December 4th and 5th- Sisters Creek, FL to St. Augustine, FL

After leaving Sisters Creek We had to cross the St John’s river. It’s a major port for Jacksonville with some major current. We were with the current so we were moving fast. We flew by some sort of Naval drydock. The boat was moving so fast that I barely had time to figure out how to get back on the ICW.

Most of the day was spent going through some long, straight canals and some rivers.

A forest fire?

I wasn’t sure where we were going to put Catalpa at the end of the day. St Augustine has installed moorings in most of their anchorage area. I was told by another cruiser that you need to make reservations weeks in advance. We barely know where we are going to be from one day to the next, so no early reservations for us. We made a call to the marina on the way. They had a cancellation. We picked up a mooring for two days.

We ventured down to the big fort. We can see it from the boat.

Castillo de San Marcos.

After checking out the fort we were famished. We wandered around town. Lots of nice stores. Everything is decorated with a mixture of Pirates and Christmas. Odd combination. Eventually we made it to the St Augustine Seafood Company. We had Minorcan conch chowder and split a blackened shrimp po’ boy. Both were delicious. I hope I can find more of that chowder along the way.

Some scenes from St. Augustine

The whole waterfront is lit up for Christmas. We are very close to all the night time activity. It is a busy place. Ollie is exhausted from all the activity he’s had today. At one point he was surrounded by a bus load of kids at the fort. He handled it well.

It’s difficult to get a night picture from a moving boat.