Traveling Up the Florida Coast Part 3

We left Daytona at about 6 am in the dark. It was just light enough to see the crabpots that were nearby us. Sea Salt was still dark since they were leaving later. They usually travel faster than us so they can sleep later. We knew we were going to have some skinny water on our route today and wanted to get going early. We are heading to St. Augustine.

Shay had an interesting conversation with a bridge tender last night. We can pass under a lot of bridges without having them open and we called to see what the bridge height was. When he called and asked for the height, the guy told him he could not tell him. So, Shay asked if the bridge was taller in the center than the reading on the sign. Some signs show the depth and then say the bridge is so many feet taller in the center. The man said he definitely could not tell him that. He said there was an active case open about a boat running into a bridge after information was given to him by a tender. He said he could loose his job if he gave us that information. He did say if we had any doubt about the bridge, he would open it for us, no problem.

So we slowly approached the bridge until I could read the sign. Yes, it was taller in the center. So we had plenty of room. We had another bridge with the same problem a little later and again no problem.

Every year when we travel, we look for landmarks from past years. Along this passage, Shay looks for a big tugboat behind a lot on the ICW. I usually look for certain houses.



Must be a windy day.

This one looks closer up for the season.

And here's his tug. It must not be washday. No clothes hanging out.

 

We had not noticed this house before. See the etched scene around the upper windows? Pretty.

Pretty park along the ICW. Looks like a great place to go for a daily walk.

 

 

Fort Matanzas

We have had some skinny water in this area in the past. There were several boats traveling together and we were all going slow. If you find skinny water, you don't want to be going fast. If you are going fast, you could be grounded. If you are going slow, you can sometimes back off with no damage. We all obeyed the buoys and everything was ok. The faster boats were glad when we got thru here and they could pass us and get going!

Sea Salt passing us. Zoom Zoom.

 

Berrier Island Bed and Breakfast.

 

St Augustine Lighthouse

Bridge of Lions

 

Here we are in St Augustine

  

These were outside a building in St. Augustine.

 
 Part of Flagler College.
 

Shay always gets excited when he sees this sign, I keep telling him, "No you can't exchange me for 2 thirty year olds!"

 

We enjoyed exploring St Augustine again. We walked thru the old streets and admired the architecture. We took a very long walk to a boat consignment store to find it closed. But we needed to walk anyway.

 

We went back to a BBQ place that we didn't like last year. We got "burnt ends" and they were very fatty. Several people had told us to try them and we were very disappointed. But we decided to give them another chance and were glad we did. We told our waitress about our problem last year and she told us to ask for lean burnt ends. She promised they would be better. We did and they were. We all four, us and Sea Salt, got a family platter with smoked sausage, brisket, turkey, chicken and BBQ with a side each. We really enjoyed it and even had some leftover. It was a great deal at about $9.00 each. 

 

We spent a couple of days here and then decided it was time to head on.