Sunday, November 25, 2012

 

The morning sunrise gets us moving

Birds guarding the marker

Along the ICW there are some very narrow channels

that the US Army Corps of Engineers (responsible for

the ICW) has made between the marshes.  As the GPS

is not 100% accurate they install "Range Markers"

to keep you in the channel.  I am turning around to

look at these Range Markers keeping both Markers

inline to stay in the channel.

Not only a nice boat lift but a real nice roof

Under the bridge with 3 knots of current running

against us.  Need to keep the boat nice and straight

and steady or the current with take the bow and

move it to the side against the bridge piling

This guy was selling bait right out his back door,

I guess for all his buddies

Stunning!

The whole east coast from southern North Carolina

to mid-Florida is calving grounds for the Right

Whale.  Called the "Right' whale because it was

the best whale to harvest for oil and blubber,

it is now protected.  You cannot approach a

right whale from within 500 yards.

Approaching St. Augustine, Florida the

"Bridge of Lions" welcomes us.  The city just

finished a 20 million dollar update on the bridge.  They

added rope lights along the whole length and

is just spectacular at night.

City Hall

Happy Hour Sunset at our mooring ball.

 

The chart of St. Augustine.  We came from the

top of the page (north), whipped out just to the

inlet with the Atlantic Ocean, and found our

mooring ball just south of the 2nd bridge,

the Bridge of Lions.

The City installed a whole bunch of mooring balls

north and south of The Bridge of Lions.  Our

ball is circled.  $20.00 a day gets us a safe

anchorage, showers, water, laundry, lounge,

and a place to tie up our dinghy.

 

 From our beautiful anchorage last night, we had a bright and sunny day all

the way to St. Augustine.  The dolphin were more numerous and caught

a set riding our bow wake for a few seconds (they get bored with our

slow speed - they perfer powerboats).  They were jumping and frolicking

at the inlets happy with their finds of numerous fish.

 

After we got our mooring ball, we finally walked! into town and ate at

Subway, and got some moo, oranges, and bread.  We rushed back to the

boat to enjoy a happy sunset.  I took Zippy out for a night cruise to see

all the lights that the City and businesses have put up, I guess for Christmas

(there were white rope lights on the buildings and trees).  We're staying

here tomorrow (Monday) and hopefully, we'll get some photos tomorrow night.

Pretty tired we in bed at 8:30.

 

Tomorrow we check out the town!