Daytona to St. Augustine

We leave Daytona early, around 7:30 AM, and head for St. Augustine, a journey of approximately 50 miles. We try not to think too much about it being Friday the 13th.

We stay on the ICW the entire way and encounter only one bridge that has to be opened, the LB Knox Bridge with a clearance of only 15 feet dead center.

It’s another beautiful day. We have really been lucky with the sunshine as of late!

All is going well until a swarm of nasty striped horse flies, aka greenheads, board Prime 11 and decide to have lunch on us, literally.

Similar to the mosquito, only the female horse fly makes a meal out of humans, horses and hogs. Again, she is seeking blood for her eggs. However, unlike the mosquito which just pierces the skin and often goes undetected, this aggressive horse fly boasts of a mandible, shaped like a scissors, and cuts right through the skin. If that’s not enough, it also has hooks to lock in and feed better. You definitely know you were bit as it is quite painful, and often, as I experienced, you will bruise from it too. So, needless to say, I spent the last leg of our journey swatting at these pesky flies. We just hope their journey on Prime 11 ends at our Marina, Rivers Edge.

River’s Edge Marina is a little over a mile from historic St. Augustine. The marina of our choice, the downtown municipal city dock, was full the weekend of our arrival. Although we would rather have been downtown, Rivers Edge is close to a Winn Dixie and West Marine, so the location is not all bad. They also have a restaurant, Hurricane Patty’s, which had live music every night that we could listen to from our boat. Several nights were pretty good, and one was, let’s just say, the opposite of easy listening. We never ate there, so I can’t comment on the food.

Like many tourists, we bought tickets for the Old Town Trolley. We find these tours are a great way to get the lay of the land and then return to the sights that interest you. Below are highlights of beautiful St. Augustine.

The Spanish Moss, that adorns the trees in this is part of the south, is quite beautiful. To the French settlers, the plant reminded them of the beards of the Spanish Conquistadors, so they named the plant Spanish Beard, which later was interpreted into Spanish Moss. However, the plant is not a moss, but an air plant. It does no harm to the trees. However, to us, when it falls off the tree and lands on the ground, it can become a home to chiggers…and those chiggers are not something you want finding your tender skin.

We had a great time visiting St. Augustine. We didn’t get to do and see everything, but we enjoyed our brief stay. Our time is up, as the crossing to Hilton Head, SC looks good tomorrow.