Christmas in St. Augustine

We left Jacksonville going a few miles upriver to get past some of the complicated bridge openings and found a little state park island to tuck behind and enjoy a quiet night before continuing on.  Jimi took his drone to shore and got some footage there.

Click here to see Jimi's drove video

We arrived in St Augustine in December. We love this old city. It has so much to offer. We took full advantage of our month here enjoying all we could. We spent a lot of time at the Kookaburra coffee shop, walking the city filled with Christmas singing and lights. We toured the tallest cross, spent time at the library and had the most incredible Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.

The weather was cold and getting even colder. I wouldn’t be surprised if record lows weren’t set in 2017. We woke up to temperatures like 40 degrees quite often; however, our record low was 32 degrees one morning. We definitely knew it was time to start heading South and fast.

Jacksonville Guests

Our next stop was Jacksonville. We anchored next to one of the bridges smack in the middle of downtown Jacksonville. We were surrounded by towers of concrete and steel, bridges and a tourist hangout. Having our home in downtown Jacksonville and watching the hustle and bustle from our floating back porch is something we don’t get to do very often. We are typically anchored in more remote or even touristy areas, so this experience brought us an interesting change. Thinking we could go to shore and find a coffee shop we headed out on foot. We were disappointed to find that there wasn’t anything within walking distance except for one bar after another.

A young missionary couple I met last summer when they visited my church in Nebraska is from Jacksonville. I gave them a call and we invited them out for a day of sailing. Jason and Jessica came aboard and we spent a day sailing the St Johns River. We put them to work pulling halyards and grinding winches. They tacked and jibbed around the river and by the end, they were a capable crew that we would be glad to take on any voyage.