Jacksonville (certainly compared to the rough and bouncy ride up the river into
20 knot winds and 2 foot waves), we had no difficulties making it to St.
Augustine to get the 4 pm opening of the Gate of Lions bridge.
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| Bridge of Lions Undergoing Restoration |
However, we
didn’t make it into our slip in the marina until 10:30 pm or so. When we first
arrived, we looked at the chart and the crowded anchoring field and thought we
would go around the anchored boats instead of thru them all, and approach the
area from the South. Not a good plan! We ran aground in what the chart said was
18 feet of water, and had to wait over 5 hours for the tide to finish falling
and then rise enough so that we could power thru the soft mucky bottom. We
tried motoring off, and even launched the dinghy so that Mark could take depth
soundings all around the boat to see which way we should go when we did lift
off the bottom. While the waiting was not physically unpleasant as there was
almost no wind or waves, and very few boats passing to wake us, it was a tense
time as we felt that every slight shift of the boat must mean we were soon to
be free, even when we knew the tide was still falling and we logically couldn’t
be free of the bottom.
anchorage was not a good idea, and so opted to go to the St. Augustine
Municipal Marina and tie up for the night. They not only answered our phone
call after 10 pm, they talked us into the slip and helped us tie up for the
night. We have decided that a day of sightseeing and relaxation is in order
after such a tough evening.
charts have led us astray. That said, our paper version of the chart said the
same thing, so if we had been relying on that instead, we probably would have
ended up aground in the same place anyway! The screenshot shows our path to
being stuck. The one thing the chart did have right was that the bottom
was “so”, meaning soft, and it was, so we only managed to damage our pride and
not our boat!
from Jacksonville. We passed close by a ship full of Toyotas heading to
Jaxport, saw dolphins several times and spotted our first manatee. The spot
where we ran aground is the squiggle just above the quotation mark before “10
A” which is charted at 18 feet. Do not try and pass anywhere outside the
channel after Red “10” or “10A.”
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| Unique Vessel |
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| How Toyotas are Delivered |