Saturday 11/25/2017 - Jacksonville to St. Augustine

This was a pleasant stretch. It is nice that the days (and nights are getting warmer).  I was pretty nervous getting around the St. Augustine inlet.  The ICW almost dumps you into the inlet before letting you come back in.  Many of the buoys are where the charts and you can see fairly big waves coming in and breaking less than a half mile away.  Pretty scary stuff - for THIS sailor.  Fortunately, I had a 90' power boat to follow (not that I make a habit of following others that I don't even know).  Also, I came through at high tide so the current wasn't too bad.  I never saw less than about 12 feet of water.  So, what's the big deal??  I had a reservation for a mooring at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina so I hailed them and they told me where I'd be located - #23 on the north side.  That meant I didn't need to go through the Bridge of Lions that I had so carefully timed for an opening.   I was hoping to be on the south side of the bridge but that wasn't to be.

My good friend Captain Fred Chance has been planning a driving trip south for several weeks and had promised he would go anywhere he had to to spend a little time together.  He had stopped to see a friend in North Carolina the first night and was planning on spending 3 or 4 nights with a friend in Melborne, then stopping for  another visit in Stuart, then across Florida to spend a few days with his sister in Ft. Myers.  Fortunately, St. Augustine is only 7 miles off I-95 - so he didn't have far to go out of his way (to visit me).  Unfortunately, he ran into a major traffic jam in Georgia.  And, worse yet, this was the night when St, Augustine celebrated the lighting of all the buildings on the waterfront.  There were literally thousands of tourists in town for the event - meaning ALL hotel rooms were sold out and the traffic into and out of town was a mess.  To make matters worse, the last shuttle to the boats at moorings was at 6pm.  Needless to say, Fred and I only had a couple hours to visit.  He DID deliver a care package from Joan which, of course, was much appreciated (most critical was a replenishment of chex mix). 

True Blue was on a mooring just off the seawall next to the fort and I had a front row seat of the lights - and the music and celebrating that went on till after midnight.  But it was a nice evening with little wind etc.