Short Run to Jacksonville, FL -- June 5

After our long run yesterday, we left ourselves a mere 55 miles to get to the Palm Cove Marina on the south side of Jacksonville (just north of the US 90 bridge over the Intracoastal), which we covered in just under four hours. This marina was only 15 minutes from our friends' house, and they picked us up there a bit before 3pm. We had a lovely visit with them, and a nice dinner in a very hip area called "The Beaches" (where Atlantic Blvd hits route A1A). Our thanks to Tom and Cathy for their hospitality, which included free laundry (versus $2 per load at most marinas) and nice snacks and drinks. 

Today's travelogue begins with this house, a couple miles south of Matanzas Inlet, which is clearly all ready to go for the next hurricane.

The boxy building flying a flag in the photo below is Fort Matanzas (restored) that used to guard its namesake inlet. The fort was built by the Spanish in 1742 to guard Matanzas Inlet after James Oglethorpe (founder of Georgia) used the inlet and the Matanzas River to attack St. Augustine from the rear. Oglethorpe's attack failed, but the Spanish learned a lesson and built the fort, which was a success in that no one tried to attack St. Augustine again from the rear. (So, who remembers learning about James Oglethorpe in school?)


The inlet at St. Augustine has a nice lighthouse, first lit in 1874 and automated in 1955.

The Bridge of Lions is where route A1A crosses the Matanzas River into downtown St. Augustine (on the left). It was built in the 1920's and extensively renovated (essentially rebuilt) in the aughts. Presumably this will be an exception to the goal of having all Intracoastal bridges with 65' clearances. 

That's all for today. Short run. Short blog. 

P.S. I should also mention that we've had quite a few wildlife sightings -- especially once we got north of Titusville -- including dolphins, manatees, eagles and pink spoonbills. 

P.P.S. Don't understand what is going on with some of my photos being bleached out like the middle two. Sorry about that. 

Comments

  1. Greg WilliamsJune 13, 2024 at 1:58 PM

    "(So, who remembers learning about James Oglethorpe in school?)" Not me. Thats why you were a Natl Merit Scholar and most of us weren't lol.

    ReplyDelete

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