November 30
I loved this city! Again, there's a lot of history and cobblestone alleys. The cuisine is so delicious. We visited a small distillery of bourbon, vodka and gin. The visit was interesting. We like the place so much that after a happy hour there, we decided to stay for dinner. At night, the whole downtown is lit by tiny lights on each tree and each house. In the morning, all businesses are out early to clean their parking area and section of the sidewalk. We got wet a couple of times.
Bicycling in the city was a bit of a challenge. We didn't see any dedicated bike paths and the streets are narrow. So we often biked on sidewalks which brought its own challenge. We figured out how to attach our buggy to Frank's bicycle. Grocery shopping is a lot more fun that way; and we can shop further away.
Before we arrived in St. Augustine, we had to travel in a very shallow section of the ICW called Jekyll Creek. We had read a lot of reviews about boats going aground. This section is only 2 NM long; but travelling only an hour and a half before low tide, it felt much longer. I was at the helm. I learned something during this experience: when I'm afraid of something, I need to put myself in a worst situation and bear it for a while. Hopefully, if I succeed my initial fear no longer exists. Example: We need a minimum of 4.9 feet before we touch ground and can't move forward. We prefer water of at least 6 feet; less than that, I start worrying. When we travelled on Jekyll Creek and my depth sounder kept showing 6.0, then 5.5, then 5.2, 4.9, 4.6!!! Miraculously we didn't run aground. After that, it showed 5.5 for a few minutes (felt like an hour!). At the end of it, my fear of depths less than 6.0 was no longer there. I couldn't believe I felt relieved with a 5.2! Of course, if there are rocks at the bottom, it'd be a whole different experience ....
During our journey to St. Augustine, we passed by another naval base. We saw a few enormous floating garages. They are for submarines! Really cool!
We left St. Augustine this morning after filling up with fuel and water. We'll travel for 4-5 days until we arrive at Vero Beach where we plan on visiting Frank's uncle. Tomorrow will be a bridge day. We're going to cross 9 bridges in that number of hours. The ICW bridges are either 65 feet high (no problem) or pivot/draw bridges of 7-20 feet high. Before we arrive at a pivot or draw bridge, we call the operator with our marine radio to request an opening. Some bridges in bigger cities don't open during morning, noon and afternoon rush hours. We drop the anchor and wait. We're in no rush. Life is good.
