St Augusting tomorrow

J Dock Halifax Harbor Marina, Daytona

Checked in the rental car and now we are boat people once again.  This area has been fun but we look forward to St. Augustine which puts us closer to a pain clinic and relief for Bear.  We have an appointment on Tuesday in Jacksonville for her and we won't leave until that situation is resolved or substantially so.   She has put a very good face on the pain and it is greatley reduced from that experienced in Marathon and Key West.  If we can resolve it, then we will start using the dinghy  which has not been off the boat for some time. 

While walking the dock, I managed to get a shot of a manatee.  Those critters are amazing by how they live--- Talk about life in the slow lane.  Then, I think I saw the most unattractive sea bird ever.  You be the judge. 

We are out of here tomorrow bound for the high currents of St. Augustine Municiple Marina.  Said tides tomorrow will be around five feet low to high.  We are shooting for an arrival at slack.  That means a 0600 shove off.  Bear likes to take her time to wake up but she is on duty when we agree to leave early. 

Dear, can you see the channel?

A Day Ashore Way in the Past

We decided to rent a car and do some sightseeing yesterday.  The destination was St. Augustine, the oldest town in America.  Having wheels is a real treat and besides that, it was good for Bear to sit in what we now call a real seat.  The distance to the past was only fifty or so miles.  The old part of St. Augustine is a bucket list item.  What a wonderful place.  Bear and I signed up for a trolley tour and in the heat it was the right thing to do.  Not wanting to temp the back thing, Bear stayed on the trolley while I toured the old fort guarding Matanzas inlet from the Atlantic.  It was state of the art during the era and was never captured even though it was more or less under siege up to the Civil War.  Of that time, the Confederacy merely asked for the keys and were give them by the caretaker.  Then the Union asked for the keys and the Confederates handed them over, thus it was not damaged in that war. 

The area was first visited by Don Juan Ponce de Leon on Easter Sunday 1513.  The Spanish Admiral, Menendez actually established the settlement in August 1565, Feast Day of St. Augustine and named it after him.  There were some unruly French that established a fort on the St. Johns River to the north of St. Augustine and old Menendez decided to do them in so that there was clean claim to the area.  He was successful thanks in part to the assistance of a hurricane.  To calibrate one, St. Augustine was in place forty two years before Jamestown and fifty five years before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock. 

Flagler College once the Ponce de Leon Hotel

I mentioned that Florida seems to worship a fellow named Flagler.  It is even more so in St. Augustine, his favorite place.  Turns out that not only did he run a railroad the length of Florida but he was also the co-founder of Standard Oil. That explains much.  Anyway, he built churches, at least three grand hotels and many other buildings of the most grand type in town.  One such grand hotel, the Ponce de Leon, is not Flagler College, a liberal arts institution of only two thousand students.  What a grand place it is.  In essence, Flagler finished what the Spanish monarchy envisioned over five hundred years before, except of course without electricity. 

Another Flagler Hotel

If there is any such thing as a pretty cannon, this is it.

The fort guarding the Matanzas Inlet has seen some happenings.  Soon it will see the arrival of the sailing vessel Why Knot.  Scratch that on some monument in town.  Actually, we plan to stop there this week.

Cocoa to Daytona

Way good

Way Bad

The trip up the ICW from Cocoa to Daytona yesterday was enjoyable.  The day started, as usual, in calm winds and clear skies.  We hauled anchor at 0745 and cleared the first bascule bridge thirty minutes later.  The next area was the Titusville/ Cape Canaveral area where we sailed near the huge NASA launch assembly building and the launch pads.  There were no rockets on pads so that is all that was visible of the area.  That building was visible for over 20 miles. 

NASA Assembly Building

Being Sunday, the waterways were very busy.  Of course there were more than a few knuckleheads.  As we approached Smyrna and Ponce de Leon inlet, the traffic increased exponentially.  Add a few hundred forty feet sport fishing boats, and a few hundred ski and small fishing boats to a narrow waterway and one needs to consider the waterway every bit as rough as a sea crossing.  Big wakes coming at you and big wakes passing you at the same time and one could churn butter easily in a jar.  Throw in a huge thunderstrom following those passing and it was a lively day.  We had several rolls past twenty five degrees.  That sorts out all the stuff that is not secured properly.

Mysteriously unmarked ship aground near the ICW (no flags, markings or crew aboard)

We decided to spend a day or two in Daytona to visit the historic parts.  Halifax marina is large and our slip is the most distant from the office.  It is easily a three quarter mile walk to the office so they dispatched a dock attendant to the slip to catch our lines.  He came equipped with the paperwork and credit card machine thus saving that walk.  It does not hurt that West Marine and several restaurants are a block or two away. 

An attractive mini-trawler underway

We are finding that sixty mile days back to back require a stop every now and then just sit still for a day or two.  We trap ourselves in places like Key West, Marathon and Fort Pierce for convenience.  If we are to get north before August we need to stay less and move more.

The Villes

Ok, I will admit it:  can't sleep.  It is well past cruiser's bed time (sunset) and here I am sitting in the cockpit feeding noseeums my ankles and toes watching thunderstorms in the Northwest sky.  Why am I doing that?  Well, for one thing, I am on anchor watch for a bit and watching whether or not we are in for another close encounter of the lightening type.  Bear, trusting me like a foxhole buddy to keep her safe, is in the rack below.  Us wimps chose to turn on the generator and keep the sleeping quarters cool this time of year.  For the purists, we anchored well away from those with open hatches so as not to irritate them. Now the thing is that I have a sort of ear worm this evening in that I cannot keep from thinking about the villes.  What?  We are near a place called Titusville, the edge of space insofar as our efforts to escape earth are concerned.   Founded by a Confederate General Titus, I am sure he did not have any idea how important this place would  be a hundreds years thereafter to space.  That brought other villes to mind this evening.  There is Niceville.  Interesting place where one Ensign, now Lt. Commander Brian Skubin was transferred after buying Lady J, our Cal 28.  He went there to further his skills at blowing stuff up as a Navy UDT sailor.  Then there is Nashville, where my good friend Willie Bill Holmes' son Ross is making headway toward a great career in Blue Grass Music. He almost matches Charlie Daniels in the fiddle. Or is it the violin?  Not sure about the distinction.  Then there is Halletsville where, according to Robert Earl Keene, they pay money for armadillos of the dead type.  See how that can capture a mind dead sailor on a dark and stormy night in Florida? 

This cruising thing has taken on an aspect of the surreal.  We are just now starting to really appreciate it.  Our house back home has high weeds; most like more than a few squirrels in the attic and deer living in the carport yet we have no compulsion to check on the place beyond that which Poozak and our youngest son accomplish.  Further, and perhaps most important to our intense loyalty to Texas, is our decision that as long as Why Knot survives, she may well never return to her home port ---- or not.  For now, methinks I will remove the food supply to those no seeums and go below. Nightall.