St Augustine

5/29/2020

After departing Daytona Beach we continued up the ICW along the Halifax and Matanzas Rivers, finally getting a mooring ball at the St Augustine municipal marina. It was another uneventful day.

St Augustine is known as the oldest city in the US. It was settled by Spanish explorers in 1565, well before any English settlement on the continent. It is also the oldest, continuously inhabited European settlement in the US. As such, it has a colorful history.

The French had already discovered St Augustine inlet, and had named it the River of the Dolphins. They had moved their fleet to the mouth of what is now the St Johns river, 40 or so miles north of St Augustine. When the Spanish fleet arrived at St Augustine they first sailed north to confront the French. After a brief skirmish they returned to what is now St Augustine and established a settlement. Meanwhile the French had sailed to the mouth of the Matanzas River, south of the St Augustine where their ships were wrecked in a storm. The Spanish first marched overland to the St Johns River where they destroyed the French settlement, and then went south to the mouth of the Matanzas River where the French survivors were holding out. After a negotiation the French surrendered and the Spanish executed almost all the French soldiers, hence the name ‘Matanzas’ which is Spanish for ‘slaughter’. The Spanish established a strong fort in St Augustine which is still in place today (see tomorrow’s post).

As we moved north along the Matanzas River we saw the ocean very close to us. The barrier island is only a couple hundred feet across at this point, and the ocean is shown below.

This stretch of the river is known for excessive shoaling with the shoals moving around very often. The view below shows the confusing nav markers in this area.

We are moored tonight in the river near downtown St Augustine. This mooring field is pretty tight, and you can see the boat behind us which is only about 40 feet away. Nonetheless, it isn’t unsafe at all so long as people know how to do this. There is lots of current here depending on the tide state.

The bridge across the river is also shown below. This is the Bridge of Lions. It is challenging to get through this bridge because the opening is narrow and there is lots of tidal current here. When we bought our boat we brought it north through here with a training captain, and passed under this bridge on Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day, 2017. As we passed under this bridge the training captain was driving and the current turned us sideways before he could recover. A local in a small bowrider boat had tried to pass under the bridge as we were going through, and he and his family were inches from being smashed against the fender system. I doubt he knows yet how much he messed up by being there. The photos below show a boat waiting for the bridge to open as the current sweeps him to the left of the photo. Had it not opened within the next minute or so he might have been swept into the docks on the left of the photo.