Day 13 April 14. On to Sisters Creek 38.8nm. Total miles 423

The trip to the dentist entailed-

Took off in our dinghy to the marina dock

Met up with Uber at the entrance of the marina

Was driven to the dentist and survived the appointment

We retraced our steps back to the marina via Uber, but instead of going to the boat we walked around St Augustine. The town was first settled by the Spanish in 1565. St Augustine is the oldest continually occupied European settlement in the US. We walked through the fort- Castillo de San Marco and Olde Town.

Also visited Flagler College, formerly Henry Flagler’s hotel, built in 1887. Henry Flagler had a habit of building his railroad through Florida and then building hotels for his railroad patrons to enjoy. The hotel has a first class collection of Tiffany glass and had a water and electrical system designed by Thomas Edison.

We returned to our boat and left the mooring field to head north once again passing under the famous Bridge of Lyons that connects St Augustine to the beaches.

The chart above shows the waters around St Augustine.

Further north, the Intracoastal Waterway joins the Tolomato River and winds its way through marsh flats and stands of pines. Realized we were not seeing mangrove anymore and took to Google to check it out. Found out that mangroves do not grow north of St Augustine. Learned something new!

The Intracoastal wound past Guana State Park with its tall oaks and stands of pine.

Then the waterway winds past Ponce Vedra and Jacksonville Beaches. Here the tidal range increases to 4-5 feet. (Normally at our house the tide is between 1-2 feet.).

Along the way we saw several groups of white pelicans. The white Pelican migrates to Florida in the Fall and leaves late Spring. They hunt cooperatively as a group, not like the typical brown Pelican that hunts alone.

As we headed north, the waters become more of a dredged channel with the town of Palm Valley on the east shore and Cabbage Swamp on the western shore- Cabbage Swamp got its name because it is filled with cabbage palms.

We crossed the St Johns River north of Jacksonville past a naval dry dock and into the section of the Intracoastal called Sisters Creek. We had to pass by the free dock, as there were three boats plus one submerged boat already there. We would have to go into the dock sideways to fit in with no room to spare.

We continued on to Fort George Island and anchored near the ruins of the Kingsley Plantation. This plantation was built in 1813 and is the oldest plantation on record in Florida. Will explore the plantation and the remains of the British Fort George tomorrow

Reflections on the Bahamas

Reflections on the Bahamas Over the past 10 weeks, we have traveled through Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma Islands and enjoyed the hospitality of the Bahamian people. We have learned all about the islands, its unique geography - limestone, caves, blue holes and chalk cliffs; and colorful history-pirates and rum running, salt ponds and cotton plantations, boat building and wrecking/salvage. Traveling over 1300 miles through narrow cuts and wide bays to vast depths of ocean, we negotiated the islands and found safe harbors, calm coves for anchoring, bays filled with moorings and marinas large and small. This trip required us to pay close attention to the weather, the tides and currents as we traveled between and through the islands. The Bahamian people are warm and friendly, willing to give us rides, advice and directions, as well as some secret recipes!! We enjoyed hiking trails, walking the beaches, snorkeling the coral rocks and reefs, discovering ruins and ol...

June 4-5. Day 63-64. On to Cape May New Jersey. 53.4nm. Total 1534 miles.

Left Delaware City at 5:35am to be able to take advantage of the strong currents going with us while traversing Delaware River and Delaware Bay. The Delaware River goes south about 15 miles and flows into the Delaware Bay. As we travel south, New Jersey is to the east and Delaware is to our west. We are traveling just outside the shipping channel and are really moving at 10.9 knots. That is three knots faster than we normally travel, as the outgoing tides are pushing us along. Nice to have Mother Nature helps us save on fuel. The Delaware River is about 8 miles wide so there is plenty of room for the freighters and the pleasure boats. So far, we have not encountered any commercial traffic, but there is a large freighter behind us that will eventually pass us as they travel at 14 knots. The Delaware Bay proper varies from 23-29 miles wide and 26 miles long. There are five lighthouses on the Delaware marking the shipping channel. We went by Ship J...

Day 98. 2nd year. August 27. On to Manistee. Miles 25 Total miles. 3910.

We weighed anchor on a sunny 50 degree morning. So we put on our sweatshirts and drove from below as we left Frankfort. Going through Frankfort’s channel and breakwater we encountered a few intrepid fisherman and further along as we cleared the breakwater there must have been over a hundred fishing boats. Almost like playing bumper cars, but with boats. Had to negotiate a path between them as the fishing boats were all trolling fishing lines behind them. We were still seeing fishermen 4 miles south of Frankfort. These guys sure take their fishing tournaments seriously! The shoreline that we pass heading south are still sand dunes bluffs some as tall as 200 feet. As we travel, we pass the small town of Arcadia and Portage Lake, each situated on an inland lake which is connected to Lake Michigan by a dredged channel. Interesting to note that the dredged channels were originally small rivers connecting the inland lakes to Lake Michigan. As we passe...

Crustacean Travels

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