We did have a good view from our slip in Jacksonville, but the marina’s surroundings were not particularly inviting. We were eager to leave that place, but there was one more technician to wait for. A guy from the window manufacturing company flew all the way from Connecticut to reseal three leaky windows, fortunately all covered by the warranty.
We got the boat ready and bugged out the day after he finished. We followed the Intracoastal Waterway, and five bridges later, we were picking up a mooring buoy in St. Augustine.
The last of those bridges, the Bridge of Lions, is a bascule bridge with the usual hard-to-decipher schedule: The draw shall open on signal; except that, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. the draw need open only on the hour and half-hour; however, the draw need not open at 8 a.m., 12 noon, and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday except Federal holidays. Quiz: it’s 7:45am. Is the next opening on-demand, at 8am or 8:30am?
St. Augustine, “The Nation’s Oldest City”, has an alluring Spanish colonial architecture with narrow streets and art galleries in every block.
After three nights it was decision time again. The weather was perfect for going out to the ocean and make much faster progress—while burning less fuel—than if we stayed on the ICW. The only problem was that between us and the ocean was the infamous St. Augustine inlet, which is described with discouraging words such us “dangerous and shifting shoals”, “powerful currents” and “breaking water”. Storms and currents shift the channel so frequently that it’s not shown in the charts. You have to navigate only by following the buoys that mark the channel, “which are difficult to see”, and may show the position where the channel used to be, and not necessarily where it is now.
With trepidation we went for the challenge, after getting local advice and reassurance that the buoys were correctly positioned. To avoid the clash of an outgoing tide with the oncoming ocean swell we didn’t depart at dawn, but two hours later. Even with that precaution, it was a wild roller-coaster ride with eight-foot steep waves tossing Ñandú around as if she was a bathtub toy. Waves were breaking left and right, with only a small gap where the deeper water of the channel was. We managed not to miss any turn and made it out shaken but unscathed. And slightly proud.
[The answer to the quiz is: it depends.]
I was in Augustine on a 100 degree summer day. Beautiful place but quickly lost its appeal when you stepped outside of an air conditioned building. Chris says you must be getting your sea legs by now.
I was going to guess 8:30. When did it lift for you? Whew! so glad to hear you survived the obstacle course. You must be grand mariners to earn 8 foot waves in addition to mystery channel buoys. At least the traverse was in daylight. Be proud you courageous souls. And thank you for the inspiration and updates. Love to you all.
8:30… because we had no hurry. We could have requested an 8am opening, since it was Sunday.