Tuesday, March 5, 2019

BRIDGE CLOSURE??????

Tues, March 5, 2016: Daytona Beach, FL to St Augustine, FL

53.675 miles. ... 6 hours

StAugustine1 (23)The marina has a weird policy on returning the gate/shower keys. Either hand it to a security guard before 7:30 (not this boat) or take it by boat to the fuel dock and hand it off on your way out. We opted for Cally and I to walk over to the marina office, not close, hand it off in person. Nice walk for Cally before we leave. Rip would let me back in the gate and we would leave.

StAugustine1 (24)

EXCEPT, Rip heard the tail end of a Coast Guard Security Call about a bridge closed to navigation this am. Crap, we need to go through that bridge as soon as we leave the marina. It isn't supposed to open until noon to allow boats through for one hour.

We called the bridge project manager and confirmed with our 16' height, 8.5' beam and 3' depth we could in fact go through the other spans. Only the main, center span was being blocked by 2 work barges. We were told the marina staff could tell where the "old channel" was BUT, "Warning, Warning, Danger, Mr Smith"... warned strongly, going outside the channel was at our own risk.

StAugustine1 (1)

Rip picked our course away from construction (yellow /red line to right side) and slowly moved us through and then back into the channel (blue line to left) on the other side. Crisis avoided. Starting at noon with a six hour day cruise wasn't how we wanted the day to go.

Temporary buoy marking a sunken sailboat to avoid.

StAugustine1 (19)

Pretty mosaic tile artwork on bridge of dolphins, manatees and various fish.

StAugustine1 (21)

Cool, dreary, drizzly day...might as well be cruising up the ICW. Wouldn't be a fun day to do anything else. StAugustine1 (1)

StAugustine1 (18)

St Augustine Municipal Marina is right downtown. Easy walking to shops, including a Ice Cream Sandwich shop. OK, at $6 a piece, we might not go back, but they were good.

StAugustine1 (5)StAugustine1 (7)StAugustine1 (9)

Sights of St Augustine...

The Bridge of LionsStAugustine1 (16)

StAugustine1 (3)Cannons aimed at the ICW from the Headquarters of the National Guard Campus.


StAugustine1 (2)StAugustine1 (4)StAugustine1 (12)StAugustine1 (14)StAugustine1 (10)StAugustine1 (11)

StAugustine (7)StAugustine (8)StAugustine (9)

StAugustine (10)StAugustine (11)StAugustine (12)

“The Oldest House”

StAugustine (14)StAugustine (15)StAugustine (13)StAugustine (16)StAugustine (17)StAugustine (18)StAugustine (19)StAugustine (20)StAugustine (23)StAugustine (21)

Picture below, the original sea wall to the right of side walk. the new taller sea wall to the left of the side walk. I love that a section of the original sea wall was preserved.StAugustine (22)

What Colonial town doesn’t have their own Pirate Ship??

StAugustine (24)

Lots of restaurants and outdoor seating

StAugustine (4)StAugustine (5)

Lots & lots of shopping, including 5 ice cream shops, 4 coffee shops.StAugustine (6)

No visit is complete without seeing the Ponce De Leon statue

StAugustine (2)StAugustine (3)





No comments:

Post a Comment