March 25 - 27 / Day 308 - 310 / Palm Coast to St. Augustine

Sunday 3/25 We moved Observer over to the fuel dock and topped off the tanks. To give you an idea of our consumption we took 180 gallons since our last fill up in Marathon, Fl on February 17. We pulled out into the ICW; it's a gorgeous day @ 70 degrees and hardly any wind. Prior to leaving the dock I will familiarize myself with the route on my iPad using Garmin Blue Chart with Active Captain overlay. I want to make sure I understand the channel marked by navigational buoys and what bridges, if any, require opening for our air draft. In this stretch of our trip we need to be concerned with tides, current and shoaling (caused by hurricane damage or current). Active Captain shows other boaters experiences with areas we will be traveling. There may be a navigational aides missing or shoaling within the channel. We will get instructions like stay 50' east of this red maker. On our way to St. Augustine today we approached one of these areas - I noticed a sailboat anchored in the channel (which we thought was strange) and when we came up next to them I realized they were aground and then we started to scrape the bottom (sand - nothing that harmed our vessel). According to Active Captain I was in the best spot so rather than back up we drifted over this hi-spot and continued on without incident.

We were only about 3 miles from our destination when we ran into the 'blessing of the fleet' in St. Augustine. There were 100 boats parading up towards our next bridge to get a blessing from the Bishop. We were held up there for 1 1/2 hours while everyone got their blessing. It was really bad planning on our part. Not to be an old crank, but they should have announced this restriction on the waterway on channel 16 so mariners could plan accordingly - don't you think?

Approaching the boats lined up for the Blessing of the Fleet

Being Palm Sunday, many of the boats were decked out with palm fronds

We drifted around this anchored boat for 1.5 hours

After waiting for all the boats to clear, we then had to wait for the Bridge of Lions to open on the 1/2 hour, setting us back another 15 minutes. Once under the Bridge of Lions, we passed St. Augustine on our left and the Costillo de San Marco fort.

St. Augustine from the ICW

Costillo de San Marco

Further down the ICW before our turn into Comanchee Cove, we passed a beach covered with cars. This is the first beach on our loop where we saw cars allowed on the beach.

We finally arrived at Camachee Cove Marina just after 3:00. We are in a great slip of a really nice Marina. We enjoyed a seafood dinner at the local restaurant King Fish Grill and called it a day.

Our slip for the next few days

One of our neighbors

Monday 3/26 Cool, windy and raining. The hi-light of the day was a trolley tour of St. Augustine. There is so much history here and so many wonderful things to check out. It was great to get an overview and a taste of what it has to offer so we can have our bearings for tomorrow's visit into town. One of the cool things about our trolley ride was they picked us up at the marina at no charge - 2 miles out of town. Chef Alice made home made pizza for the crew tonight - yum.

Sausage, peppers, carmelized onion, mushroom pizza

Tuesday 3/27 Sunny and 70s - beautiful day. We Ubered into town, walked down St. George Street

St. George Street fountain

St. George Street is a pedestrian only street lined with shops and restaurants

and through the campus of Flagler College

The main entrance to Flagler College which was once a luxury hotel

dorms

The Flagler College dining hall surrounded with Tiffany windows

More Tiffany windows at the college

Administrative offices

Mace Flail fence surrounding Flagler College. These chain links were used by the Spanish just below the surface of the water to keep enemy ships from invading

and the Memorial Presbyterian Church

Memorial Presbyterian Church

before touring the Lightner Museum. This was formerly one of Flagler's Hotels. It was bought by Otto Lightner, Chicago millionaire who survived the great depression pretty much unscathed. At that time, he used his considerable wealth to buy up art and collectibles from other wealthy Chicagoans who lost their fortunes in the crash. Mr. Lightner needed someplace to house his vast collection so he bought the upscale Hotel Alcazar in St. Augustine and turned it into a museum. It's collection runs anywhere from shrunken heads to Tiffany stained glass windows.