Day 17 - Brunswick, GA to St. Augustine, FL

Today we are headed to St. Augustine, FL. Crossing into Florida seemed like a victory. We had planned Florida as our final destination. If the trip ended today I could still feel like we made it. We plan to end in Fort Pierce, FL. We are close enough to that to feel like we have achieved our goal. I am sure Doug won’t agree but for some reason Florida really seemed like a victory to me.

We left Brunswick, GA at 9:00 today. We plan to travel to St. Augustine, FL. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. We were looking forward to seeing this city. Our trip was winding and slow today. Once we crossed into Florida it became slow and crazy. We had a stretch of the canal that is very narrow with homes on the port side and nature on the starboard side. The courtesies we had encountered all down the ICW were gone. The hailing to pass was gone. The no wake on boats you are passing was gone. Everyone along this particular stretch had docks and boats. Jet skies were everywhere. It was a sunny Sunday and anyone that had a boat was out on this stretch. There was room for two boats to pass on this channel but boats were passing us on both sides at the same time. We had to go slow the whole way as it was posted as a no wake zone. There were very few that followed the no wake area. We leave a large wake at idle speed but center consoles and ski boats were passing us with wakes. One family was towing kids on a tube at high speed. While it was a beautiful area the boat traffic just made it a miserable ride. By the time we got to St. Augustine the skies were overcast but it was hot and humid.

We pulled into the marina for fuel. We were hot and cranky at this point. As we pulled in the dock hand walked right by. I jumped with the bowline but the current was crazy. We got tied up and fueled up. We went to pay for gas and check on our reservations. Most days we book our reservations online as we are under way just in case we don’t make our planned destination. When we told the dockhand we had requested a reservation on line we were told unless we book days in advance on line we should call the day of. They don’t have time to check reservations during the day. I considered that strike two for not being very friendly. We were told to get off the gas dock as they had two big boats coming in to tie up for the night. We were told to just hang off the dock and they would get out slip assignment to us as soon as they could. There were 5-6 boats waiting to get tied up and they had cruise boats trying to come through that traffic to get to their slips. It was crazy but we managed to get called fairly quickly. A dock hand met us and helped us tie up. Then the fun began. We have a 50 amp power cord that is on a spool and wired directly to the boat. Sometimes that cord binds up so we had a spare Cord that we use and plug into the boat cord. It then gives us plenty of cord depending on where the power tower is located. We handed the dock hand our cord and he plugged it in. It tripped right away. We tried another tower and that one tripped. The dock hand said it was our plug. We had another cord and we tried that. It tripped right away. We have a hookup up in the stern and the bow. We tried both cords on the bow. It wouldn’t work. We pulled out the boat cord and that tripped as well. He said it was our boat cord and that we would have to run the generator. Great! Strike three!! We had paid for power. Doug showered and I went to get a credit for the shore power. We paid $16 for that for the night. Of course the dockmaster shed was about as far away from our slip as possible. I walked over there any way. It was a matter of principle at this point. I passed a boat that had just docked and he too was having the same issue. That dockhand told the same story we had gotten that it had to be the boat cord shorting out. When I went to get my credit I asked the girl at the desk if this was a common issue. I was told it never happens. So two people on the same day have the exact same issue on different docks? Hmmmm. We read some of the reviews and found other people over the past year had the same issue. The marina was in a great location but the whole point of paying for a slip is to have shore power. We had to run our generator all night.

We decided alcoholic beverages were in order. We showered and went ashore. It was a quick walk to the downtown area. We stopped at a pub and had drinks and dinner. After dinner we walked along the walkway. It was very cool. The buildings are very old and the architecture is very unique. We walked along a walkway that was like a large walking mall. Shops on either side of this wide walkway. It went on for blocks and blocks. Doug got an ice cream cone and we sat and people watched for a while. We walked back to the boat winding through parks and alleyways. It was a super cool area. I wish we had more time to explore. I would love to return here and learn more of the history.

We traveled 90 miles today in just over 5 1/2 hours.