St. Augustine

Daytona Beach, FL – St. Augustine, FL

Days on Cruise:             5

Statute Miles Today    52

Time Underway        6 hrs

Cumulative Miles:        194

What a day!  We’re loving this cruising lifestyle.  The scenery is changing from tropical to the beginning of “low country”, meaning marshes and swampland, Spanish moss dripping from deciduous trees, mostly Oak (instead of Palm trees) and varied waterways.

It’s so interesting!  Waterfront communities are no longer of the Miami/Fort Lauderdale mile-after-mile, multi-million dollar estates cheek by jowl, and instead are what we think of as “normal” houses that happen to be on a pretty waterway with a dock and a boat.

Many miles today were rural, without any development of any kind.  As always, we saw lots of dolphins, fewer pelicans, and other waterfowl and a few manatees.

We’re on a mooring ball ($22/night) at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina for two nights.  Late this afternoon we took a “trolley tour” of the town just to get an overview, and tomorrow will go back to see the most interesting places in more detail.  St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited, European-founded city in the United States, established in 1565 by Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez. Today’s population is only 13,000, so it’s still a small place. We’ll let the photos tell the rest of today’s story.