Jacksonville Beach to St. Augustine FL

This morning the wind is blowing pretty hard from the south west. The weather coming out of the Gulf Of Mexico blew across north east Florida during the night bringing us showers most of last night. We had our normal morning and waited a while to check the weather for the day before making a decision to travel today. We got our showers and made ready for our departure to the St. Augustine area.

As we were planning to leave a sail boat across from us was getting underway, heading south. The wind was blowing into the starboard side of his boat and he choose to back out of the slip with the wind allowing the wind to blow his bow backward. The end result was he did not turn into the fairway and ended up coming across the fairway to hit our dinghy.  The dinghy davits were pushed to the side and the starboard side of the dinghy was scraped.  The boat's captain apologized and said for us to let him know if there was any damage. He did not stop as we had talked earlier and determined we would be in the same marina this evening. Joe was able to easily reallign the davits.  loosen a few bolts and correct things. It appeared no damage was done.

We made our departure just before eleven o’clock at low tide. There were no other boats visible on the ICW as we exited the marina. We passed under the "B. B. McCormick" bascule bridge with no problem. This bridge is thirty seven foot at high tide so we had more than enough room to pass under it. The bridge is being replaced with a sixty five foot high bridge.

Our trip carried us into the ten mile long Palm Valley Cut then into the Tolomato River. Along the way the scenery consisted of developed areas to the east and undeveloped areas to the west. Stately homes, condominiums, sea marshes, heavily wooded areas and many older smaller homes with boat docks extending into the waterway. Every income group was represented by homes we saw along the way.

We kept a watch for Manatee as warned by the Coast Guard. The guide books said we might see alligators along the way but none were visible. We did eventually see a Manatee, a statue in the yard of a nice home. The wind blew hard all day but it was coming from the south west and was not as cold as we have been experiencing. The more we traveled south the more the sun was trying to break through the clouds. A look at our big chart revealed we were running parallel to the beach off to the east. Are we starting to feel like we are in Florida yet?

Just before reaching our destination north of the St Augustine Inlet, we were approached by law enforcement boats running at about 40 knots that crossed our bow and traveled to our starboard side. One boat had the outline of a man mounted along the aft port side.  When we saw that the men on the other boats were carrying M16 style rifles we realized it was a target practice run.  The boats were arranged so they were shooting towards the undeveloped marsh and ocean areas to the east - when we or the sail boats behind us were not in the way.  We could not believe the drivers on the target boat were conferrable being shot at at those speeds.  Both open boats were about 40 ft. and the armed boat had 4 225 HP Mercury engines.  The boats came back several minutes later and as they passed again we saw the boats were identified as belonging to US Customs and Border Patrol. I would say they can really move when they want to.

When we arrived at the Camachee Cove Marina and were safely in a slip the weather suddenly changed. The sun came out and it felt hot. Joe had taken off his jacket about a half hour before and now he could not wait to get on a short sleeve shirt and some shorts. I don’t think I have felt this warm since leaving Charleston.

After we were settled in Joe took a serious look at the dinghy where it was hit this morning. There's a scrape in the finish (gel coat) along the front left bottom edge which will constantly be in the water. This is something which must be repaired. Water will get into the fiberglass and weaken the structure of the dinghy. He put the motor on and drove it over to show to the captain whose boat it us this morning. He was not available so we will have to make contact with him later. We were able to contact someone in the area who will come by tomorrow to estimate the repair.

We had a burger at the local restaurant and called it a day.

Next - At St. Augustine FL