Anchoring Next to a National Monument

We’ve Cruised 100 miles on the Great Loop!

We woke up early and started cruising at safe light, just before 7 AM. There were several Gold Loopers (Loopers who have already completed the Great Loop once) in the anchorage with us, including a beautiful Krogen Express, Sunset Delight.

As we returned to the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) another Gold Looper in a red custom trawler, Good Ship, came out from a nearby marina. They kindly gave us a slow pass and hailed the Main Street Bridge (vertical clearance of 17 feet) to open. Our air draft with the bimini up is 15′, so I was a little disappointed, as I personally wanted to see if we’d make it under.

Making our way through Daytona Beach and up through Flagler Beach was nice on an early Monday morning with the very infrequent boat traffic. Once we passed Flagler Beach, we cruised through Tomoka State Park and thenn through Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, both of which representing real, wild Florida.

The tidal flats, beautiful marshes, palm trees, and wildlife were a treat after the busy Daytona cruise yesterday. The current swapped to be in our favor the last hour or so and we hit a new top speed, 10 MPH. Not bad for a ~1300 RPM fuel burn.

We were behind Good Ship for the entire day but they continued north as we made the eastern turn towards Fort Matanzas, our chosen anchorage. With the Matanzas Inlet being so close, the turn off is quite shoaly, and not to be taken lightly. We practiced the mantra “go as fast as you want to hit something” and idled through safely.

We anchored not long before dead low tide, so while we made lunch, we were able to keep an eye on Swampy as she pivoted 180°. Elyse was jonesing for a good hike, so after lunch was devoured we launched our “gulf cart” Zed, and headed to shore! We were just in time to catch the last ferry availble for the next few days and got to explore the Fort.

Yes, we had to ferry, using our own boat was not allowed. So we took a big boat, then a small boat, to ride a medium size boat to the monument. The next day we edited, got the trim tabs done, and went to shore and hiked the two short trails near the visitors center before heading to the nearby sandbar for a relaxing afternoon.