Skipping Southward

We are trying to leave Savannah and the Thunderbolt Marina but the weather gods just aren’t on our side.  Hurricane Sandy is long past, but we are left with strong northerly winds and disturbed seas.  We are in contact with an Australian boat docked in Savannah proper and plan to do the next passage in the company of this skipper who is on his second circumnavigation.  By email, we communicate our concerns with the weather and postpone our departures enough times that we move to an anchorage in a nearby creek to await the window we want, avoiding additional dockage charges.  This is an area of 8 – 9 foot tides, and we feel we are riding an elevator up and down in the marsh grasses.  

Near high tide along the Wilmington River with the Savannah Yacht Club in the distance

Low tide from the same vantage point - where did everything go?

 Finally, we get what seems to be a decent forecast and exit the Wassau Inlet in a wandering and shallow pathway out to the ocean.  Within an hour, the wind picks up and the short period waves roll us in all different directions.  Thirty unpleasant hours later, we arrive in St. Augustine, negotiating the always shoaling channel with no difficulty. Both our Aussie companion boat and we comment that the passage is the closest we have ever come to getting sea sick, and all of us are happy to be tied up to a mooring at the municipal facility in the shadow of the Bridge of Lions and back on solid ground. 

The beginning of the Bridge of Lions with part of the mooring field in the background

We have been eagerly anticipating our visit to historic St. Augustine, the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in North America.  With the Spanish fort, Castillo de San Marcos (construction started in 1672) dominating the waterfront and narrow winding streets composing the old city, the place oozes charm and quaintness. A group of cruisers are gathering that night at an English pub, and we are invited to join them.  It’s a Saturday and the streets are packed with tourists, but the twinkling white lights, candlelit windows, and live music emanating from patios and balconies, remind us of similar streets in old European cities.  It is totally delightful. We get wind of a free concert the next day and make our way by bicycle to the St. Augustine Amphitheater, an outdoor venue at the south end of Anastasia State Park.  Florida will formally begin a celebration of the 500^th anniversary of Spain’s claim to the peninsula in 2013, and this is one of the opening events.  We are treated to a concert by the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra which is making a goodwill tour of the United States.  From the opening rousing rendition of our National Anthem, to Beethoven’s Fifth, to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with a tango/jazz twist to the piano solo, it is outstanding and especially memorable due to the location of the 4000 seat amphitheater in a tropical hammock. It also leaves us thirsting to visit Cuba, something currently illegal for US citizens. 

We save exploration of the tourist sites to the weekdays when things will be less crowded. First stop is a climb of the St. Augustine Lighthouse that we saw upon entering the inlet. At 165 feet high, it is a bit of a hike but worth every inch to see the view from the top. 

St. Augustine Lighthouse

View from top of the lighthouse - notice the breakers outside the inlet? STAY AWAY FROM THOSE!

Nearby, also on Anastasia Island, is Anastasia State Park with its miles of spectacular undeveloped beach.

Beautiful beach at Anastasia Island State Park

 With less traffic on the streets we cruise on bikes through century old neighborhoods, down narrow commercial streets, now sporting tourist shops and restaurants, 

Street in St. Augustine, now just for pedestrians

and through the grounds of Flagler College, housed partly in the large, striking hotel built by Henry Flagler. It was an ancillary to his famous railroad line down the Florida peninsula which signaled the true beginning of the tourist industry in Florida. 

Flagler's hotel, now a building on the campus of Flagler College

Finally, we visit the Castillo de San Marcos, now a part of the National Park System. This huge structure has been totally renovated and houses may displays documenting the Spanish occupation of Florida. 

Interior of the fort

We marvel at the collection of ornate Spanish cannons and enjoy the vistas of the surrounding waters.

Details of a cannon dating from the 1500"s

 

View from the fort over surrounding waters

 We have been in St. Augustine for five days and would be willing to stay longer, but the cold weather is catching up with us, so we begin the trek further south, this time avoiding the disturbed seas and opting for the ICW instead.  From this point south we do not have to worry as much about depths and shoaling.  The two and a half day trip to Vero Beach combines passing by communities such as Cocoa, New Smyrna, and Melbourne with long stretches through sanctuary land. We see plenty of dolphins and birds along the way and especially enjoy an area of the Merritt Island Wildlife Sanctuary (near Cape Canaveral) where large colonies of birds inhabit the fill islands created by dredging the ICW. 

Near Haulover Canal on the ICW - this island sports white and brown pelicans and roseate spoonbills

Coming into Vero is like coming home as we are familiar with the ins and outs of this cruiser friendly community. The municipal marina has a large protected mooring field where we meet up with many of the cruisers we know from last winter. Since the facility is so popular, you are required to raft with up to three boats at a single mooring ball. Luckily we are assigned a companion boat we know quite well. Tom and Sandy sail with their cat Dory and suddenly we also have a cat.  She easily jumps between the two boats and spends hours exploring the nooks and crannies in Exuberant, taking a special interest in Burt who she basically follows all day long.  In the mornings we are greeted by a pair of beady eyes peering through the porthole and a meow asking won’t we come out and play. We are wondering if we will end up with a stow-away.  

Dory soaks up the sun on our dark hatch and keeps a watchful eye on Burt as he dangles from the top of the mast

We have lots of boat projects to complete and are also provisioning and outfitting our floating home for the next six months.  The free city bus picks us up at the marina and provides access to just about any national chain store imaginable along with several options for grocery stores.  It is a process of purchasing, inventorying, and storing large quantities of necessities.  This is also a place we can easily accept packages so many items are ordered via the internet.  Finally, Burt spends several days installing a new LED anchor/trilight/strobe light on the top of the mast and begins the more challenging project of installing solar panels over our bimini, a job that will be completed further down the road.

But, it is not all work.  Vero is a sociable place. Thursday night is the weekly cruisers’ happy hour with potluck hors d’ouvres and boating musicians providing guitar and banjo tunes under the live oaks and picnic shelter.  Later that evening, we are joined by a friend from Ohio who works as a captain on a trawler and the trawler’s owner for dinner via dinghy at a nearby restaurant, giving us the opportunity to catch up on all the Lake Erie news. We enjoy biking through the nearby neighborhoods and along the ocean beaches.  With the endless days of strong northerly winds, along with Sandy’s initial destruction, the beaches are seriously eroding, and in one day we note that perhaps five feet of sand bank has disappeared.   

The waves have washed away much of the sand along this beach

Sunday we take dinghies with our mooring neighbors to a small, open air oceanside restaurant for breakfast under palm trees overlooking the crashing waves and later take a walk along the boardwalk to work off the indulgence.   

What a great spot for breakfast - and you can get there by dinghy

We visit a large farmer’s market and happily purchase freshly picked Florida oranges and stop by a huge nautical flea market where Burt finds hardware he needs for the solar panel project at greatly reduced prices and I find the perfect windproof straw hat.  We ride our bikes to another beach and a casual restaurant where we sit in Adirondack chairs atop the sand banks, sipping drinks, and listening to guitar music. 

Relaxing by the shore

It’s not a bad life here in Vero!

Our cat owning friends have left and Australian friends we sailed with over the summer are on their way here.  We will stay through Thanksgiving when the marina and community put on a huge Thanksgiving dinner for the cruisers.  Vero merchants make donations and a group of local former cruisers called the C.L.O.D.s (cruisers living on dirt) cook up the turkeys.  The rest of us bring side dishes to a park pavilion where we stuff ourselves and enjoy more music under the swaying palms. A few days later we will leave what is fondly known as Velcro Beach for Stuart, Florida where the 20 year old standing (wire) rigging on our boat will be replaced. And during that time we will make a quick trip home to Mansfield to celebrate Burt’s Mom’s 90^th birthday with our children and grandchildren all in attendance. While we won’t be with family for Thanksgiving, we can hardly wait to see everyone just a few days later.