A Bit of a Tussle

Another night of sleep challenge.  Stay with me on this.  As the Bear and I took a ride up the coast, we came upon Fort Caroline.  Nawh, this is not a third system fort but one which was put in place to basically tick off King Philip II of Spain in the 1500's.  Here is the deal:  as previously noted, Espana sent some dudes off to find and settle the "New World", not to mention perhaps plundering same for a few tons of gold and silver from the Incas and anyone alleged to have the stuff anywhere else.  The French, being somewhat jealous and equally as greedy, decided to mirror Spain's efforts and perhaps beat them to the punch and the added benefit was to be the religious redoubt of the Huguenots, a group of outcasts in the old world.   At the time the Spanish had a very sturdy fort in St. Augustine and thought themselves to be alone in the New World.  Columbus fell a bit short of being a player in this play.  Unknown to them was the fact that old King Charlie IX had his eye on the prize.

Not to get too deep here, the French decided, with the knowledge of the Gulf Stream that the Spaniards, having stolen the gold and silver of the Incas in Mexico and points south, would need to ride the "stream" north of here before making the turn to Europe.  If they put a fort close to the "stream" they could "day trip" out there and thump the  fleet and take the goodies.  Seemed like a good idea at the time---- not.

French Fort Caroline

Seems that with a way better fort and way more resolve, the Spanish had the upper hand.  The French put up a whimpy fort made of dirt and wood on the St. Johns river some thirty miles north of St. Augustine.  When the Spaniards learned of that little endeavor, they decided to rid themselves of those pesky French.  They went defcon and whipped out a can of whupasse by the name of Admiral Menendez, one bad General Patton type of guy.  In September old Menendez took a few hundred troops north and smote the French, killing all but a few dozen women and children and also sparing anyone claiming to be Catholic.  They took no mercy on the musicians (actually mentioned in a narrative).  Methinks the sparing of the women might not have been purely humanitarian.  There were a few back and forths in this tragedy play  but the bottom line is that the French, with a whimpy fort, little resolve and some really beautiful but nonfunctional cannons managed to get several hundred dudes and dudettes along with some loyal Timucuan Indians (Native Americans) dusted.  Fort Caroline is still there, faithfully recreated by the National Parks Service.  The Fort at St. Augustine stands as proof that the dog with the bigger teeth will win the fight.

Inside the French fort

Looking up river on the St. Johns toward Jacksonville

Not long from now we will sail past the biggest dawg in the pound, the boomer pins in Kings Bay.  For those that need some clarification, a boomer is an SSBM, submarine, ballistic missile.  How's that for a really cool big dawg thing?  Kinda don't see Spain or France in the picture any longer.

St. Augustine to Jacksonville Beach

Bear at the actual Fountain of Youth

After spending three days touring St. Augustine with the gusto of a young family at Disneyland, we were tired and ready to leave.  The historic district of that city was on our bucket list.  We had a three day pass on the guided tour train and by the end of the visit, we knew the spiel.  The heat took it's toll and the cruise to Jacksonville Beach yesterday gave us a chance to rest. 

The fort sea

Before departing St. Augustine, a little voice told me to check the cooling system of the engine.  Since Why Knot communicates with us via many methods, not the least of which is engine noises, we know to listen and take action.  We discovered a partially failed sea water impeller and it would not have been long for it to completely fail.  It is always better to find these things at the dock.  I also cleaned many impeller parts out of the heat exchanger, so we were good to go.

A shot astern just south of Jacksonville Beach

We left St. Augustine at 0900 by passing the Bridge of Lions bascule.  The view on the other side of that bridge was impressive.  The Atlantic inlet to the right and the fort to the left.  The trip up the ditch presented a different type of scenery than that of the last two months.  Most of the ditch was in an ancient river bed, thus lots of curves through low marsh like areas.  Palm trees are giving way to pines and oaks along that route and there are many parks and wildlife reserves that hold back the developments.  Due to the relatively wide tidal range, we had following currents part of the way and opposing currents the rest.  Since there were two high and two low tides yesterday, we saw a doozie outgoing as we approached Beach Marine for the nights. 

About four miles from the marina, we passed a small fishing boat with motor up and several small children sitting in the sun watching dad paddle the boat with one paddle.  They waived at us and he kept digging, but going nowhere,  We turned around and offered to tow them at least to Beach marine. which we did.  The tow brought a cheerier look to the crew of that boat.  Turns out that they were going to the launch ramp right at the marina.  We were able to land them at the ramp and proceed to our slip without incident.

We docked next to a boat just purchased by an elderly couple (like us) with their grandson along for the experience.  They were the boat about an hour ahead of us the entire trip yesterday.  They told us that they plan to take the boat to a lake in the Carolinas to support their yacht club youth sailing program and that the grandson was a graduate of that program.  He said they had over 100 students this summer.  Good to hear about such programs since it appears old fogeys are the only folks out here. 

The highlight of the day was a visit by a good friend and my former company commander from Vietnam, the Republic of.  It has been many years since our last visit.  Unlike our last visit during which we discussed in detail our time in the jungles, we discussed current politics.  We are of like mind.  We will visit again before leaving this place. 

Bear has an appointment on Tuesday with a back clinic.  We have scheduled a week here which we hope will be enough time to solve the problem.  Resolution of the issue will certainly improve the cruise for both of us.  Fingers crossed here.

A Shot Across The Bow

Imagine this: it is 1630  hours on a bright sunny day in the Mantanzas River just inside the inlet from the Atlantic.  You are just waking up from a much needed sleep after an all night passage from elsewhere.  Just as you stumble topside with the idea that this is on very beautiful place, especially the fortress just two hundred yards to your west, the peace is shattered by a six pounder erupting in your direction.  You are showered by day old bread used for wadding in the cannon.  The National Park Service demonstrates the Spanish gun drill with all commands faithfully given according to the drill of the time in Spanish.  All commands in Spanish except for "cover your ears".  The six pounder  was most likely not used at this fortress since much larger siege guns were required, yet this little doozie would, according to the ranger, but a ball in the lighthouse some 1.5 miles away.  The crews of the time enlisted at age fifteen and the enlistment was for life.  Thus, they got pretty proficient at gunnery.  The twenty pounder would put a ball on target over three miles away. 

Inside the oldest house in the oldest town.

All Spanish houses were single story and had no street side doors.  One entered a courtyard then the house.  This one was built that way.  When the British took over, they added second stories and street side doors.  There are 31 such houses in St. Augustine which is all that is left after the British tried to burn the town down. 

We whipped by the Fountain Of Youth yesterday.  Had some of that water and today we are wrinkle free and thinking about a marathon this weekend.  The tour driver told us of a elderly lady he met sitting on the curb at this place holding a cute baby.  She was sobbing uncontrollably.  She told him that thirty minutes ago, after consuming the water, this was her husband.  The park has a planetarium that explained how the ancient mariners used the stars to navigate.  Briefly, they would mark the position of a constellation as it descended in the morning sky.  They used the astrolabe to fix its angle in the night sky.  They would keep the star at the same angle as they sailed east to west.  St. Augustine is at 29.59 degrees longitude.  Leaving Spain and keeping that star at that angle, they could hit this place fairly accurately.  If you consider that in the sixteenth century, they still were not sure about that flat earth thing and had no maps.  Talk about blind faith. 

St Augustine

Seldom seen on these schooners is a "Full Press" of sail, not that this is "over canvassed".

Just how much teak or mahogany is enough?

Where to start?  Methinks that as a history freak, this is Mecca.  We left
Daytona Beach at 0700 and headed up the ditch toward a long anticipated place.  Having visited this place by car a few days ago, we looked forward to getting the harbor right at the east end of The Bridge of Lions.  That happened after getting past the Matanzas Inlet, a notorious place that traps boats on constantly moving shoals.  It happens also to be a sixteenth century location for Ft. Matanzas.  After planning, meditating, the way through that pass, it was a non-event.  We had three feet under our keel the entire passage. 

The approach to St. Augustine was in the Matanzas River and it was outgoing tide.  Chosen carefully by the masterful crew of WK to arrive at slack tide, the tables were wrong.  One might say that they are merely guidelines.  The current outbound was almost 2 knots.  Fortunately, the dock master put us in a slip that we could approach up current.  Not two hours later, the current reversed and it is really strange to see a knot meter reading while tied up. It is almost 2 knots the other way. 

We decided to have dinner ashore.  We did so in an establishment that was founded in the very early 18 th century (1705).  The food was good but one can't help but wonder what grog and the fare of the day was when the Spanish or Brits were here.  If one can do the Walter Mitty thing and squint ones mind and eyes enough, one can see this place before electricity and bridges.  What a sight this must have been in the day. 

We are only a few dozen miles from Georgia,  We might not leave Florida (or La Florida as Ponce put it) for some time since we will get Bear fixed before we continue past Jacksonville.   

This dude has received much publicity since he goes where the current takes him.  He calls this boat the Earth Ball or something like that and it is "off the grid"

More on St. Augustine tomorrow.  http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2010-02-14/living-simple-life-high-seas

Know that the crew of WK are living our dream and we hope you get to live yours.