Slave Plantation

We had a bit of rain last night but nothing terrible. It was still spitting this morning but the forecast had it all going away for most of the day.

I was ready to go. I'm tired of Fernandina and looking for another location. Ideally we would go to Pine Island anchorage but it is 49 miles away and on the other side of some terrific adverse currents. Ten hours would be calling it too close.

We needed to wait for a later start to get at least 6 feet of water under the boat before tackling the Amelia and South Amelia rivers today. We left about 8:45am or 1.5 hours before high tide. It was great. We had a following swift current and plenty of water through all the trouble areas never seeing less than 12 feet.

I decided to put in at Ft. George River anchorage since Pine Island would be just too far today. We were in and anchored down by 12noon. We anchored right in front of the Old Kingsley Plantation House. It is the oldest plantation house in Florida and very well preserved and operated by the park service. Admission was free too!!

After lunch we toured it and learned a lot about how these slave plantations operated back in the 1700s.

The grounds were impeccable and information placards everywhere.

Since we were anchored directly in front of the buildings we heard a lot of comments about the sailboat out front. Once back on the boat we had our picture taken by several visitors.

I wasn't going to stop here but Skat and Victoria Gaye said it would be a good one and they are right.

Time to cook some steaks on the grill tonight with a shrimp appetizer and then turn in for an early start in the morning for Pine Island. St Augustine is just 13 miles passed Pine Island and we will probably stop there on Tuesday.