St. Augustine

We had a fun time in St. Augustine.  On Wednesday we brought the bicycles to shore.  We rode west to a used boat parts store, a West Marine, and Winn-Dixie.  After taking our purchases back to the boat via dinghy, we went back to shore and rode our bikes east to Mellow Mushroom.  We walked off some pizza in the old district and called it a fairly early evening. 

On Thursday we rode back west to a canvas shop we stopped at the day before inquiring about material we needed.  She sent us back with a sample to make sure that's what we wanted before we purchased the wrong size again.  When we got there, she was not in the shop to give a price on the material we wanted and would not be back until after lunch.  We couldn't think of anywhere else to explore except back to the east at the lighthouse.  We climbed to the top ahead of the school group, but those youngsters were already up there by the time we were ready to head down the 217 steps.


This was the view from the top.  We could actually see "The Second Noelle".

This was the view of the lighthouse
from our cabana for lunch.

By the time we left the lighthouse we were hungry so we stopped at The Conch House for a lovely setting and delicious lunch.  We worked off those calories by riding back to the other side of town to the canvas shop once again, with success.  Upon returning to the mooring field we went ahead and dinghied the bicycles back to "The Second Noelle", assuming we would not be using them anymore.
For the evening we met up with Terry and Donna from "Meridian", inviting them to join us for our planned free dinner at A1A Ale Works.  We knew they were associated with one of our favorite restaurants in Chattanooga, but found out that Chattanooga is actually the corporate headquarters.  With that information we asked if they would honor a coupon we got for a free entrée for Ray's birthday.  They said yes, so we printed the coupon plus turned in our points rewards on their passport card and got $50.  It was a great evening, wonderful food, and splendid live music entertainment to boot.
This morning we were up fairly early thinking we would leave close to low tide and get a push from the incoming tide.  That didn't work again of course.  We puttered along all day at about six miles per hour.  It was like a parade of boats today with all of the snowbirds heading south.  We were overtaken an unfathomable amount of times today.  We did overtake one sailboat.  We tried pulling into one anchorage, but found it too shallow, so we fell back a couple of boats in line.  We ran an eight hour day to anchor just outside the ICW channel in what is labeled Halifax Lake near Ormond Beach.

One of the many boats that overtook us today.

Veteran's Day

We got an early start out of Sister's Creek this morning at seven while the current was not so swift.  The north winds still made it a little tricky to get off the dock with not much room for error since we were the first of the five boats to depart.  No problems though, and we were soon finally heading south with a trailing wind. 

The day started with many bald eagle sightings, including this one being the closest, but the sun did not make for a great picture.  Also notice the clouds in the background.  They were in the most unusual formation this morning, but did move away quickly for a sunny rest of the day.
We did catch the current for about the first two hours of travel, then it was reversed because of the next inlet at St. Augustine.  About the same time of slowing down we heard "Meridian" being hailed on the VHF radio.  They are people who have become friends since crossing the Gulf of Mexico together last fall.  Linda sent them a text and they were soon hailing us on the VHF radio.  They were heading to St. Augustine too today, along with "Cajun", another boat that crossed the Gulf that same time, although we never met Arch.  They were about five miles ahead of us, but believe it or not, those guys had not seen each other since the crossing.  We did see "Meridian" quite a bit in Marathon during the winter.
After our six hour day of travel to go 39 miles, we tied up to mooring ball #24 in the north mooring field at St. Augustine Municipal Marina, just about three boats away from "Meridian".  It did not take any of us long to get our dinghies down and head to shore to get off the boats in the north winds opposing the outgoing tide.  "Cajun" got a slip at the marina, so we all met up on the docks. 
We got introduced to Arch, who is single handed on his boat, and reunited with Terry and Donna.  Come to find out, Terry and Donna never made it any farther north than Beaufort, South Carolina because Terry got hit by a car on his bicycle there and broke his back.  Thankfully, he is now recuperated, and we all walked into town. 
We were a little early for the 3:00 p.m. happy hour special at Pizza Alley, but stayed long enough to take full advantage of the two for one drinks and free slice of pizza that lasts until 6:00 p.m.  We also ordered a pizza.
Upon walking back towards the docks, the girls got distracted by the shop windows and did some shopping.  It seems the guys all departed ways.  We found Ray at The St. George Tavern, not knowing where the other two guys went.  Linda tried calling Terry, but then Donna remembered that they left their phone on the boat, so that didn't do any good.  The three of us found Arch on his boat at the docks, but he did not know where Terry went.  It was not long before Terry called, obviously back on "Meridian", so we took Donna back to their boat on our dinghy.  We went back to the marina office via dinghy for a bag of ice and enjoyed the now calm waters in the mooring field back aboard "The Second Noelle" for the rest of the evening.
We plan to stay here in St. Augustine for three nights.  Will tell of the adventures once we are underway again on Friday if things go as planned, but don't count on that.

Taxi

It was a pleasant evening reuniting with friends we have not seen since the winter.  About an hour after anchoring last evening, we dinghied over to "Soujourn" at Ortega Landing Marina and met up with John and Kris was also there from "Miss Kitty", which is just across the fairway.  John was gracious enough to drive us to Mellow Mushroom and then to the grocery store.  It was fun catching up and hearing stories, especially the rumors about Ray's recent delivery job.  We still have to find out how all of that came about once we catch up with some other cruisers in Marathon.  We actually called it a fairly early evening after the previous one.
Today was mainly dictated by the Florida East Coast railroad bridge in downtown Jacksonville.  It is in disrepair and under a reduced opening schedule.  This is the same bridge that is going to be closed for a week or so next week and why we wanted to get through it before that delay.  We opted for the 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. opening because the 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. opening would not give us enough time to reach or intended destination.  We pulled up a very muddy anchor out of Ortega River at about 8:30 a.m. to try to time or arrival just right.  We did a great job, but there was a train coming so we got delayed anyway.
Linda mentioned the possibility of stopping at Metropolitan Park in downtown to wait for the tide to turn in our favor.  Ray was afraid we would not leave once there and didn't think the current would matter that much.  Well, we barely made five miles per hour all day and were easily overtaken by a large ship just as we went under the Dames Point Bridge, which has a 169 foot vertical clearance.
The tide finally turned about the time we reached the Intracoastal Waterway, which then again did not help us.  We actually turned north for just a short jaunt up to Sisters Creek where there is a free dock courtesy of the city of Jacksonville.  There were two sailboats already docked prior to our arrival, then a third sailboat docked behind us making an even less gracious approach than we did in this ripping current.  The last vessel to arrive, a power catamaran timed their arrival much better when the current was not so strong.
Tomorrow we will officially start heading south.  We are going to try to time our departure at slack tide and ride the current down the Intracoastal Waterway to get a push.  Well, we try to do that as much as we can, it just never seems to work out.  We'll see.

Bugs Again!

It was a slow start this Sunday morning.  We didn't want to face the bugs that were on deck.  They were not as bad as in the spring on the way south when we entered Lake George, but still bad enough that Ray spent the morning vacuuming them up once we were underway after 10:00 a.m.
We were greeted with out own personal one plane air show this morning.  It looked to be an old military bi-plane.  The pilot even dipped his wings side to side in a wave.  He circled us a couple times before heading into the horizon.
That was about the only excitement today so far.  We are now anchored in the Ortega River near Jacksonville.  The Ortega Landing Marina is right next to us where a couple boating friends are supposed to take us out to dinner.  We're hoping for Mellow Mushroom so that we can say we have been to all of them in Jacksonville, but we'll see.

Crab Shack

It was a cloudy six hour day of travel from Murphy Creek to Palmo Cove.  Shortly after the anchor was down, we dropped the dinghy in the water and headed up Six Mile Creek to the Outback Crab Shack.  It wasn't very busy for a Saturday night, but we enjoyed dinner and some beverages.
It was raining just a little bit on our way back and when we returned to "The Second Noelle", the blind mosquitos were already collecting.

Chilly North

Good thing we went to bed early last night.  The winds started picking up around 4:00 a.m., waking us up, so we were out of bed before 5:00 a.m. with the stern slapping.  By first light we were out of there around 6:15 a.m. even though the full moon was just about as bright anyway.  Once we were underway, cruising the remaining length of Lake George was uneventful other than going around a fisherman waving us to do so as to not interrupt his mate pulling up their trot line.
The remainder of our 32 mile travel day continued to be uneventful with nature displaying several bald eagles for us, including a pair on one of the green navigational day markers, and a large alligator sunning itself on a log just prior to us anchoring.


Here I was taking a picture of the white birds in the trees.  After taking the picture I realized there was a large alligator on the log below them.  The best picture I got of a small alligator today is giving me grief to get on here.

Our five hour trip left us plenty of time to go play.  We routinely got the dinghy down and decided to travel the uncharted waters we missed.  You see, when we traveled south on the St. Johns River in May we turned off behind Murphy Island to anchor, then exited out Murphy Creek at the south end.  Today we entered from the south end to anchor in the same place because we enjoyed it so much last time.  Besides that, Ray wants to hear the fire-breathing dragons again.
Anyway, this afternoon we traveled all the way around Murphy Island in the dinghy so we can now say that we did not leave any uncharted waters on the St. Johns.  Upon that cruise we discovered that there is a primitive campground on the other side of the island.  We discussed moving "The Second Noelle" to that dock for the night, but didn't figure it would be that much different than this side.  We also came across about three alligators, but were only able to capture the picture of one.

Just a bit of the fall color of Florida.

Coming back to the mother ship.

Underway Again Finally!

This morning Linda's parents came to see us off around 8:00 a.m. after we pumped out and filled up the dinghy gas tank.  They are being kind enough to take our car down to the Keys for us.

 

The day was filled with plenty of scenery including these bunches of purple flowers that added color to the little bit of fall color of the leaves amongst the mainly green vegetation.  We did see manatee around Blue Springs State Park but only one alligator was spotted throughout the day and we were not quick enough with the camera to capture any of those images.
Linda refused to let Ray get any ideas when he saw this pontoon boat coming down the waterway.  It's funny, he said "Here comes Huck Finn" when he saw it coming.  Neither of us noticed the name on the back of it though until we downloaded the pictures.
It was an eight hour day of travel for us.  We ended up going farther than we planned.  The winds were fairly calm, about 6-10 miles per hour out of the northwest, so we continued on into Lake George.  About three miles up the western shore is Silver Glen Springs, a place we used to take our bow rider many years ago.  We attempted to bring "The Second Noelle" in, but got deterred when we could see the grassy bottom once the water got clearer.  Instead, we turned around and brought her back into Lake George to a more comfortable six feet of water and anchored there, just outside the mouth of the springs.  Almost immediately, we dropped the dinghy.  Actually, we almost dropped the new dinghy motor.
Yes, we purchased a much faster 15 horsepower motor while we were in Sanford this summer.  Unfortunately, we almost lost it shortly after its purchase when a downpour of rain sank the dinghy while we were in Murphy at one point.  Thankfully, our friends were there to save it and fog it so that it was running just fine again.  We even tested it out again yesterday to make sure before heading off this morning to head back to Marathon, Florida for the winter.
So as we were using our pulley system to place the motor on the dinghy, the newly purchased strap that is for this purpose, broke.  Thankfully Ray had tied the extra length of the straps into a knot behind the motor.  This is the only thing that saved it from crashing onto the swim platform and worse.
We did get to make a successful trip via dinghy into Silver Glen Springs.  It has not changed much, and Ray was glad we did not bring the Second Noelle into the shallow and potentially hazardous area because it was kind of disappointing to him.  The water was clear and beautiful with lots of fish and birds observed.
We were back to the mother ship before sunset and moonrise.