11/06/15 Amelia Island to St Augustine, FL

Friday, 11/06/15 - Amelia Island to St. Augustine, FL
Once we took a good look at the inside path between Amelia & St. Augustine and compared that to our tide tables, we decided this would not be a good time to try to make it past the skinny, shoaled areas here.  Low tide was due around 10:40 am & most of these areas require us to be beyond 2 hours, either side of the low tide. Soooo, with a great forecast ahead of us, we decided it was time to head to the ocean to make the 54 mile passage to St. Augustine.

It turned out to be a good decision. The wind was mostly under 10 knots and the seas were mostly 2 to 3 ft. Though some swells pushed 4 feet, they were gentle so it was a great cruise.

We stayed within a mile of shore to enjoy the sights until we
had to move out due to shallow water

A nice, relaxing cruise today

Coast Guard cutter anchored near Jacksonville

At first we thought we saw a few coconuts floating by. On closer look, they were cannonball jellyfish and shortly, we were besieged by them. Literally thousands of the pretty, brownish purple little balls as far as we could see!

We had never seen cannonball jellyfish before. They were quite pretty.

There were thousands of these little guys everywhere

The lighthouse at St. Augustine greeted us as we came in the cut

The old fort guarding the harbor here

The view from Samba at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina

Boy, timing is everything. Once we were settled, we headed in to town to the visitor center to see what we would want to do. This evening is their first friday art gallery walking tour and it ran until 9:00 pm.

It was a magical evening with lots of galleries and amazing artwork and all within just a couple of blocks of our boat! We probably visited 10 or 12 galleries or more before we finally headed back.