May 29, 2009: Saint Augustine, FL

The ICW was beautiful and calm this morning as we headed north to St. Augustine. We have returned to seeing crab pot buoys in the water along the way and we saw a young man tended his traps – not really a commercial venture. It was funny, Tom commented that we had finally found a part of Florida that was undeveloped. So I picked up the camera to take a picture... sure enough, there was a huge yellow front-end loader under the trees in my shot!

Near Matanzas we found the beginnings of Saint Augustine’s fortifications. There was a Spanish outpost with the stone tower still standing. Saint Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in America. It was founded in 1565 as a Spanish military outpost.

We arrived in late afternoon at the Conch Marina where we filled up with both water and diesel fuel, and immediately spotted the black and white spiral markings of the St Augustine Lighthouse. Built in 1874, it is still an active guide to navigation, but is owned and operated by a private non-profit lighthouse organization. It is weirdly like the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in NC, but the spiral goes in the opposite direction!

As we crossed the Matanzas Bay we passed through the famous Bridge of Lions, built in 1927 and considered the trademark of St Augustine. Unfortunately, the bridge was condemned in 1999, and has been under reconstruction for a number of years. The travel across the river now is accomplished passing over a temporary bridge that has a lift that looks like a kid’s erector set. The Lions have been removed, but it is planned to return them when the bridge is finished.

We anchored on the St Augustine water front and took our bikes to shore to see a little of the city. Henry Flagler began his development of Florida in Saint Augustine and MANY buildings are named for him including the Flagler Presbyterian Church and Flagler College. We saw the Cathedral of St Augustine which was completed in 1797, but represents the Catholic parish established here in 1565. The narrow city park across the street was filled with large sprays of white orchid like flowers, brick walks, benches and a small gazebo. We rode through the old city streets and heard music strains wafting out of old houses hosting dining establishments under the hardwood trees draped with Spanish moss.

Our treat for today was to have dinner at Harry’s Seafood restaurant just across the street from the water front. It was a large red house with an outside garden and music provided by a local guitar player. The delicious food was just briefly interrupted by a downpour of rain, during which we grabbed our plates and dashed inside! I am getting used to being rained on now.

We rode down the Avendia Menendez to briefly circle the Castillo de San Marco, the Spanish fort that has stood here for the past 330 years. Its 5 feet thick masonry walls were constructed to protect Spain’s position in the New World and the fort has an amazing and grim history of the wars of the area. We plan to return to see it tomorrow in the day light. It was dark as we returned to the boat, but the lights on the St Augustine waterfront were twinkling.