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Vilano fixed bdg n. St. A-fishing fr old drawbdg

Nov 25, 2001- Jacksonville Beach to St. Augustine

A black cat visited us a couple of times last night. We get underway about 7:20 with a minimum of fuss. Saw an osprey fishing. We went through the McCormick Bridge just before 8 am. I see that the community there is also called Isle of Palms. Saw the Mayo Clinic building on the west side of the waterway. Also saw a tree full of black buzzards and some herons.

We came into St. Augustine and anchored down near the bridge. BANDERSNATCH (top picture) was just north of the bridge, but Norm and Jan weren't there - their dinghy (WHITE RABBIT) was gone.

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Jackel and Red Fish

We were next to a little fin keel boat from Canada named JACKEL. There was another little boat next to them named RED FISH. We saw a guy sailing around in the anchorage who hit an anchored motor boat. Bob decided to change the belts on the refrigeration.

The two little boats swung quite widely, and eventually JACKEL bumped into us. They said they'd been there a week with no problem (which I doubt) and they only had about 125 feet of line out (which Bob doubted), but anyway, the last comer is the one who has the obligation not to get in the way of the people who are there already, so after Bob put the engine back together, we pulled the anchor and reanchored. It looked like another boat was going to come too close to us, so we gave up and I called the municipal marina. It was 3:00 and the Bridge of Lions would not open until 3:30, so I gave that as our ETA.

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Marina from just near the Bridge of Lions

We came into the marina, and they put us next to a big motor boat. Then they said that slip only had 50 amp, and didn't we have a splitter? We didn't of course (but we got one later because we ran into this again) - usually a marina puts you where you have a power outlet of the type you need (we need 30 amp) or else THEY supply the splitter. So we said we'd just do without electric. I tried to call Oasis and Oyster Creek (two other marinas), and both of them were closed as it was Sunday. We called Norm on the phone when we saw them come back to BANDERSNATCH, and they came over, and then we went over to their boat and had dinner and sat out on the deck. It was a little cool.

While we were sitting there it looked like RED SKY hit JACKEL.. The next morning, JACKEL was gone.

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Fort from bridge with cranes

Monday, November 26, 2001

Called Oasis and they had no slips. Called Oyster Creek and they said they had nothing either. So I paid for another day and called Caribbean Jack's in Daytona (used to be English Jim's) and asked if we could come a day early. I went up to the store to look at the email hook up and *shock* they charge $1.50/use for the line!! So I decided to just use pocketmail at the pay phone.

Had a shower, and Bob walked out to consignment store only to discover it is closed on Monday. If we'd remembered that he could have gone yesterday.

We had lunch at the A1A Cafe. Then we walked out on town and looked at the historic buildings - the fort is closed for renovation, so we didn't go that far.

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Old town buildings near waterfront

We didn't even go to the wooden schoolhouse, but we did look at some historic buildings. I took a
roll of film pictures. (See pictures of town)

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Town from bridge

We finished up by going out on the Bridge of Lions to take some photos from the bridge (see narrative for those pictures) We came back to the boat (I got the pocketmail), and then went to a nearby restaurant and had the early bird special for dinner.

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Victorian mansion s. St. Aug

Nov 27, 2001

Left around 7, with the tide going out gently (the tides in this area are important because they are about six feet). At least one boat followed us out of the marina and a couple also came out of the anchorage. .

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