May 20, 2008

We woke to a beautiful morning in Saint Augustine. We had a few errands to run and on our way back from the errands we stopped in at the Anastasia Bookstore. What a find that place was. Loads of great used books, we spent 2 hours creeping the aisles looking for whatever struck our fancy. The only disappointment was in the medical section where most of the books were older and still subscribed to the theory of using leeches to ease the troubles associated with menopause; a new book may be the way to go there. We did walk out of there with an armload of great books all for only $20.

After spending the morning there we decided to walk into town for lunch. On the way through town, guess what we found, that’s right another bookstore. After another hour we were once again on our way to eat and then it was back to the boat for the remainder of the day.

The next day we did our laundry and then hit the bookstores once again, just to be sure. After another lunch on the town we were once again back to the boat for the evening.

The Bridge of Lions was this ancient drawbridge that spanned the river in Saint Augustine. It was in sad condition so in their infinite wisdom some geniuses decided that instead of replacing the bridge they would rebuild it. I’m not sure why as the old bridge was a reasonably uninspiring span. So what they’ve done is put up a huge temporary span right next to old bridge. This temporary span is a fully functioning very nice new drawbridge. They figure its going to take until sometime in 2010 to have the old bridge rebuilt at which point they’ll tear down the temporary span. I wonder who’s paying for this crap.

The new bridge is big and modern and right behind it as you approach is the “classic” bridge being rebuilt. The new opening span has a channel that is probably a hundred feet wide, then sitting right behind it are the abutments of the old bridge with an advertised width of 79 feet. This came to our attention on our last night in Saint Augustine. A southbound tugboat was pushing a pair of barges that had been lashed together side by side. Picture a pair of big rusty hockey rinks. He called ahead to the bridge operator to inquire as to the width of the old bridge. The bridge operator told him it that the opening was 79 feet wide. The tugboat guy said “great, we’ll only need 76 feet”.

I said to myself “I gotta see this shit”. The guys only gonna have a foot and a half on either side of the barges, the current is ripping out against him and its dark.

We’re anchored right next to the bridge to the east of the channel so we’ve got front row seats. After about 10 minutes the tug came along pushing his dual barges. We watched as he slipped easily between the legs of the temporary bridge, got about ten feet into the old bridge and came to a grinding halt.
He was stuck, the tide was going out, so he started cranking out maximum power as he tried to wiggle and pull the barges back out of the opening. After a few minutes the tug succeeded in withdrawing the barges from the gap. Now he was going backwards, with the tide pushing him, in the dark and he had to spin the whole shebang around and go back the way he came.

Luckily for us the tidal flow pushed his bow towards us so he was forced to back up across the river into the anchorage where we tried to anchor when we first arrived. The tug combined with the 2 barges made up a giant hunk of floating steel. The guy was masterful as he pivoted his vessel practically right on top of the small boats anchored all around him. You could feel the tremendous power of the tugboat in the pit of your stomach as he used every bit of the horsepower available to him. He rocked the hell out of everybody on that side of the river but deftly averted what could have easily been a disaster.

As he headed off into the darkness he called the bridge operator and calmly said “I thought you said I had 79 feet?” The bridge operator said “that’s what it says up here”. That was it, I’d have been freaking out but the tug guy just said “I’ll be back in a bit”.

After 20 minutes he and his crew had reconfigured the barges and now they were lashed end to end with the tug pushing from the back of the stack. This time with plenty of room they slipped through the gap and disappeared into the night.

Sometimes it’s just better than television. After that we retired for the night because we have an early day tomorrow.