On to St. Augustine

           

We left the St. Lucie Lock park in the early morning and exited the Okeechobee Waterway. We made a left turn and headed north toward home. We were back in the Intracoastal Waterway that we had left in April 2008. Now we’re only a little over 600 miles from home. A year ago we were wondering if we’d ever get to this point.

We pulled into the Ft. Pierce City Marina late in the afternoon and were assigned a slip at the very back. It was nice to get off the boat and walk around the beautiful park laid out at the waterfront. It is paved with varicolored bricks and has benches and sculptures to enjoy. Quite a few strollers were out and about, as well as some hopeful fishermen.

We slipped away early the next morning with our batteries all charged and our water tanks topped off. We would be anchoring out the next two nights in a row. It had finally started to warm up in the day time, although at night we ran the propane heater to keep the cabin warm. When we’re in a marina with electrical hookups we use a couple of small ceramic heaters, but the propane saves battery power when we’re anchored out.

We had beautiful boating weather to Cocoa, where we anchored in an anchorage right off the channel with quite a few sailboats, but no cruisers. We were within sight of the town and spent a nice quiet night with hardly any motion on the boat.

We’ve made up our own recipes for living aboard. Velveeta Shells and Cheese can be very versatile and filling. I boil the shells, drain them, then add a pound of browned hamburger and the packet of cheese. Served with either a canned vegetable, or even a package of fresh broccoli that has been lightly steamed, it will warm the cockles of your heart and leave enough for lunch the next day. To save on dish and pot washing we’ve even added the broccoli directly to the mix. If we’re tired of hamburger, canned chicken tastes just as good in this mix.

Another favorite is a jar of alfredo sauce warmed with a can of chicken. Pasta, a bagged salad and canned fruit make for a filling dinner and again, leave enough for tomorrow’s lunch. For breakfast we rely heavily on oatmeal with dried fruit mixed in. Maggie has to have a helping of this, too. She particularly loves dried cranberries and cherries cooked in with the oatmeal. The thing we use to lure her back into her cage, though, is a cheese nab with peanut butter. When she hears the cellophane crackling she starts her climb down into the cage, so that by the time we have the package open she’s sitting by her food cup anxiously waiting to get the nab so she can pull the crackers apart and gobble up the peanut butter.

We weighed anchor early in the morning on Wednesday and headed for Daytona. We have had unbelievably beautiful weather, and except for the minor problem with a fuel line back at Tampa, no problems with the boat at all. I still haven’t hauled out my khaki shorts, though. I’ve told several people the weather has seemed more like Canada in summer than Florida in winter.

We anchored off Daytona, again surrounded by sailboats, most of which seemed to have no one aboard. We spent a quiet night, warmed by our propane heater again. The run from Cocoa had almost totally re-charged our batteries so we had plenty of current to run the TV, use the toaster oven if we needed to and keep our anchor light lit.

Boats over a certain length are required to show a white light when anchored at night. We’re happy to comply with this rule. No one wants to be run down on the water, especially at night. Not that we were really in any danger. Gary said he awoke one time when a barge and tug went by. Since we were anchored well out of the channel, we had no worries and once again spent a quiet, peaceful night.

The socializing has definitely been different in this phase of our Loop trip. The first part we were always traveling with at least one other boat, much of the time with three or more and there was a lot of gathering on docks or back decks and swapping of stories, lies, information and misinformation. We saw two Loopers leave Carrabelle as we were on our way to the fuel dock. We never caught up with them and have only seen one other boat with a Looper flag at St. Augustine.

There was one place Gary worried about a little between Daytona and St. Augustine. Matanzas Inlet, south of St. Augustine is notorious for shoals that shift around due to the currents when the tide goes in and out. He had read reports on the internet that part of the marked channel had become shoaled. At one point south of the shoal area a cruiser passed us going south. Gary called them on the radio and asked how the Inlet was when they had gone through. The captain replied that he had bumped twice in the middle of the channel and he only drew four feet of water, about half a foot more than Gilraker.

Gary was so uptight that by the time we got to the shoal, he couldn’t eat his lunch. As luck would have it, a larger boat was passing us in the opposite direction right about the time we hit the inlet. We passed through without a hint of shoaling and the depth finder showed plenty of water under the boat for the whole passage. All that worry and a missed lunch for nothing!

We arrived at St. Augustine in the late afternoon and fueled up. This was the first fuel we had taken on since Sarasota. We’d used a little over 100 gallons. We don’t run very fast, but we run lean—at least on diesel fuel. We had been told that the drawbridge in St. Augustine was being repaired and would only open on weekends. While that had earlier been true, by the time we arrived, the famous “Bridge of Lions” is permanently opened and the bridge next to it, over which the traffic now flows to Anastasia Island, will open during weekdays also.

We tied up at the municipal marina and happily hooked up the electrical cord and filled up the water tanks again. After some nice hot showers and a little rest, we asked for restaurant recommendations from the dockmaster. He had mentioned two of his favorites, but we saw a Cuban place directly across the street and ate there. Gary had heard of Cuban sandwiches all across Florida, but we hadn’t found a restaurant that served them. In fact, we hadn’t eaten at a restaurant since the Burger King at Moore Haven.

We were disappointed once again. The Cuban place we found only served the sandwiches at lunch. So Gary had picadillo and I had chipotle chicken. I had reached the point that anything I didn’t cook tasted good and Gary was too tired to care. It was good, though, and filling, so we waddled back to the boat and a good night’s sleep.

Foiled again! While we were gone a Sea Ray Sea Dancer had docked next to us. On board were two young couples. How they got four people in that boat to sleep, I’ll never know, but they did. Unfortunately, young is the operative word here. They had a really good time until about two a.m. Gary is lucky in one way. With his hearing aids out he couldn’t hear a gun going off next to his head. I dozed fitfully until about two when things finally quieted down.

I had e-mailed my sister-in-law, who lives in Kingsland, Georgia, and she and some friends had planned to spend the day in St. Augustine. They planned to arrive around noon and she said they would meet us at their favorite restaurant, the Columbia House. We ate a light breakfast and took off walking through the old town. We killed time window shopping and looking around till noon and met up with Paula, Ray and Telsa shortly after at Columbia House. Gary finally had his wish fulfilled and had their famous Cuban sandwich. They have a fantastic salad that the waiter mixes right at the table and apportions out onto plates. After lunch we left to go back to the boat for naps and the others took in a couple of shops before they headed back to Kingsland.

We were tired from all the walking so we got a good night’s sleep, even though out neighbors were up again a good part of the night. But we were up early and decided to take a tram tour of the city. We spent a good part of the morning touring Castillo de San Marcos, also known as Fort Marion. If you’re a history buff, Google it. It has a very interesting history. It was built by the Spanish to defend their claims on Florida and the City of St. Augustine. Standing at the massive walls and looking out across the entrance to the bay you can see why it was never taken in battle, but only transferred by treaty or negotiations. One cannon shot could easily have reached our boat, as they had one that had a range of three miles. A smaller one could send a shot one and a quarter miles.

Our weather today was a tourist’s dream. Warm, slightly breezy, and sunny. I felt sorry for the reenactors we watched perform a Spanish cannon drill. They had on replicas of the heavy wool uniforms worn year-round by the Spanish troops. And all but one of them were volunteers. To add a realistic touch all the orders were given in Spanish.

I had one big disappointment at the fort. When our family had visited it when I was a child there was a room with a small window very high in the wall. An exhibit noted that Osceola and one of his comrades were held there during the Seminole Wars and that they had escaped through that small opening by starving themselves to the point that they could fit through. They were recaptured, taken to Fort Moultrie at Charleston and died there. I had wanted to show the exhibit to Gary, but we walked through and I couldn’t find it. I asked one of the rangers about it and found that it was one of those myths that get spread from time to time. (And we thought that only happened since the internet!) Although Osceola had indeed been held at the fort, he didn’t escape, let alone starve himself to the point that he could fit through that tiny opening.

After touring the fort we hopped back on the tour tram and got off at the “Fountain of Youth.”  We drank the obligatory small cup of water from the aquifer there and were immediately rejuvenated. Not! It was an interesting place and we talked to a guide who gave us a lot of info on the Timucuan Indians. Timucuan graves had been discovered on the surrounding property and an archaeological dig was conducted there. The Indian skeletons had been given Christian burials, and after a period of their being exhibited, they were given a Christian re-burial with Catholic mass.

After a late lunch of sausage dogs, which did more to rejuvenate us than the water had, we hopped on the tram again. The tram took us by Flagler College, where 1500 students attend school in what used to be the Ponce de Leon Hotel. We also saw several other hotels and churches built by Henry Flagler, the man who “put Florida on the map.” I might owe Flagler for my being here. My grandfather used to have a contract to supply wood along the railroad route for the steam engines, and it was while working at this job that he met my grandmother.

After our tram tour we returned to the boat. Our young neighbors had left during the day to return to Jacksonville and the marina was all quiet. Tomorrow morning we will leave, Lord and weather willing, for St. Mary’s, where we will visit with family, catch up on laundry and re-stock our supplies. Then it’s heading north up the Waterway and home to the Old North State.

 

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 9:52 am and is filed under Great Loop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.