Superlative St. Augustine

St. Augustine, Florida, is one of my favorite cruising destinations. (And I’ve been to quite a few.) It’s pretty, historic, has a timeless ambience and celebrates with festivals year-round. And it has beaches and golf.

- Tom Neale

Want more? While you’re enjoying all this, you can conveniently take care of boat business. And you don’t need a car or plane to get there because St. Augustine also has an ocean inlet and access to the Intracoastal Waterway.

Hundreds of boats use the inlet every week, including many that head offshore to fish. The inlet opens into the ICW, which borders the city and develops shoals from time to time, as do most inlets. If this or strong onshore winds are an issue for you, then the ICW is a beautiful way to go.

A 280-foot-tall stainless steel cross on shore welcomes you to St. Augustine; it commemorates the first Roman Catholic mass on this continent, celebrated Sept. 8, 1565, when Pedro Menendez de Aviles came ashore and established what would become St. Augustine. Heading south, approaching the ornate Bridge of Lions, you’ll see Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States, completed in 1695.