Our last blog was published on September 29. The time has passed so quickly! Kent and I have been too busy out having adventures to write about them. Once Bangarang landed on the coast of Florida, we sailed north up the east coast and settled in St Augustine. Not permanently, but long enough to take in the culture of the oldest sustained city in the U.S. We spent a few months here before moving south to Fort Pierce to have maintenance done on the boat and prepare to cross to the Bahamas.
We thoroughly explored St Augustine and decided it is one of our favorite towns. St Augustine is the oldest permanently occupied European settlement in the continental United States, founded by the Spanish in 1565. Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles came ashore and named a stretch of land near the inlet in honor of Augustine, a Roman Catholic saint whose feast day is August 28, the day land was sighted. The location has since been pinpointed by archaeologists from the University of Florida as being where present-day Mission of Nombre de Dios and the Fountain of Youth stand, a few blocks north of the historic City Gate and downtown. Menendez became Florida's first governor.
The emphasis is on "first European settlement" because the Timucuan Indians were here first and watched Menendez and about 1,500 soldiers and colonists settle here. Since then, the city has been under the governments of Spain (1565-1763 and 1784-1821), Britain (1763-1784), and the United States (1821 to the present).
In the late 1880s, St Augustine had already established itself as a resort community, with the arrival of Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler. He built two hotels and took over another, all luxurious for their day, and launched his Flagler System hotels. He founded the Florida East Coast Railway to transport guests to and from the north to his hotels in St Augustine, Palm Beach, and Miami.overnor.
Three of his former hotels in St Augustine are now important landmarks: Flagler College (which was Hotel Ponce de Leon), the Lightner Building/City Hall (Alcazar Hotel), and Casa Monica Hotel (redone as a county courthouse in the 1960s). Since then, the Casa Monica has been restored back to a luxury hotel, standing prominently in historic downtown today. Flagler also developed a neighborhood of 19th and early 20th century homes just west of the downtown plaza called the Model Land Company tract.
The heart of the city is the Plaza de la Constitucion. The bayfront Castillo de San Marcos, built of coquina, a mix of mortar (later, concrete) and shell, by the Spanish in 1672.
The Bridge of Lions was built in 1927, linking the downtown with Davis Shores, a residential community dating back to the 1920s, and the St Augustine Beach community.
If you've never visited this old town, you are missing a great place for old architecture and cobblestone streets, ancient forts, nice beaches, great restaurants and bars, lots of live music venues, excellent museums, a beautiful college, historic churches, weekly special community events, chocolate and ice cream, a distillery, breweries, abundant seafood, and very friendly people. You get the idea! We moored Bangarang on a ball in the city harbor, just off the Intracoastal Waterway and in close view of the Bridge of Lions, the downtown, and the barrier island. There is a large, active cruising and liveaboard population here, with weekly social events and a shuttle that takes cruisers from the marinas to the major shopping areas outside of the downtown. St Augustine is a popular stop for boats from the northeast going south for the winter. We formed many new friendships with boaters who live aboard like us, from Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Jersey, Alaska, the U.K., and South Africa. It was a great place to be based until we were ready to sail south again, and I'm sure we'll be back!
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| One of the glorious lions at the base of the Bridge of Lyons |
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| Ponce de Leon in the Plaza de la Constitucion |
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The Lightner Museum, displaying a vast collection of
American Victorian antiquities, is housed in a historic hotel |
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| The gardens at the Lightner Museum |
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An old photo of the swimming pool in the
Lightner Museum, when it was a hotel |
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We ate lunch in the restaurant at the Lightner Museum.
The restaurant is located literally in the old swimming pool
from the hotel days (no more water, of course!) |
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| Lots of huge koi swim in the ponds within the gardens. |
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| Stained glass collection at the Lightner Museum |
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| Crystal galore at the Lightner Museum |
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| Sculpture at the Lightner Museum |
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Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the U.S.
Construction began in 1672. |
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Kent posing on one of the huge cannons at
the Castillo de San Marcos at dusk. |
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| The Castillo de San Marcos after sunset |
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| Castillo de San Marcos |
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| Selfie time |
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| Oysters are abundant here, on menus as well as in the harbor! |
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A1A is one of our favorite haunts, conveniently
located across from the marina. |
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In front of Flagler College, once a hotel and now small,
architecturally beautiful liberal arts college. |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
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| Flagler College |
I took the following photos of the Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church, where we attended some Sunday services as well as an organ concert. The church was built in 1889 by Henry Flagler as a memorial to his daughter who died in childbirth. Flagler, his daughter and his granddaughter are buried there. I took a lot of pictures of the exquisite architecture, both inside and outside.
Sorry for so many pictures of the church. Couldn't help myself.
In my next blog entry, I'll share our Thanksgiving experience sailing (on someone else's boat) on the west coast.
And then I'll bring you up to speed on where we are now: the Bahamas.
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