St. Augustine Wednesday, Thursday, Friday May 8 through 10, 2013

Words to describe St. Augustine: old, touristy, nice people, lots of school kids.

Larry Truthan asked about the birds sitting on lines in the photo I uploaded to Facebook. Let me unpack this a bit. It involves tides, tying up the boat properly, and birds.

St. Augustine has tides, quite big 4+ foot tides. We haven’t had tides for a while, not since Fort Pierce. Melbourne, Cocoa and Hammock Beach didn’t have them since they are on the ICW in a part that is actually on an inland river, Indian River. Once we left the Indian River and got close to the ocean again we started to get tides.

We can see the Atlantic Ocean just across the way. The lighthouse is a big landmark across the way. Since we are so close to the ocean, the water is salty.

There are oyster/clam beds visible when the tides go down. It is a rise and fall of at least 4 feet. Thank goodness we are at floating docks!

Since we are so close to the ocean the current is pretty wild around here. The floating docks stop much of the current but not all. You can see the current in the way conflicting streams of water bump up against each other.

The current and tides mean we need to tie the boat up in a different way. We need to tie the boat tighter than we normally would with tides because these are nice floating docks. So we don’t have to loop the lines, we can tie the lines tight to cleats. But since the current and tides keep the water moving pretty fast we need to tie the boat in all possible directions.

We sterned in with a starboard (right) side tie up. This allowed us to take Rusty off the back swim platform. That means we put his life jacket on him and coaxed him down the back stairs, across the swim platform and across the ramp to the dock. Then we removed his life jacket (it is hot here) and went for a walk. On the return we repeated in the opposite direction.

We cannot exit the boat off the side because the floating docks are very low, just about level with the lower swim platform. It is too high even with a ladder to exit from the side of the boat. So we all go off the back. 

Most boats cross tie the aft end with lines from either side crossing in the back and tying to cleats on the back of the dock. We cannot do that safely when we stern in. That is because the crossed line would run under the dinghy which we have to lift up to be perpendicular to the swim platform. So we take a line from the port side aft straight back to the dock instead of criss-crossing. This line should be sort of tight but kind of loose. The purpose of this line is to keep the boat from slamming into the dock all the time with the heavy current and the tides.

The current pulls in all sorts of critters like the mullets that spawned in the neighborhood leaving little minnows wandering in the current. Larger fish called Lady Fish came in the feed on the minnows. They made a big commotion flopping around at the surface in their eagerness to eat the minnows. There were lots of those fish hanging around especially in the afternoon and evening.

Birds like those minnows too. We had a passel (usually 4 in a passel!) of snowy white egrets plus a blue heron or two wandering around the docks, standing on the swim platforms of all the boats in the neighborhood and (here is the point Larry was making) standing on the aft line and “fishing” off the line.

The boss bird doesn't want any other birds on HIS line

These birds were adorable!!! They had maximum personality. The larger one of the passel would puff up really big and run off the other birds when he wanted to fish on the line. When he walked around on the dock, the other 3 members of the passel would jump on the line and fish away until the big guy returned and ran them off. They played this game all afternoon and into the evening.

So, Larry, the long answer is, Yes the lines are loose because it doesn’t have to be too tight to do it’s job; it only has to keep us off the starboard finger dock. And also because the tides and currents make the boat move a lot. It is also a convenient service we provide to local birds.

We had a little routine in St. Augustine. I worked until lunch time then we went out for a long walk to see the sites. We ate one meal out per day, max, either lunch or dinner. We came back to the boat, cleaned up, had a glass of wine and some nuts, watched a little tv and went to bed. We are truly boring and it is not getting better!

On our first full day, we took the Red Circle Tour in a trolley around the city while a guy told us all sorts of truths and half truths about the city. I usually hate these tours because I hate sticking out like that. But sometimes, especially in a city that is slammed with tourists, the best thing to do is figure out the big picture with help from a tour like that. It was very helpful. Kermit and I both enjoyed this tour very much.

The entire circle took about 2 hours. We got off once for a great lunch at Mojos. Wow, was that delicious! We took a to go box and had it for dinner that night too. We got off at San Sebastiani Winery because I got a call from a perspective client. I was able to close the deal and we hopped on the next train.

We made a list of a bunch of places we wanted to visit the next day. Plus we passed some places we did not get to return to like The Old Senator, a 600 plus year old live oak at the entrance to the Fountain of Youth. That live oak was present the day the Spanish landed in 1565. The best part: the tree is still growing!!

We didn’t make it back to the Fountain of Youth that Ponce de Leon found, just down the road about a mile from the Castillo. It was really hot, and my foot hurt – we had a million excuses. I know it is touristy but there is a big archaeological dig that has been going on for years that would have been interesting to see. I also would like to have had a sip! I remember coming here as a kid with my folks. The fountain of youth is one of my favorite memories of that trip.

The Fountain of Youth is located in a beautiful neighborhood with lots of live oaks and Spanish moss. It is kind of funny because every few minutes all day every day the quiet, beautiful streets host these huge trains of tourists with squawking guides. I am glad the neighbors are such gracious hosts or we wouldn’t have seen such sites.

We passed the Florida School of the Deaf and the Blind, where Ray Charles went to school.

We also didn’t get to go up to the big cross marking the spot where Menendez de Avila stopped off on September 8, 1565. We have a photo and that is just fine.

The marina is located right at the foot of the Bridge of Lions.


Rusty didn’t care to walk over there because it was hot. He preferred to walk to the south through the old town where real people live because it was shady so it was cooler.


Other dogs must walk there too because he kept his nose down the entire time. He could not be convinced to go back to the marina. Even if he appears to be walking so slow as to be standing still, if I tried to pull him towards the boat he fixed his feet to the ground and pouted till I relented.

We had hour long walks that lasted for blocks and blocks this way. That was kind of out of character for our little buddy lately.

Almost every building is really old and has the historical marker to prove it.

Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse

We walked through the section around the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse where almost 90 old nuns now live in a retirement community. The Spanish first built a chapel on this site in 1572. The old nuns live in an old place. Old, old, old everywhere. But pretty!

The Library

Houses around here are Spanish in origin for the most part. We learned the difference between Spanish and English style. The Spanish homes are built right up to the property lines with a courtyard in the center. This way invading armies and pirates had to go down the street in a line instead of running all over everything. Also the streets are windy so cannons can’t be shot directly up the street. The English are more orderly so their part of town is a grid with yards and houses set back a little.

We also walked in Lincolnville Historic District a collection of old homes, mostly Victorian on the southwest side of town. This section was established by freed slaves in 1866. It got the name Lincolnville because a piece of land in the section was owned by Abe Lincoln’s private secretary John Hay who later went on to be important in Teddy Roosevelt’s Secretary of State.

When Henry Flagler came to town in the late 1880s to build his three big hotels for rich folks, the neighborhood housed servants quarters. Someone had to wait on those rich folks.

In the 1950s and 1960 the community became famous for civil rights activities including one of the Woolworth lunch counter sit ins. Dr. Martin Luther King came to St. Augustine many times to work with the community. Some of the riots in the central green were publicized on television and photographs which helped in the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

This is a very colorful community. Now Flagler College has a men’s dormitory here and some of the old houses have been torn down. Others are being remodeled into “painted ladies” and others are bed and breakfasts. Lots of B&Bs.

Immediately across the street from the marina is the old gallery district. These shops and restaurants are quieter and less touristy than the big tourist center along St. George Street. We ate dinner at a nice Italian restaurant just a block or two in. Rusty enjoyed walking down that street. There were good smells and many of the shops were dog friendly with biscuits and water available.

The fort, Castillo St. Marco, is a few blocks de Leon landed in the 1500s.
north of the marina so we walked over there the day after our tour. The fort has been here in one form or another since good old Ponce

the moat

The Shot Furnace where they heated up cannon balls

The inside of the Shot Furnce

The interpreter

The cannons were beautiful

another guide

Little shops and music

We visited the Picasso exhibit in the Visitors Center and attached ourselves to a private tour. We learned all about Picasso’s love life. He was kind of an ass and treated his women very badly.

One of our favorite stops was the Ponce de Leon Hotel, now the base of Flagler College. Henry Flagler, of Standard Oil/Rockefeller fame, came to St. Augustine in the 1870s because the winters were supposed to be good for his frail 1^st wife’s health. Unfortunately she died before getting there. Henry married his wife’s nurse and decided he liked St. A. He wanted to build a fancy winter hotel for his super rich 1% friends. To do that he had to build a railroad from Jacksonville to St. A. Once he built this hotel, his flagship, he started building resorts and railroads all over Florida, finally all the way down to Key West. We have all seen his handiwork.

Our tour guide

The floors in this hallway are made of leather

Flagler hired 200 people to change light bulbs - this was the
second hotel after the Del Coranado in CA to have electricity
so changing light bulbs and having lots of light bulbs
was a very big deal

The Ponce de Leon Hotel is listed on the National Historic Register. It operated only for 3 months a year. Guests arrived in January and left at the end of March. They paid $90 per night for the privilege and had all sorts of amenities in the hotel and right nearby to make them happy. It is unclear to me what happened to the staff when the guests were not there. Our guide was not sure. All we know is it only operated for 3 months.

Restorer working on the dining room ceiling

Jesse gave us a great tour of the lobby, the dining room and the ladies parlor. Louis Comfort Tiffany designed the entire hotel and the College and a Flagler family foundation provide constant restoration. It is truly a gem, one of the highlights of the trip.

Constant retoration

Tiffany windows

Tiffany designed the furniture too

Tiffany Austrian crystal chandeliers require a special
hand cleaning - cleaner put down a $10 million bond
and could only work on one chandelier at a time

In 1967, Henry’s 3^rd wife’s nephew (Henry’s 2 daughters died, the 2^nd wife was divorced after he put her in an insane asylum, and the only son thought his dad was a real jerk and changed his name to disown Dad) converted the hotel into Flagler College. The school was organized to generate teachers for the Florida School of the Deaf and Blind a few blocks away. This is the school that Ray Charles attended, by the way. Now Flagler College is co-ed and is known for being located at the Ponce de Leon hotel and having reasonable tuition. It is a small private liberal arts college.

St. George Street with lots of little shops

The women live in the hotel which is very cool. The student dining hall is the magnificent Ponce de Leon dining room where Vanderbilt's, Rockefeller's, and Flagler himself dined during their 3 month annual internment.

Basicila/cathedral

St. Augustine has lots of touristy shops along St. George Street.
Good ice cream too, and not just from the 2 Kilwen’s (of course). We found a place that sold Italian ice. We got a concoction called rainbow ice. The lady put a little bit of about 10 different kinds of ices in one cup. It was scrumptious!!

We also like the Cathedral/Basilica. I stepped in on Friday late afternoon and got to see a wedding rehearsal!

We met some Loopers at the marina and had docktails one evening but most other loopers are ahead of us now. We are leaving for Fernandina Beach on Saturday morning.

As I write this, we just stopped at Fort George Island Marina just north of the St. Johns River. We did not find this dockage to be safe for our boat so we pulled out right away and we are heading directly to Fernandina Beach. We will wait for One September to arrive on Wednesday, re provision, and start heading north. After leaving Fernandina Beach our next target is Savannah.