St. Augustine, Florida

PIRATES!

We have landed in the City of Lions,
St Augustine, Florida.

The old tourist trap is still pumping it out
but there seems to be some efforts to beautify beyond the
t-shirts and the tour trains, it really does look good.

Castillo De San Marcos, the spanish fort
guarding the harbor and inlet.
oh, by the way, the inlet is not charted,
a little scary coming in, but fine.

In 1821 the United States assumed control of Florida
 and Federal troops occupied the fort.
It was renamed Ft. Marion,
 for the Revolutionary war hero Francis Marion,the "Swamp Fox".
Ft. Marion remained an active military post until 1900.

This structure is a hot shot furnace for heating cannon balls
 to be shot at wooden vessels hopefully to set them on fire.
It is part of the water battery built by the U.S. (1842-44)

This was when this side of the moat was filled and guns
 and guns were mounted in an arc on the seaward side of the fort.

Even today these walls are pretty imposing.

This seawall is built of tabby and is probably three feet thick.

Tabby is a concrete like substance 

made from lime, shells, sand, charcoal and water.

Ginny and I are actually using tabby in building our new home.

Not something you see everyday,
 it is wonderful how well preserved this structure is.
Osceola, the Seminole chief and warrior was imprisoned here.

This gate opened in 1739, it provided the only access through the
defense line on the north side of Spanish St. Augustine.

This is looking at the north side of the gate.
Royal Engineer Manuel De Hita built these coquina pillars in 1808.

Isn't it great that Ginny will get up, walk to dog
 and get these wonderful pictures without the teeming masses of tourists?
It is really very pretty without a lot of people buying t-shirts.

This is the oldest wooden school house in the U.S..

Casa Rodriquez

And of course a mainstay of Ybor City in Tampa
 and St. Augustine, the Columbia Restaurant.
Yes, we had lunch there
 and took Cuban sandwiches back to the boat for dinner.
Lost the use of the generator and having a problem with the power steering
so delayed here an extra day or two.
We are worried about the level of Lake Okeechobee,
it is near the water level where they impose restrictions on lock openings
 and depth gets a little shaky.
We hope we can get there before the water level drops too low.