From One Kraken to Another Kraken!

I had been warned that the Kraken lives in the St. Augustine Inlet and to run away, run away!  Never go there, take the ICW--which we did on the way South.  Doing this run into the inlet in broad daylight is scary as heck as marks have been washed into wrong positions and shoaling occurs quickly, stranding unwary boaters. 

So of course, we decide to go out the inlet just as dawn was breaking, when we could barely see the marks.  Granted, Gary had his good reasons, using the tides and currents as his guides, especially because there was a slack tide in the marina and we did not want a repeat of our stylish docking coming in.  Still it made my heart pound on the way out.  The waves were crashing and tossing us about.  Thankfully, the marina office had given us a sort of cheat sheet to use.  At one point, we couldn't see the next mark to steer by and things got very tense.  Dawn broke through just at a crucial point and the new light helped us sight the marks and make our way out; we were all sweating, though.

Past the breakers, the seas calmed considerably and we made good timing down the coastline towards the Ponce Inlet.  Now let me tell you about the Ponce Inlet.  Some also say that the Kraken lives there and to run away.  So, again, we were nervous going in, especially when we had to take the jib down while out in the ocean and the boat starts going all wanga wanga on us.  Turning into shore at the inlet mark caused a little more jumping around, and when we looked to our left, we saw HUGE waves crashing into shore on the other side of the seawall.  All I can say is thank goodness for the seawalls.  Salt spray flying in the air on both sides made us appreciate even the little bit of crazy chop inside.  We stayed to starboard and were fine.  Instead of joining a bevy of other boats anchored closer to civilization, we decided to anchor just across from the nature preserve and it was a great decision.

The golden grasses of the marsh glowed that evening with the sunset while flocks of seabirds congregated at the point of the small spit in front of us to squawk about that day's catches.  Dolphins came up right alongside the boat, surprising us with their chuffing sounds.  They would occasionally get into a tussle with each other, with lots of splashing and jumping, like wrestling boys on a playground. 

A small ray flew out of the water into the air twice on the starboard side of the boat.  I had never seen anything like it.  He may well have been escaping from a hungry fish, but in flight, he seemed happy and carefree.

This could well be one of our favorite anchorages.