10/30 St. Augustine Lighthouse

 I have been to St. Augustine several times, but never stopped at the impressive lighthouse, so today, as I was driving past, I decided on the spur of the moment to turn in and stop here. 

The grounds of the lighthouse were covered in old growth live oak trees. This is the front of the light keepers residence.

It was very hard to get a good photo of the entire lighthouse because it was so tall and the nearby trees kept me from standing back far enough.

This is the back of the building that was the residence of the keepers.  It looks a little like a military barracks.

The St. Augustine light is the second tallest in Florida, and one of the tallest in the U.S.  There are 219 steps up to the top, and this sign suggests who should NOT climb all the stairs. I was a bit concerned because of my age, but I decided that the worst that could happen is that I would not make it to the top and have to come back down.

On the ground floor was this storage room for the oil that was originally used to produce the flame in the lighthouse lens.

 

 

These next two photos are of the keepers office on the ground floor of the lighthouse. 

 

 

 

Heading up.  Makes me a bit dizzy to tale photos up or down.  

 

It's a long way up. 

 

 

 

What really helps make this climb doable is that most of the landings have signs giving some of the history of the lighthouse, so while you are catching your breath, you can do some reading.

 

This one describes how the young son of the head lighthouse keeper, put a parachute on the families cat and tossed her from the top of the lighthouse.  She survived, but disappeared for a few weeks to no doubt recover from her trauma!   

 

This was had some stories about the birds that kept hitting the lighthouse and dying.

Made it to the top and looking down.

There is a very nice walkway around the top, so I took some photos of the area.

Taking this one really made me dizzy!!!

This one shows the old Fort St. Augustine in the distance. 

The only photo I could get of the lens. 

Next to the lighthouse there was a demonstration area where several boats were being built. 

Onward to my next campground, just about an hour away!!  It was a worthwhile stop, and I really enjoyed my climb. 

10/28 Missed Excitement of Burning Boat Yesterday

I noticed a fire truck and a couple of other emergency vehicles in this very small campground yesterday, but I was on my way out to walk around the nearby town of Fernandina Beach, so I figured someone had had a heart attack or something, and drove out.  

When I got back several hours later, I was told that there had been quite a bit of excitement with a boat on the shore on fire twice!  

Apparently, what happened was that a boat with people in it caught fire nearby and made it to the beach.  Everyone was able to get out safely, but the boat continued to burn until the fire department arrived and put it out.  Or at least they thought they had put it out.  A couple of hours later, it burst into flames again and the fire department arrived again.  Water and chemicals did nothing, so they ended up tossing a lot of wet sand onto it, which finally put the fire out.  

When I went out for a walk today, the remains were still sitting on the beach.  I think it must have been high tide when the boat burned because it was low tide when I took photos and it was in no danger of floating away.  In any case, I am guess that maybe on Monday, someone will come to remove what is left.  

This is the back of the boat.  Not much left. 

And a good view of the inside. 

Hard to see but there are two big engines in the middle.  I suspect it will take some big equipment to remove these and the rest of the remains.  The front half of the boat is pretty much buried in sand, which I assume is because it was tossed on there to help put out the second fire. 

Some of the remnants that must have been pulled out of the boat while it was burning.

If you look very carefully, you will see a bottle of water and a can of some other drink, so this must have been a cooler.  Or maybe a refrigerator of some sort??

Not sure what this is, but some of it looks like floorboards of the boat. 

Apparently, I also missed a submarine coming in during the early morning and another one leaving later in the day. 

10/27 VIllage of Fernandina Beach

I headed to the nearby town today to walk around and maybe treat myself to a good fish sandwich at the restaurant overlooking the harbor.   There are always some interesting boats in town. 

This is the restaurant I am headed to.  Good food, but often crowded right at lunchtime or dinner. 

I walked through town, went in a few shops but did not buy anything.  I took some photos of the architecture of the old buildings.   Lots of people walking around today because tomorrow is the college football game between Florida and Georgia. 

This is quite a grand old building, even now! 

This is actually the post office. 

 

 

 

 

And one of the oldest homes in town.  

This is actually a modern hotel, but interestingly blends into the rest of the architecture in town.

I like the way they left this old tree in the middle of the road and just paved the road around it. 

I'm going out for some groceries tomorrow, so I might add more photos of old houses in town.

10/25 Submarine Leaving St. Mary's River and Kings Bay Naval Base

 At Fort Clinch State Park I knew there were often a lot of military helicopters flying around.  A couple of years ago, I discovered that they were there whenever a submarine entered or left the nearby King's Bay Submarine Base.  Apparently, the submarines cannot submerge when they leave the base and travel through the St. Mary's River on their way to the Atlantic.  This means they pass the state park just before they reach the open ocean.  

All of this means the navy and Coast Guard provides them with extra security until they are in deep enough water to submerge.  This involves a couple of Coast Guard ships coming out of the port first, along with a police patrol along the beach.  The submarine is also accompanied by a large supply ship and a larger Coast Guard cutter.  

So, when I was down at the pier today taking photos of the beach and birds, I noticed a couple of unusual coast guard boats, and could see the supply ship and submarine at the river entrance about half a mile down the beach.  So, of course, in order to get some good photos, I started to run, and then fell flat on my face on the beach!!  Luckily, I was not hurt.

After getting help getting to my feet and brushing the sand off my camera, I continued to walk fast, but not run, closer to the river entrance and took as many photos as I could on my way.  (Note to self:  I need to read the manual to my camera as I ended up with a lot of fuzzy cameras, so clearly I do not understand how this newer camera focuses!)

Here are the photos I took in the order I took them.  The first photo shows one of the two initial Coast Guard boats that led the exit from the river. 

The large supply ship is leading the submarine. 

You can see the large Coast Guard cutter following.

A close-up of the submarine.  The photo is a bit hazy as it was windy, and there was a lot of salt in the air, plus this was taken with a telephoto lens.   There are two guys on top of the tower, and one is either holding a gun or a guitar????  (A guitar does not make sense, but that's what it looked like.  More likely it was some kind of weapon.)  In any case, the two men look very small, which shows you how big this submarine really is.  

The Coast Guard ship is definitely armed!! 

Wonder where this sub is headed???

They are getting close to going around the tip of the far end of the damaged pier. 

I'm going to try to get closer next time, if there is a next time before I leave here in a few days.  Also, I will try not to run on the beach anymore or fall again.