A Gleam of Sunshine

I’ve been to the state of Florida many times in the past, having had parents and in-laws living in the Sunshine State. I’ve always enjoyed the warm winter weather, the palm trees, and my loved ones, but I’ve not been a fan of the flat terrain, the slow drivers, and worst of all, the ugly commercial strips that seem to line the highways and roads for miles. I had a preconceived notion that the Florida section of the ICW would be much the same; overpopulated and ugly. I am happy to report that I was mistaken.

Getting here from Charleston included an extended stop in Beaufort, SC (pronounced “Byoo-fort”, not to be confused with its sister city in North Carolina, pronounced “Bow-fort”) to collect my cellphone at the post office there. In my last post, I told the story of my lost phone, having left it by accident in the Uber car that took me to the airport in Baltimore. We expected the phone to have arrived in Beaufort before we did, having been sent “overnight” by my Uber driver. Guess what? Not there. We dinghied in the next day, and then the next, thinking that we would grab the phone and get underway, only to have our hopes dashed again and again by the friendly postal workers who informed us of the no-show package in their exaggerated southern drawls. I felt quite lost without my phone, which acts as my tether to life onshore, and my frustration at being cut off from the world was made worse by the question of not only “when”, but “if” I would get the thing back. The package ended up taking most of a week to get to its destination, apparently having mistakenly gone to Fort Lauderdale first. Thank you USPS. Fortunately, it did finally arrive, the phone was in perfect shape, and we were at long last able to shove off.

We spent a cold, rainy Thanksgiving on anchor in a spot just south of Savannah. We had planned to attend the big annual Cruiser’s Thanksgiving at the Riverview Hotel in St. Mary’s, Georgia, where ICW travelers meet up and enjoy a turkey feast, with side dishes pot-lucked in by the boaters. Sadly, our delay in Beaufort made that an impossibility. We tried to make the best of it though; I made an apple pie, mashed potatoes, squash and cranberry sauce, and we heated up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I even made a festive (ugly) centerpiece with found pinecones and shells. We were very thankful - for each other, for our year away. But if I’m being totally honest, most of the thankfulness that day was for being dry inside the boat!

St. Augustine was our first real stop in Florida, and we took a couple of days off out of our cruising schedule to really enjoy it. First on the list of things to do was a visit to the Castillo de San Marcos, a fortress built by the Spanish conquistadors in 1672. We saw the structure from the water on our way in to anchor and quickly Googled to find out what it was. The castle is a star shaped masonry fort made of coquina, a limestone-like stone formed when ancient shells have bonded together over time. 

What is it about boys and guns?

It looks like a medieval European castle. There’s even a dry moat. Yes, DRY! Apparently the ”moat” was intended to have flood-water in it only during an attack. The rest of the time, it was used as grazing land for livestock. In the 1940s, someone came up with the bright idea to flood the moat permanently. No doubt some wealthy, influential American came up with this, some European wannabe with a need to recreate fairy tales. I mean, it’s a castle, right? Castles are supposed to have moats! Over time, the water started to deteriorate the structure, and finally wiser heads prevailed. The moat was drained, returning to the castle to its original design.

Next, we visited Flagler College, which occupies the buildings and grounds of the old Ponce de Leon Hotel. Built in 1888, the building still has the original Tiffany stained glass windows, fountains, mosaics and sculptures. This thing is HUGE. Apparently the college now uses the old hotel as offices and the student dormitory. I had never heard of Flagler College before, but the tuition is more than reasonable; I would consider attending this school just for the living quarters alone. Hopefully the students actually learn something while they’re here.

Flagler College

 St. Augustine was founded in 1565, the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States, and the narrow St. George Street was the original main street for the town. Now for the modern era, St. George has been transformed into a pedestrian thoroughfare. Between the tourists, fudge shops and all of the “Ye Olde …” phrases on signs, the place has a Disneyfied feel to it. I have to keep reminding myself that we are in a historic town, not attending a renaissance fair. The whole historic portion of St. Augustine is also completely decked out in Christmas lights, giant inflatable snowmen and reindeer. It’s a little strange for us northerners to see overdone holiday décor in a warm setting that includes palm trees. Not that I’m wishing for snow or anything, but it’s just weird.

We had dinner at an historic old Cuban/Spanish place called the Columbia Restaurant. The waitress made a pitcher of Sangria de Cava (sparkling sangria) right at our table, and then we enjoyed a triple-decker presentation of tapas, followed by paella. The Columbia sure put our paltry Thanksgiving meal to shame!

After St. Augustine, we continue our voyage down the ICW. The shorelines are sometimes dotted with enormous mansions – I guess they don’t call it the “Florida Gold Coast” for nothing – but for the most part the scenery is wild. We see the ubiquitous pelicans, cormorants, herons, greater and lesser egrets, and ospreys. We even get a couple of manatee sightings. But no alligators – darn it! Apparently they prefer fresh water, and the ICW is made up of tidal rivers and salty or brackish water. We see lots of dolphins though. We’re used to seeing them from a distance in the north too, but they behave a little differently down here. It has become a regular occurrence for dolphins to come up beside our boat and swim right along side for five minutes or so. They seem to like the spot right next to the cockpit, coming up for air about every thirty seconds, almost as though they are checking us out, the same way we are looking at them. Often, they even appear in pairs. I know this sounds like a tall tail, like we regularly see mermaids or something, but for once I can prove it! Here’s a video:

(Sorry about the last 30 seconds of just looking at water. I could NOT figure out how to cut the thing.)

You would almost never know that this was a bad year for hurricanes. Palm trees are tall and strong, the landscape looks natural, and houses look untouched by wind or flood damage. But here and there, all the way down the ICW we can see evidence of what must have been ferocious storms. Docks and pilings askew, boats mysteriously aground way off of the shoreline, some looking tossed onto a bank or beach, and submerged wrecks with only the mast and rigging sticking up out of the water. These sights are particularly disturbing for us to witness, like seeing giant carcasses discarded willy-nilly along the path of an angry beast. I hope the owners of those boats are safe, even if their vessels have perished.

We took another day off in Melbourne, so named because the first postmaster here came from Melbourne, Australia. At ICW mile 918, the weather has finally turned tropical, and we stopped in order to enjoy the ocean beach, which is just a short walk from the dinghy dock. This is really the first time since September that I have needed to apply sunscreen anywhere other than my face, and it feels great to shed my layers of sweatshirts and leggings. We didn’t do any swimming; the air and water temps are just not high enough to be really inviting. But we are getting ever closer to our tropical island dream destination. We will be in Fort Lauderdale in a few days. Mile 1064 – and then to the Bahamas. Here we come!