Palm Coast to First Coast.

Florida has divided its coastline into segments for tourism reasons.  We have been on the Palm Coast, and now are on the First Coast.  St Augustine on the Palm Coast was a great stop.  We stayed there four days, and did not see everything.  As the oldest European settled city in the US, it has an interesting history.  Settled by the Spanish, invaded by the French and English, and finally being given to the US in trade for Cuba, it is truly multi-cultural.  It has the oldest Catholic Church, fort and buildings in the US.  Also, it is very boater friendly.  The municipal marina is right downtown, and has a large mooring field for those that don’t want to pay to stay in the marina.  The mooring ball is cheap, and you have use of the marina dinghy dock and facilities.  This town understands the value boaters bring, and actively courts us.  It is nice to feel wanted!  There were five other looper boats at the marina when we were there and we had fun getting to know everybody.  Of course I thought a lot about Shirley Watkins, who recently passed away while visiting St Augustine.  She was like a second mother to me, and was on my mind there.

 

After St Augustine we traveled to Jacksonville, where we will leave the boat for a few weeks, and drive home to visit and take care of home details.  The trip up the St John River (about 20 miles) to Jacksonville was against a three knot current, so slow going.  Very scenic though, and we did it on a great day.  We ran into the local blessing of the fleet, so a proper ending to our day.  Presumably Catholic blessings work on heathens?  At least it will work on Alexis! 

The ICW on the Palm Coast-looks a lot like home. 

Our new autopilot.  A Raymarine Guru took pity on us in Daytona, and installed a new one for us.  

Of course St Augustine has restaurants....

St Augustine dinghy dock.

Shops...

Fort Castillo de San Marcos in St Augustine.  It never fell in battle, only in politics...

St Augustine City Mooring Field.  

This replica of a Spanish Galleon is functional and sailed here on its own bottom.  The young Spanish crew were a hoot.  

There are lions everywhere in St Augustine, this one on the Bridge of Lions crossing the ICW.  Named for some Ponce de Leon guy....

Flagler College-St Augustine.  Housed in the old Ponce de Leon Hotel built by Henry Flagler (Standard Oil).

Flagler College dining hall-pretty nice!  Note the arch in the center where a band would have played.  There was another location across the dinning hall so dinners would never be without music playing.

Don't make the mistake of asking a Florida bridge-tender what the clearance is-they will tell you to look at the sign.  Apparently they are not being rude, but are forbidden by law to tells boaters the bridge clearance.  This one is 21'.  We need 19'.  Since many bridges have curfews, being able to get under without requesting an opening is a big deal.

Note the osprey nest on top the house. 

I tried to make sense of the flag-no luck.

Jacksonville is in Duval County.  I will try to get the cousin discount...

Jacksonville.

This is where the ICW meets the St John River-note all the fisherman.

My kind of shop!