Daytona Beach - Titusville

His draft exceeded the depth of the water

An early start this morning to take advantage of the tide and higher water levels.  We had heard yesterday about a shallow area from some delivery captains and wanted to ensure we didn’t repeat our grounding experience.  We moved slowly and monitored the depth sounder diligently … and the area of concern was a non-issue.

Manatees resident in Haulover Canal - sleeping?

We did have some excitement today as we finally saw some manatees!   A good portion of the trek today was slow-going as there were speed restrictions because of the manatee population and we were honoured to see a few as we passed through.  Despite their slow speeds, we were still unable to capture a shot while underway.

Pelicans policing the speed limit

Most of our travel today was in dredged channels so although it appears there is lots of water, the depths on either side of the channel are very shallow – less than 5 feet in most cases so it is a bit deceptive.

Lots of wildlife

It was quite a challenge docking at the marina since the wind was howling and blowing us off.  Captain is getting great practice!!  The audience on the dock thought he and crew did a great job!

St. Augustine - Daytona Beach

We are getting closer to our destination.  After 800+ miles on the ICW it finally happened … I ran aground.  Fortunately: a) I was going very slowly and b) unlike Georgian Bay, sand and mud is very forgiving.  We were able to back off and proceed with no damage.  Interestingly, 5 miles further on, we came to an inlet where the marks were very confusing.  As I stopped to reassess, a boat headed northbound hailed me to let me know the red mark had shifted out of position and was on a shoal.  A correction to course prevented a second grounding! 

Queen Anne-style home.  Notice their dock.

We continue to see damage from Hurricane Matthew as we progress further south.  The difference being that while St. Augustine and further north had major storm surges, here it was indicated they only had a 3-foot surge but very high winds.  This is why many of the homes we saw had their roofs completely covered in tarps as all or most of the shingles had blown off.

Homes on stilts

This stretch of the intracoastal is certainly more populated but most of the track today was in completely dredged channel and you must stay between the marks.  

Extensive boat house

Development along both shores

There are very few opportunities to go fast because of all the development. 

St. Augustine

'The Old Senator' - over 600 years old

Today we took the opportunity to visit St. Augustine – the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States.  We were able to walk into town from the marina and stroll through the city.  It was humid and uncomfortable! 

Another view of Old Senator

We decided it would be best to take a tour and save our feet.  This was a great idea as we were able to get an overview of the town and decide where we may want to spend longer.  

Flagler College

All of the major buildings have been restored and are stunning.  One of the first residents who made his mark and built many of the buildings and churches in town was Henry Flagler, an oil and railroad magnate.  Students at Flagler College benefit from the repurposing of the original Ponce de Leon Hotel that Flagler built and their cafeteria is in a rotunda that still has the original Tiffany stained glass windows!

Castillo de San Marcos

Fortunately it cooled off a bit so we took the opportunity to visit Castillo de San Marcos.  This fort was built with coquina stone quarried from the nearby islands.  It is a soft stone unique to the area that was able to absorb the percussion of the cannon fire without cracking. 

The fort was never taken by force but only changed occupation when ceded by treaty.  It is a National Park and the attendants dress in period costume.

Armaments 

Lots of cannon-fire capability!

Fort walls: 30 feet high and 14 feet thick

The Lightner Museum

We also visited the Lightner Museum filled with a collection of items from the late 1800s.  

Courtyard and fountain

This was also originally a hotel and had the largest indoor swimming pool in the U.S. at that time as well as a retractable roof – quite an achievement for that period.  

View of the 'pool' from the ballroom level

It was also surrounded by a ballroom on an upper level from where you could look down at the swimmers.  The pool is now drained and is used as a café (with a still sloping floor from the shallow end to the deep end).

While walking around the town, we observed that much of the town, which is located between 2 water sources had suffered from flooding.  Quite a few shops were still closed as they cleaned up but most of the town was business-as-usual.

Bridge of Lions

Jacksonville - St. Augustine

We left the dock at a reasonable time (9:00) to be past some areas that had reported shoaling.  As I said yesterday, there was a 3-knot current from the stern so we had help casting off.  The turn into the intracoastal was confusing as they were dredging.  It is somewhat concerning when you see on the GPS that you are in shallow areas but as the cruising guide says, follow the marks!

The most interesting area was through the Palm Valley Cut, Jacksonville Beach, where you see some magnificent homes and their substantial docks holding go-fast 4 outboard boats.  We saw for the first time the homes with “Bird Cages” some of them being repaired from the storm damage.  “Bird Cages” are structures covered with screening extending off the back of the house including in many cases a pool area.  Interestingly you get some very nice homes, and then a little bit later you see some deterioration in the quality, and then it goes back up again.  Zoning laws in the US are great!  We kept seeing warning signs about this being a congested area but we saw only one boat - 3 ladies presumably going for lunch.  We are not sure where all the other boats heading south have gone.

As we approached St Augustine, we could still see boats up on the shore, probably from Matthew.  

There were even sailboats up on blocks at the marinas that had been knocked over.  Guess they were not properly tied down.

Bridge of Lions

Castillo de San Marcos

St. Augustine

Upon arrival, Crew and Captain walked the 15 min to do some provisioning.  It so happens that there was a West Marine in the same plaza.  Could not help buying a few supplies including some Rescue Tape that was introduced to me by Jim Pyke.

Tuesday, October 25

The captain got up this am and decided that we would stay another day at this Marina.  This means that we will be visiting the town of St. Augustine tomorrow.  This allowed us to catch up on some laundry and errands.  We also made reservations for the next few days. 

Boat decoration

It appears that there must be a lot of traffic as the marinas indicate that they are tight on space.  We were able to stow our purchases from Bills Liquor store so that we now have more space in the salon.

In one of the trips up the dock, we found out how the boats here keep the growth of vegetation on their hulls down to a minimum.

Just in case the above video doesn't load, here is a picture instead:

We are now up to date!  Phew.  In answer to some questions:

• No, we have not washed the boat down every night but did so when we had been out in the ocean
• Crew is doing excellent work - I would say above and beyond the call!  They have stopped complaining about early departures, and have not been demanding in their requests.

  

  ♬ Day is done ... gone the sun ♬

Brunswick - Jacksonville

As we left Brunswick the next morning many people made a point of wishing us a bon voyage and safe trip.  This is a very friendly marina with a lot of liveaboards.

On our way out, we were reading the cruising guide and noticed that the next leg of the intracoastal has some shoaling reported.  Since we were leaving at low tide, the Captain decided that the prudent move would be to travel on the outside that day.  As we headed for the inlet we saw another boat heading for the intracoastal and called them up, believing that they were experienced and would be able to say there was no problem.  That was not the case.  He commented that I called at an appropriate time as he was just discussing the shallow area with his wife.  He had timed his departure to arrive at the marina that afternoon at high tide but did not allow for the shallow cut.  He turned around and followed us out.

The trip outside was uneventful.  The winds were 10 – 15 and the waves were from our stern, so very little rocking and rolling.  The Admiral even spent some time beside the Captain instead of meditating!  We did see a lot of dolphins including one that spent a little bit of time just in front of the boat.  We are also beginning to see signs to be careful of Manatees.

One sight was a shrimp boat returning to port.  He must have had a successful catch as the boat was literally surrounded by Gulls hoping for a taste!

Like a swarm of mosquitoes!

As the Fernandina Beach marina where C’est La Vie stayed on their way north was closed because of damage from Matthew, and the other Marina in the area did not have the draft to take us, we pressed on to Mayport, just before Jacksonville.  This is a major naval port, with both submarine and missile destroyers.

Honoring Capt. Todd, did not get too close

Our chosen marina for the night specializes in dry-stack boats and due to some damage to the piers, only a few other boats were in the water.  We were the only transient there that evening, and this will not be a stop on the way back north.

As we docked, it was interesting with a 4 knot current, but as it was on an outside dock, we could come in against the current.  Settled for the evening we had a few lines on due to the current.  Did not calculate properly as when the tide turns and comes from the stern, it pulls the stern off the dock and pushes the bow on.  Crew was able to get off the boat and we attempted to put another stern line on with a better angle, but it was tough to pull such a big boat back to the dock.  We did move one of the fenders more to the bow.  Just in time as a large freighter came by at a fast clip throwing a big wake.  It bounced Seas the Day quite well.  After that we got the large fenders out and anticipated a lousy night.  Not so!  All the other freighters were much slower and did not throw such a big wake.

The next morning we got help casting off as it would have been almost impossible to get Crew to do so and get back on board.  This is increasing my handling skills learning how to handle these big currents.