Crew Log for December 8th – 9th, 2022
Trip Summary:
• Jacksonville, Florida – St. Augustine
• Trip Distance of 23.3 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 2,281.8 NM
• Departed at 07h45, arrived at 12h00
It seems like everyone in Florida owns a boat. In fact, given the number of boats, I would guess that most people own more than one. I haven’t however, figured out why they all need five 200 hp engines on the back of them. In any case, the Florida water is subjected to a constant churn from endless boat traffic going up and down the ICW.
Up until this point, the boat traffic had mostly consisted of a procession of boats all heading in the same direction. South. Furthermore, there is also a certain etiquette amongst cruising boats when meeting each other or passing on the ICW. However, since we crossed into Florida, the ICW feels more like rush hour and there are no rules. Florida boaters all seem to be in a hurry and so we were subjected to huge wakes which would toss us around constantly.
Florida boaters aside, it was a beautiful day. It felt like summer. And, either through careful planning or more likely blind luck, we caught a favorable current leaving Jacksonville and again coming into St. Augustine, which allowed us to make pretty good time.
We were staying at the Comanche Cove Marina, just north of St. Augustine. We radioed the marina and asked if there were any specific docking instructions. We had noted in the guide books that the current at the entrance is very strong, so we wanted to gain a little local knowledge before heading in. The guide wasn’t exaggerating. The tide was going out, so as we turned to starboard and made our approach towards the marina entrance, we started to get pushed sideways, towards the rocks lining the port side entrance.
I applied more throttle and turned the wheel sharply to starboard. More throttle! More throttle!! Maximum throttle!!! The boat was actually slip streaming into the marina sideways. If you have ever watched any of the Fast and Furious car movies, you would have seen lots of cars drifting around corners. That’s what this felt like. However, as promised, once we were in the channel, the side slipping stopped immediately and we could exhale and slow the boat as we made our way through rows of million dollar yachts.
We were greeted by fellow Canadians on sv Nerea out of St. John, New Brunswick who were tied up on the face dock in the marina entrance. They had a front row seat for judging our performance. We had crossed paths with Nerea a few times on the way down, the first, way back in Port Jefferson on Long Island Sound.
There are mooring balls and an anchorage in St. Augustine, but both were full since this was the Festival of Lights Weekend. We were fortunate to get a slip for a couple of days at Comanche Cove. The marina had courtesy cars, a fully stocked chandlery, boaters lounge, tackle shop and a restaurant on site. It was a popular site for fishing charter businesses, and so the fish cleaning stations were busy spots in the evenings, that attracted flocks of pelicans and curious boaters.
Founded in 1565 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the contiguous United States. Given it’s historical significance, we were looking forward to exploring the city.
The marina was within walking distance of the historic downtown, but the route to get there was along a really busy highway which seemed to be full of Florida boat owners driving like crazy to get to their boats, so they could then drive their boats like crazy. Before we left, we had checked with the marina office for “not to be missed highlights” of St. Augustine and picked up a complementary tourist map.
As instructed we walked up US Highway A1A and turned left at the Dunkin Donuts. We came to “Historic St. Augustine” a theme park town that included, among other things, the “Old Jail Museum” and “Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth”. Confused, we inquired at the kiosk for the “St. Augustine Trolly Tours” and asked where we needed to go to experience the “real” oldest continuously inhabited city of European origin in the United States. For US$60 per person, they would be happy to take us on a trolly ride through town and show us the spots. We also would receive a discount to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Potter’s Wax Museum and loads of other popular attractions. I was beginning to think St. Augustine was Niagara Falls, without the falls.
We finally retreated to the courtyard of a local motel to do some research on their complimentary WiFi. While we were studying the tourist map for St. Augustine, a postal worker drove up to make a delivery at the hotel. Judy had Christmas Cards that we wanted to mail and so she asked about the post office. He explained to Judy that the closest and easiest post office to get to, was standing right in front of her. And so, he offered to take the cards and would make sure they got delivered.
With that task completed, we headed off to “historic” St. Augustine, a walking street filled with gift shops, ice cream parlors, MiMi’s Famous Crepes and the Panama Hat Company. Dazed and confused, I texted sv Magali to ask what we should do while in St. Augustine. They suggested a visit to "Auggie's Taphouse" which had a unique concept for serving draft and ciders.
Auggie's is a self serve taproom. You get a card, insert it in the tap of choice and pour as much or as little as you want. The card keeps a running total of how much you spent. It might have been the beer talking, but our impressions of St. Augustine were improving. We called an Uber and headed back to the marina.
The following morning we decided to take one of the courtesy cars and do some more practical errands, like fill the propane tanks and go to a drug store. As usual, nothing is that simple. Our propane tanks had apparently expired and couldn’t be refilled. We tried to get them recertified, which had already happened, and so they would need to be replaced. After a lot of running around and visits to many places claiming to sell 10 pound tanks, we eventually found replacement tanks at a marine supply store. In the process, I did save a bundle buying the hat and t-shirt combo at the drug store for US$15 instead of spending US$40 on a souvenir t-shirt from historic St. Augustine. A small victory in an otherwise expensive day in St. Augustine.
Back at the marina we were happy to see sv Teliki and sv Onalee at the docks. Teliki had a prime spot right in front of the Yanmar engine repair shop which was very timely, given their issues with their cooling system. The rest of the afternoon was spent putting up Christmas Lights and Judy made a Christmas tree out of a giant pine cone decorated with shells.
They were also dredging the marina when we were there, which seems like a full time job for marinas and the US Army Corps of Engineers on the ICW. The marina is really tight and every face dock is filled with multi million dollar yachts. The dredger was a large barge, with an excavator on top and a power boat tied cross ways across the stern. They moved it forward using the bucket of the excavator, while the guy in the power boat acted as a rudder. It was amazing to watch them negotiate this huge contraption through all boats in the marina.
The Festival of Lights was the following day and, given Teliki and Onalee had just arrived, we thought we would stay another night. Unfortunately the marina was completely booked and we were on a waiting list for a mooring ball. Luckily, we received a call early the next morning that a mooring had become available and it was ours if we wanted it.
We are glad we did. In addition to getting to see the parade and spending some time with the crews on Teliki and Onalee, our impression of St. Augustine changed completely.
But more about that, next time.
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