While in Titusville, we were getting close to the top of the Indian River. Travelling on the Indian River between Stuart and Titusville, involved long and straight stretches that were pretty wide and not very visually stimulating. However, north of Titusville, the AICW changes.
Just past mile marker (MM) 875, you make a long sweeping turn to the east and leave the Indian River through a narrow pass called the Haulover Canal for Mosquito Lagoon. In Haulover, there were manatee everywhere in the little pools, nooks and crannies that bank the canal. Once you enter Mosquito Lagoon, the banks are lush and green with lots of palmettos, pines, and an abundance of other flora. It became spectacularly pretty through here.
Travelling up the western shore of the Lagoon, there are literally hundreds of small islands and spoil piles covered with grass and white sand. It's really pretty through here. Then you get into what is called the North Indian River which is windy and curvy and has thousands more islands and coves with names such as "Bittersweet" and "Brickhouse". Much of the land is unspoiled marsh and swamp. It is probably really "buggy" in there. There were thousands of white butterflies everywhere, clouds of them swarming the waterway in all directions. I suspect they eat small mosquitoes and were having a smorgasbord.
Then you merge onto the Hallifax River which takes you up to Daytona beach. At Daytona Beach, we anchored just off the AICW near marker R44 which is mentioned in the cruising guides. It was fairly crowded, but it was late in the day so we pick a spot that looked realistic and dropped the hook for the night. On the NOAA charts, the depths are shown as 13-14 feet in the anchorage area. I can tell you with no hesitation whatsoever, that, having been there, there were no such depths. In fact, we found 7's and 8's where the charts showed 13's and 14's. I knew of this in advance having consulted Activecaptain.com in the morning and read posts from folks who had recently anchored there. So, it was no real surprise.
We did have what we refer to as a mid night anchor drill, however. When you anchor in rivers, there is liable to be tidal currents that are quite strong. You have to be aware of them and make sure you set your anchor really well or you might just end up moving at the tidal swing. It also really helps to have an all chain set up. This dramatically helps reduce your swing. Ideally, however, boaters should use a Bahamian style mooring. It's a lot more work, but it is recommended. What happens, also, is that certain boats will behave differently in situations where the wind and the tides are playing rhythm and harmony, so to speak. Our boat has a full keel, plus, we are quite heavy. As such, we will tend to lie more to the current than the wind. We have been in situations a dozen times where the wind is on the stern but the strength of the current has the boat pointing in the complete opposite diection of the wind. Other boats, will lie to the wind. So, what happens is that, in a tight anchorage, some boats will "sail" on their anchors in one direction, while others lie to the current in the opposite direction, and things can get all "caddywampus" in no time at all - meaning everyone is pointing in different directions AND moving. Plus, if the boats that are sailing on their anchors have little or no chain, they tend to sail quite a distance. So, I was sitting in the comfortable salon after 11:00 p.m., Brenda was asleep, and I heard a bang coming from the back of the boat. The sail boat that was more than 200 feet from us before the tide change sailed right up and hit the dinghy which was in its cradle on the swimstep. We hadn't moved. The sail boat moved. She did not drag anchor or anything. It's just that the tide changed, the wind died, and she wanted to get cozy with our boat. I probably could have suspected as much. Earlier, we heard strange clicking noises, like slowly running a wooden stick up a piece of chain. What that must have been was the sail boat's chain coming into contact with ours. I suspect the sailboat had many hundreds of feet of rope out in front and a small length of chain such that, even though we dropped our hook well distant from any swing potential, we might have been over the sail boat's chain. Nevertheless, imagine the sail boat playing "footsies" with Abreojos in Daytona Beach. I think our old girl was ok with it initially, but didn't like getting poked in the butt like that. So, we moved.
As I said, there was no damage, but we decided that it was best to move. I'm pretty sure there was nobody aboard the sail boat. So, we fired up the old girl's engine and turned on the "see in the dark" stuff (radar, plotter, etc.) and moved about 50 yards or so down the line and anchored again. No big deal really, but 11:30 at night is not the time you want to have to deal with the typical black, ooooooozy, stinky mud dripping from the anchor chain all over the place as it comes up through the roller. Oh well. We had no further incidents during the night and otherwise slept well.
In the morning, we decided visiting Daytona Beach could wait, and we were anxious to get moving north to St. Augustine. There was some snotty weather on the horizon, and by getting to St. A we would be north of most of it.
On this leg of the journey is where things got really pretty. We were still on the Halifax River as we left Daytona Beach. The town itself is quite shiny and colorful. What was particularly cool was the tile mosaics on the bridge pilings. Dolphin and manatee all done in beautiful mosaic tile. It's really too bad more towns don't do this. I know of some very cool mural art on the highway bridges in Los Angeles, but those have invariably been "tagged". Too bad. So, once you get under the bridge complex in Daytona, the AICW crawls over to the east side of the Hallifax and takes you behind many many wonderful and green islands before you cross Tomoka Basin. Then, just before MM815, you go under this very cool old bascule bridge. Now, the waterway becomes increasingly narrow and winding.
The banks are lined with national park land and include swamps, marshes, trees and palmetos. It's absolutely beautiful and wild. You then pass through Fox Cut, an obvously man made canal due to its complete straight aspect, with very cool homes that all have docks jutting out into the river, and then merge into the Matanzas River heading towards the notorious Matanzas Inlet.
The cruising guides warn of shoaling threats in this area and I was aware of a couple active hazards posted very recently by cruisers who had just passed through. I have also become accustomed to picking up the phone and calling the local TowBoatUS office and asking for local knowledge when I feel it is appropriate. We found the number for TowBoatUS in St. Augustine and the fellow who answered the phone gave me the number of their Palm Coast captain. Both fellows were most helpful and gave us the perfect advice we needed to round the back of Rattlesnake Island and get passed Matanzas Inlet at low tide with no problem. They said to "hug the reds" as you get to R82 through R80. Interestingly, his advice was to turn off the chart plotter and don't even think of following the magic magenta line through here because it will put you aground every time. His advice was to follow the marks as they existed then and there. The marks in this are are all temporary reds and greens. The people responsible for this area (the Coast Guard) move them regularly to accomodate the incessant shoaling that occurs here. Unfortunately, two sail boats did not speak with the captain, and perhaps did not carefully consult their cruising guides or consider local knowledge. They were both aground in the turn. We heard one boat we were anchored with in Daytona call BoatUS and advise they were aground at G79d, precisely in the area where we were told to hug the reds. She was way over on the green side. I forget the type of boat she was but I do know that she draws a little over 5 feet. They managed to get themselves off, but the other sail boat that was stuck was trying everything they could to get off. Really, they were lucky they ran aground at low tide. The tide would be rising soon, and eventually, given the more significant tidal swings near inlets, they would have enough water to float off without damage or need for further assistance.
What was really funny was how Brenda could apparently tell I was getting a little keyed up as we were approaching the inlet - checking my charts again and again and again, tuning my radar, sounder, and plotter windows so as to be totally prepared. I always have a tendancy to anticipate the worst case scenario, and tend to over prepare - sometimes to the point of ridiculous - in anticipation of going through this well known hazard area. It had been such a beautiful day so far and the thought of spending a lot of time ungrounding 30 tons of trawler was not really appealing to me at that point, and, moreover, by the time we got to the curve behind Rattlesnake Island, the boat aground at G79d was still aground and BoatUS still had not arrived. That was more than an hour ago. I did know, however, in the back of my mind that, if we dug in, at least a TowBoatUS vessel was somewhere en route. Two-for-one deal for him, right?
So, here I am driving the boat, feeling a little like a big ball of yarn, and Brenda goes below. Several minutes later, she returns with a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Oh my. The love thought it would be a good idea, as we approached perhaps the most hazardous inlet on the Northeastern Coast of Florida, to bake cookies. What can I say? Brenda has an amazing talent for helping me get through things by taking the edge off and polishing it with a little sunshine. I could not be blessed with a better crew.
After Matanzas Inlet, the rest of the journey to St. Augustine was easy and beautiful. The area behind Anastasia Island was amazing as was our passage across the mouth of the San Sebastian River on our final approach to St. Augustine. As you come around the last turn, the Bridge of Lyons comes into view. It's a spectacular old bridge. There is also a very cool lighthouse at the St. Augustine Inlet that is quite tall and visible from miles away.
Upon our arrival, we got a mooring through St. Augustine Municipal Marina and hit the beach. I'll write a lot more about our visit to St. Augustine, but I wanted to tell you about the cruise up here, because, for us, it was really a beautiful time.
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