Kite and Ringle spent an uneventful night anchored near Blount Island and were ready to depart at 08:30. The half-hour trip to the ICW took 45 minutes because the current in the St. Johns river was flooding against us at 2 knots, slowing our progress to 4 knots until we reached the ICW. Then the flooding current helped us as we made a quick passage down the ICW to St. Augustine. This took us through 30 miles of salt marshes where the predominant life forms are waterfowl, fishes and dolphins. We enjoyed seeing pelicans gliding above the water with only their wing tips skimming the surface, and cormorants surfacing from a dive with too big fish in their bills that they managed to swallow whole anyway. And a treat for us was a swallow-tailed kite (named for our boat, no doubt) that soared through the trees along our route for several minutes.
 |
| Kite soars through trees along ICW |
If not for the wildlife our day might have seemed boring. That is, until we arrived in the vicinity of St. Augustine. As we approached the famous Bridge of Lions drawbridge, we were obliged to dodge away from "Freedom", a schooner that was tacking its way out to sea.
And then we passed through the Bridge of Lions on its 15:00 scheduled opening. That is Kite passing through ahead of Ringle.
After we arrived at our moorings, we freshened up and then hopped into our dinghy to meet Vince and Eveline (from Ringle) for some delicious dinners ashore at Harry's Seafood Bar.
No comments:
Post a Comment