Stats for May 1, 2019

Origin: New Smyrna Beach Free Wall

Destination: St. Augustine Mooring Field

Distance: 68.5 miles

Speed: 8 mph

Time on the Move: 8 hours an 34 minutes

Leaving New Smyrna, we thought we were heading to another free wall in Palm Coast, however, after we got there we saw there would be no way off of our boat and there were actually signs posted saying no mooring. It was more like a fishing pier. We were already tired of traveling, but we had to go 8 miles or so to get to a good anchorage, so we decided to go all the way (20 more miles) to St Augustine.

From what we’ve heard, the St Augustine marina can have a lot of current and sometimes boats even get swept into the bridge next to the marina due to the heavy current. That didn’t sound like anything we were interested in, so when we did the calculations to see when we would get there if we just kept going, we were relieved to see we would arrive right at slack tide. Moving another 20 miles (or 3 hours) wasn’t exactly what we wanted to do, but we would arrive at slack tide and be all set for a full day of exploring the next day, so we chose to continue on.

The current was still moving a little bit when we got there, but we didn’t have too much trouble docking at the fuel dock to take on water and then getting off the dock to head to our mooring ball. Hayley helped me catch the mooring ball like a boss, and we enjoyed our view of the beautiful (huge!) homes just north of St Augustine.

The next day we wanted to get out and explore St Augustine, so we decided to start with the hop on, hop off trolley to check out the town. We ended up spending a few hours right away at Castillo de San Marcos which was actually walking distance from the marina, so we skipped out early, planning on going back the next day. What a cool place to explore!!

Crossing a drawbridge (actually 2 of them!!) and a moat were new and exciting adventures for us!! How cool. We learned all about how the doors work, with heavy weights and gates counteracting the weight of the drawbridge. Also, the fort was built several times unsuccessfully with wood, but it was finally rebuilt with coquina, a local stone made of squished together coral that occurs naturally in this area.

The fort changed hands several times between Spain, Britain, the Confederacy, and the United States since it was built in the late 1600’s. Pirates were also a constant concern (including privateers, which are government sponsored pirates). There are even smaller forts at different inlets nearby that worked as lookouts or outposts for this one. It was interesting to think about enemies of all kinds sailing in and out of the harbor. Soldiers that worked at Castillo de San Marcos usually had 2nd jobs to support their families that they actually lived with in town. At night, just the night watchmen would be left behind and the rest of the soldiers would lock up the fort (pull up the drawbridges) and head home to their families.

Throughout the rooms there were etchings in the walls, sometimes covered by plaster, of ships, allegiances, and even the alphabet. A placard described how many soldiers didn’t know how to read or write, or they were just learning, so they would etch the alphabet in the wall. The kids got a kick out of that, especially since many of the letters were backwards. It was good perspective for them.

We didn’t want to spend all of our trolley time here, but it was so interesting, we promised to come back the next day.

Our next stop on the trolley took us past this 600 year old oak tree right in a hotel parking lot. It was huge and it was a tree.

Personally, I thought the tree covered streets were more picturesque with their Spanish moss hanging down. This street led us to the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park which seemed like quite a racket. After visiting the fort, the displays here didn’t impress us much, and apparently there is no actual evidence that this is Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth. It is just a park commemorating where Ponce de Leon landed in what is now Florida. A lady opened this tourist attraction in 1909 and started selling water out of a well dug in 1875 saying it was the Fountain of Youth. Apparently the ACTUAL Fountain of Youth is in Bimini, Bahamas and we totally missed it!! Bummer!! We were more impressed with the peacocks all over the property and this sneaky snake we found slithering past.

Our next stop was the St Augustine History Museum. This fun stop was very kid friendly and had all kinds of information from Native Americans through early settlers called Crackers, from pirates to slaves. The history of the area has many layers and you can tell we have learned about many of them time and again!! There were lots of cool artifacts and displays here that made it a fun stop…plus it was FREE!!

Our next stop was at a winery because when there is a winery on the hop on, hop off trolley you MUST hop off!! The kids were very patient sitting through way more talking than is necessary to taste wine.

Because we usually subscribe to the “something for you, something for me” theory of sightseeing, we headed to a playground after the tour ended. We passed this playground on the tour, but unfortunately it wasn’t a built in stop, so we had to hoof it back a ways to get to the playground. Luckily, we happened to pass by an ice cream and popsicle shop on the way, so of course we stopped there, too.

I don’t actually have any pictures of the playground because I spent most of the “playtime” walking Hayley to the bathroom that was quite far away. Then, by the time we got back to the playground, it started pouring so we walked all the way BACK to the bathrooms where we bounced a tennis ball back and forth with each other for an hour under cover from the rain. Ya just can’t make stuff like this up. Luckily everyone was a good sport.

Eventually the rain stopped and we made it back to the marina. What a day!! This egret was waiting on the dinghy dock to welcome us back.

The next morning we hoped to see our friends from Livin the Dream, but it was supposed to storm for a good part of the day, so plans were up in the air. Eventually, we decided to make the most of it and made plans to meet back at the fort mid-morning. The kids were excited to see their friends again and do some more exploring, and so were we!!

Being at the fort with friends was amazing. The adults stood around and discussed boating and life and future plans and the kids roamed and explored. I love this free roaming community of learners I have found (or created?!).

We all found our way out of the moat, but Tobin, marching to his own beat, missed that step and couldn’t figure out how to get out. It was so cute hearing him yell “Hey!! How do I get out of this moat?!” That is learning through real life experiences, right there!! Boat school for the win!

Finally we got Tobin out of the moat and took one last picture of the fort. What an amazing place!

Next up was a delicious lunch and wandering around the nearby shops until the thunder got so loud that we were sure the sky would open up and dump buckets on us. It didn’t though. We made it all the way back to the boat surrounded by thunder, with barely a drop.

As it worked out, I wished we would have stayed out longer because we had to say “goodbye for now” to the Zeeffs. They finished their loop and are moving on to a slower pace of travel while we still have a few thousand miles to go in the next few months. These kiddos met each other just about 10 days into our loop and have traveled the Great Lakes, the rivers, around Florida, through the Bahamas, and back around Florida together. We have created lifelong friends with many unique shared experiences. Goodbye hugs are always bittersweet.

The next morning we were set to leave St. Augustine heading north, but we sure loved our time in this city. There was so much to see and do and so many amazing things to learn about the area.

EDITED TO ADD: Remember the rocket that was supposed to take off eaaarrly in the morning on Friday, May 3rd?? Well I set an alarm to get us up in time to see the 3:44am launch. Sure enough, we were all up on the flybridge, watching the countdown clock, looking in the sky, but we saw NOTHING. After a few minutes of looking at the dark sky and wondering, I searched for something updated regarding the launch and found that they delayed it with just 14 minutes to go before liftoff. Apparently the drone ship in the ocean where the booster was supposed to land had a problem with it’s stabilizers, so they went ahead and delayed.

Fast forward 23 hours and we were all up AGAIN at 2:48am on Saturday, May 4th watching a live feed from SpaceX on my phone. We heard all the pre-liftoff chatter, watched the final countdown, and saw that baby streak right through the sky with our very own eyes. We got to watch the rocket take off, watch the booster break off, and then watch as the booster came back down and land on that unmanned drone ship located 12 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean (that would be a wild sight headed back from the Bahamas!!!).

Now we didn’t see much more than some streaks in the sky, but we got to hear all about what we were seeing on the live feed and then watch a recap of it after it was over. The whole thing took about 10 minutes. Everyone was awake for it, everyone saw it, and everyone was excited. I call that a major win!! If you want to see the launch, check it out here:

Thanks for following our adventures!! On to the next one.