North Star on the Great Loop Journey: St. Augustine

Preparing for the trip

Captain Jerry has been making the final preparations to North Star, our 32 foot Cape Island down east trawler. We are anxious to leave our landlubber lives behind and begin our long awaited journey around the Great Circle. Join us as we travel 10, 000 kilometers: through the historic Trent Severn Waterway; the pristine waters of Georgian Bay; the North Channel of lake Huron; and hop from beach to beach on lake Michigan. We will visit Chicago and begin our trek along the rivers: Illinois; upper Mississippi; Ohio; Cumberland: Tennessee; Tenn-Tom Waterway and the Black Warrior. We will have transited through 68 locks at this juncture. We have chosen the inner route from Mobile Alabama to Tarpon Springs Florida and the shorter Ocheechobee Waterway to reach the East coast of Florida. We will skip over to the Bahamas to wait out the winter before heading North on the Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway.
The 10 years of researching and planning are finally at an end and we invite you to come along on our adventure.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

St. Augustine

We arrived at 4:00 last night after a rainy day on the water. We covered 72 miles because there is not much to do when it is raining. It was a pleasant steam with little wind and narrow channels so there are lots of beautiful houses to admire.
We are anchored at Salt Run across from a lighthouse near the Atlantic Ocean. (N29 52.92 and W81 16.86) We can hear the surf on the beach other than that it is peaceful and quiet. The city of St. Augustine has installed mooring balls in all the former anchorages. We were hard pressed to find a spot but we did it. They want to discourage the locals from anchoring a boat and just leaving it to sink or drift in storms. There are a lot of derelict boats and grounded boats around.
Some folks spotted our Newfoundland flag and came over by dinghy to meet us. They stayed for a couple of drinks while we chatted about Newfoundland. They own a place in the Bay of Islands and they have mutual acquaintances in Lewisporte.
We are staying an other day at this anchorage so we can reprovision, check out the lighthouse and see some of the town. I would also like to walk across t he dunes to the ocean but it may be further than I think. There is lots of history in this the oldest town in the US. but it is hard to see it all when you are travelling by boat.
More on this town tomorrow.