St Auggies Spring Messabout |
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by Michael Smith - St Augustine, Florida - USA |
Here are some photos from our Spring St. Auggies
Messabout:
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This is
from when I first arrived at Lighthouse
park and the boat ramp there... it's a
cool place, right on the waters edge of
the Salt Run area of St Augustine bay...
(click
images to enlarge) |
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Got the Sharpie
Launched and then beached... there's a lot
of small boats that beach here... |
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I hung out for a while and talked to some of the
passersby who asked me about the Sharpie and stuff
and one of the guys who was a livaboard anchored there
in Salt Run anchorage and was coming ashore in his
dingy with a load of laundry...
since after waiting a while it looked like there wasn't
going to be a huge crowd of participants I headed
out to the anchorage at Anastasia Island Park where
we had put the word out to muster at 1300...
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A couple
yakkers were getting out as I was shoving
off
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Saw this double
master as I motored out.. the wind was against
me and I wanted to get to the anchorage
early so I dropped the motor... |
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As I continued
the passage off my port side you can see
parts of Downtown St Augustine... |
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It really was bad timing on my digicam going down
and having to get by with a disposable... the picture
quality has suffered... it's hard to make out with
the poor resolution but if you are there you can see
the huge cross that marks where the Spaniards landed
and I do mean huge... you can see it for miles...
you can also get a great view of the Castillo fort...
St Augustine is loaded with history... It's a fantastic
place to live and play in my humble opinion and it
left me perplexed as to why the last two St Auggies
Messabouts I've tried to launch have been so sparsely
attended... oh well, maybe the fall one will have
more comers :)
Here I had
made it to the anchorage and threw my hook
out and hung out to see who would show up...
in front of me is Conch House Marina...
some megabucks boats... |
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You can see some of the channel markers and a real
nice cruising Cat anchored over a ways... things are
a lot closer than the rinky dink camera lens made
them appear...
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A couple
ladies paddled by in their yaks as a couple
dolphins rolled... I just couldn't catch
them dead on before they got too far away... |
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from this
angle you can see the lighthouse and get
an Idea how far the ride out to the anchorage
at Anastasia Island is... |
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Went ashore
and tied off a line to a cedar tree. |
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Here's a veiw
of the beach at the anchorage |
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the other
direction down the beach |
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I climbed
up the dune... here's that veiw of Anastasia
Island... old Florida... very little of
that left that hasn't been destroyed by
developers... |
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here's
the perspective from atop the dune....
I had this whole place to myself up there...acres
and acres... |
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after a while
a few other boaters showed up but nobody
with the messabout... |
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So I dug out my cooler and had some grub and watched
the boats, birds and people for a while and then after
a few hours of hanging, motoring and sailing around
the area I made my way back to the ramp...
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I ran
into Dave From down Chuluota way (Central
Florida) and he had his Boat ,A Coronado
I think... |
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If he sees this maybe he can elaborate on it... anyway
by this time the tide was getting low and the wind
was absolutely howling from the s-s-e, and he wasn't
looking to anxious to put her in in those conditions...
so we talked for quite a while there at the park as
I broke down the Sharpie and got it ready for the
road home...
a Bunch of people stopped by and commented on our
boats and bent our ears for a while... all in all
It was fun as usual and I hope as we continue to try
to keep the spring and fall St Augustine Messabouts
going it will eventually get up some attendance...
Thanks for helping us get the word out...Duckworks Rules
Mike
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