Atmospheric!

Atmospheric!

Sunday December 13, 2020

We entered new territory today.  In 2012, we left St. Augustine and went outside to the Ponce de Leon inlet.  That inlet was notorious for shoaling at that time ... and we did run aground!  Certainly, all the information we could gather suggested that it’s not better now.  Rather than go outside, we have elected to stay inside for this stretch that we passed by last time.  Part of the challenge of this section is a lack of anchorages with decent depth.... Our options were to attempt a 64 statute mile trip to a good anchorage near New Smyrna or to break the journey into two parts. We elected to take a short hop (about 14 statute miles) to the Matanzas River today.

We awoke to thick fog at St. Augustine.  By about noon the fog had cleared off and the sun was out.  We got a bridge opening at 1:30—near to low water slack tide.  Once through the bridge we went into the fuel dock at the town marina.  After we were tied up a boat came in behind us and another one in front!  We may not have been the only ones trying to take advantage of the slack tide.  Masterful driving by Mike got us off the dock and on our way.  We had not gone far when the visibility started to close down.  So while it was new territory, we saw it looking very “atmospheric”.  There is something about seeing sunken boats and vessels lying on their side up on the marsh.  It gets my attention!  

We crept into the Matanzas River where there is shoaling near the entrance.  We saw 7.5 feet on the way in but are now anchored in about 12 feet of water at about the mid-point of the tide.  An early start tomorrow should get us over the shoals near high water.  Then it’s a long day ahead.  

Gloria 

29 43.075 N, 81 14.532 W

I actually took these two photos yesterday ... before it got all foggy !

A brown pelican taking off ... with the bridge of Lions in the background. This is the draw bridge we passed through at the start of our journey this afternoon ... it will open on the hour and half-hour.

A shrimp boat temporarily tied up to a set of pilings in the St Augustine inlet whilst it sorts out its tackle. Look at all the birds perched on the wires and in the air and water around it!