George headed in to the water, I decided to join them!  The water was cool, but not cold, so we stayed in for about half an hour before getting cold enough that we had to climb out!  We have seen one other manatee swim by our boat while here also.  Hopefully the next one will surface more than once and I will be able to get a photo to share with you all!!

Meanwhile, here are some photos depicting the changing flora and fauna of the Florida ICW!

pelican

 Pelican

Will try to get the real thing ASAP!

Egret in the marsh

Ibis on a lawn in Daytona Beach

The streets of Florida!

And just because, 'Tis the Season!!!

Merry Christmas!