We left the quiet harbor of St. Mary's and motored down the river, back out the ominous channel to sea. Once again, the tide was against us, but flooding current ran with the waves and did not create a large sea at the inlet. The trip down calm, with only 60 mile to go. We had just enough time to get there before dark.
During our trip, our review of the St. Augustine entrance became more and more concerned. The reading discussed breakers on sand bars on either side of the entrance. The channel changes so much that there are no regular buoys on the chart, simple noted "bouys are moved often to adapt to the changing channel. The photo above is of the breakers on the south side.
Upon arrival the sun was setting and we were trying to enter before dusk so that we could still see the unlit channel buoys (the chart and GPS were useless, as they buys weren't marked!). As we entered there were breakers to the left of us and breakers to the right of us! We were guided by the large (read size of light house) cross that is the harbor. Once inside, it was calm and we passed a schooner out for a chartered sunset tour. We anchored right in front of the city, north of the Bridge of Lions. It was very peaceful, with the town all decorated with Christmas lights. The only excitement was an accident on the road along the harbor retaining wall. Not sure what happened, but there was a screech, and then people running down (away) the street. Cops and ambulance came shortly thereafter, but nothing serious, it seems.
Our only regret was that we didn't stay longer - something we would certainly like to do in the future.
We did learn, however, what makes an "All Weather Inlet" and all weather inlet. Things like: wide, non moving channel; lighted entrance buoys that can bee seen day or night and are large enough to have radar reflections for reduced visibility. Oh, an no breakers 10 ft from the entrance!
Breaking seas at the inlet:
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