The two St. Augustine mooring fields lie just north and south of the Bridge of Lions and Capt. Miller relays local advice for entering the southern mooring field.

We picked up a mooring in the southern field on April 2nd, 2012.
Approaching from the south, we turned into the mooring field just north of R `10’³. The chart and plotter both showed good water but we hit bottom and turned back into the channel (we draw 4.5′). The dockmaster (channel 71) told me to stay in the channel until abeam the northern end of the field before turning in.
Be aware that the water taxi only runs every two hours on the even hours and the last chance to return to your boat is 6:00 pm. If your crew is threatening mutiny, there is a liquor store across from the fort.
The mooring fee is $21.20 per night.
Max Miller

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Anchorage Directory Listing For St. Augustine Northern Anchorage

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Claiborne just visited River’s Edge Marina a few weeks ago and reports it to be a quiet, competent facility with a very popular restaurant on-site. This facility lies on the northwestern shores of San Sebastian River, north of marker #29.

Just filled up today (4/6/12). Price was $3.95. Note that there is a 50-gallon minimum. Also, fuel hose can reach all boats on A dock, but not outer reaches of the T. There is transient dockage between A and B docks to fill up but water is thin during low tide. Pumpout also is located there.
Dennis Jay

Click Here To View the Eastern Florida Cruisers’ Net Marina Directory Listing For River’s Edge Marina

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I just visited River’s Edge Marina myself a few weeks ago, and found it a quiet, competent facility, with a very popular restaurant on-site. This facility lies on the northwestern shores of San Sebastian River, north of marker #29.

Quality is fitness for use. St Augustine’s River’s Edge Marina is a quality marina. Equally important, it is a family owned small business. I’ll patronize those before a government owned marina any day.
We pick our marinas for safety, cleanliness, utility, and management. River’s Edge (formerly Oyster Creek – they changed the name because people inferred `Creek’ meant shallow and passed them by. Strange, I thought one used a chart to determine depth). Whatever one calls it, River’s Edge pays attention to the essentials and leaves non-value added glitz to others to charge extra for.) gets high marks from us on all counts. It is in a safe neighborhood. It is protected from surge, wakes and winds. It has safe facilities (docks, decks, pilings, ramps, etc.). It is operated safely. It is clean. The young man who maintains the laundry, heads, and grounds gets a plus by his high mark.
For utility it is very hard to beat. It has the lowest price on commercially supplied diesel for miles (and miles). It is just off US 1, and food & spirits, marine supplies (West), hardware, yada-yada-yada, are literally no more than 15 minutes away ‘” even propane at the St Augustine Beach KOA! If it’s farther, call Eco Ride, a zone-fared taxi that uses a hybrid. Back at the marina, Hurricane Patty’s serves an excellent meal. Its clientele extends well beyond the marina denizens, so they have to pay attention to quality.
And River’s Edge is well-managed. This is our third stay, and once again, we left the boat in their care for the better part of a month while we took a road trip.
SV/Brilliant Star

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Marina Directory Listing For River’s Edge Marina

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Now that anchoring time limits on St. Augustine waters, outside of the three city mooring fields, are set at a do-able 30 days, instead of the proposed 10 days, cruisers can once again begin to ponder where the best places to drop the hook while visiting St. Augustine, are located. Below, Captain Vince Roberts provides some excellent answers to this musing.

Their are plenty of anchoring spots in the St. Augustine area outside of the mooring fields. To name a few. In Salt Run area lots of room for anchoring outside the mooring field . Northeast of the Fort their is ample depth and swinging room for 6+ boats. Also east of the north mooring field off Anastasia Island one can find fairly good holding and swinging room. I have had my Island Packet sailboat here in St. Augustine for the past 10 years and have never had a problem finding a suitable spot to anchor. One must search for a suitable location depending on weather of course. Hope this helps.
Capt. Vince Roberts

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St. Augustine has been much in the cruising news of late, due to its proposed ten day anchorage limit outside of the city’s three mooring fields (which the FWC changed, thankfully, to a 30-day limit). However, Captains John and Carol’s message below pertains to problems they encountered in the city mooring field south of Bridge of Lions, and hard by St. Augustine City Marina.
The messages below are reprinted from the American Great Loop Cruisers’ Association forum.

Spent two days at the mooring balls in St. Augustine and will never go there again. They allow crab pots in the middle of the field and DO NOT police the area. The inconsiderate crab potters come into the field on plane, 25 yards from moored boats, stop to check pot, and immediately accelerate away. When mentioned at the office, I was informed that there is nothing they could do and could not stop the crabbers from being in the mooring field. If I had thier number from the boat, they would report the
crabber to authorities however I was too busy picking up lamps and other things in boat to get numbers. I was also told that they know it is a problem. There is not even a no wake disignation for the field. Nice people do operate the city mooring and marina but evidently are powerless. If St. Augustine, which does have a lot to offer in thier downtown area want boaters to stop, they need to get a handle on activities inside the mooring fields so boats and boaters will be safe while moored and unable to maneuver to defend themsleves from inappropriate wakes.
John & Carol Sagel

Captain Ted Stehle, editor for “Waterway Guide” chimed in, and asked the following question:

Which of the three mooring fields were you in?
Ted Stehle

And Captains John and Carol replied:

We were right outside the marina, to the south of the office.
John & Carol Sagel

It only took two stops for us to determine the New Mooring Fields in St. Augustine were designed for us Second Class Citizens. As Capt. John and Carol said there’s no wake restrictions on boats passing the mooring field. Unbelievable! No excuse other than the City doesn’t give a crap otherwise they would have petitioned for a No Wake Zone and Fishing Exclusion Zone when they created the Mooring Fields. My advice is Vote with your pocketbook and bypass doing business with them. That’s what we are doing. Sooner or later they will get the message.
Capt. Jesse Price

And here’s GREAT, late breaking news from St. Augustine:

We stayed at the Anchorage Inn Marina across the river from St Augustine municipal marina for a few weeks and agree with the complete lack of enforcement of the current No Wake zone, which ends prior to the mooring field anyway’¦Good news, the Harbormaster informed me when I called to complain that they had received approval to have the current No Wake bouy moved 500 feet further south of the Bridge of Lions in early January 2012. This will not cover the entire South Mooring Field, but should help some, especially those closer to the marina. I hate to say it, but the worst offenders were the local fishermen and big 4-engined CBP boats from the new CBP National Training Center at SAMC.
Scott & Tina Ligon

We have spent several days in the mooring field both spring and fall and have experienced the most courteous marina operators anywhere. In regards to the no wake issue there has been a defiant improvement over this spring. We found no issues with commercial fishermen however we also have no problem sharing these waters with the real men & women of the sea.
Our Lord’s Blessings
Ed & Bonnie
S/V Almost Heaven

Fishermen were here before tourist and work for a living. If Cruisers had it their way the ICW would be set up just for them. Don’t Cruisers have any good things to say’¦all they do is complain, everything I read is how Florida should change laws to suit them’¦Compromise’¦.oh what is that you say. I’m for No wake zones but powerboats have a right to run in certain areas’¦although they are few because of the cry babies.
Maybe bypass Florida..perfect.
Darrel Warren

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Anchorage Directory Listing For the St. Augustine City Southern Mooring Field

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Despite the controversy surrounding St. Augustine’s proposed anchorage regulations OUTSIDE of the city owned mooring fields, praise for the two new mooring fields continues to come in. The mooring fields lie just north and south of the Bridge of Lions.

We pulled into Salt Run on the evening of the 20th of November and our first observation was `Wow, where did all the junk go?’ Our second observation was that there were several lines of crab pots. Upon closer examination the crab pots were white mooring balls, very neatly identified as SR 1, etc. We coasted up to one, caught the painter, and soon had Carolina snugged in.
Around 5:20 pm we were hailed by a St. Augustine Marina employee who got us registered, suggested a ball that had better for our draft, and we paid our $14.00 fee for the night.
We were given a card identifying the ball and the date which gave us access to everything we would have had at the City Marina, other than water and electric.
We fully understand the controversy over anchoring rights in and around various Florida municipalities, but having experienced what St. Augustine has accomplished, are very satisfied with the product.
Steve and Sheila Kamp aboard S/V Carolina

The mooring field at St Augustine wasn’t there our last trip but was being talked about. We thought that it would be wonderful. The blows through there can get pretty rough and no more worries about anchors not holding, and boats drifting into others. 14 a day, isn’t bad. We will be Happy to pay for the mooring on our next trip down! Besides, if You stop in St Augustine 14 bucks will probably be the cheapest thing You purchase!
S/V Gemini

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Anchorage Directory Listing For St. Augustine Northern Anchorage

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As reported earlier here on the Cruisers’ Net, Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor lies a short hop north of St. Augustine, outside of the city limits. Having just visited here a few months ago, I join with Captain in agreeing that this is a really first class marina in all respect, and, they are a SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS NET SPONSOR!!

Cruising News:
I keep a boat at Commachee Cove and without a doubt any cruiser would be smart to take a slip there rather than anchor. In every respect it is a first class operation and if you are in the vicinity it would be foolish not to avail yourself of their facility.
Les Glasser

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Rivers Edge Marina in St. Augustine, FL, is found well off the AICW, on the San Sebastian River, near this body of water’s upstream cruising limits.

We spent about a week here over 4th of July and it was awesome! Dockage for the week was $7/foot/week and with the 30 AMP electric, it cost us about $230 for one week over 4th of July weekend. Not bad for St. Augustine!!
Clean showers, good laundry facilities, friendly liveaboards, loaner bikes, you can’t go wrong here! It’s about a mile to downtown St. Augustine (the tourist section), 1/4 mile to Winn-Dixie, West Marine, and 3/4 mile to Target. Home Depot is another 1/4 mile down from Target and Wal-Mart is maybe 3 miles total from the Marina. Also, Sailor’s Exchange is and 1/2 mile away too! You can’t beat this location.
We recommend staying here instead of the Municipal Marina, quieter, more private, less wakes.
Nicole

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Marina Directory Listing For Rivers Edge Marina

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If you have been following Cruisers’ Net, you almost certainly know there is an issue about whether the newly rebuilt Bridge of Lions that crosses the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in St. Augustine, Florida, has less than its charted, mean high water, closed vertical clearance of 25 feet. Since the completion of the bridge in 2010, many cruisers have questioned the charted height and as a result, Cruisers’ Net has recommended counting on only 22 feet at MHW.

There has been controversy of how much clearance there really is. Today we traversed south to north at high tide (2:15 pm). Depth marker read 19 ft. Plus 4 ft. at center. We need 22 and cleared easily. No more issue. 23 ft at high tide.
Larry Monty aboard Seaclusion

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Rivers Edge Marina is found well off the AICW, on the San Sebastian River, near this body of water’s upstream cruising limits.

Rivers Edge (formerly Oyster Creek Marina), St Augustine: Not high end but comfortable and well protected from wakes with a nice cruising community and walking distance to downtown and to shopping.
Mike & Tammy
Valhalla II

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Marina Directory Listing For Rivers Edge Marina

River’s Edge Marina is on the San Sebastian River at marker #29 with a channel departing the Waterway to the west-northwest, south of marker #12 and just north of SR 312 Bridge in St. Augustine, FL.

Visited friends that are at Rivers Edge but will NOT be making the visit again. Music is too loud from the restaurant and there was a rather loud party at the grills that lasted well into the night. The next morning, there was a terrible mess; beer bottles, trash, etc. According to my friends, the prices are very reasonable, but I think that if it were me, I’d pay a little more for a quieter evening.
Celeste

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Marina Directory Listing For River’s Edge Marina

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Praise for the two new mooring fields near downtown St. Augustine continues to come in. The mooring fields lie just north and south of the Bridge of Lions.

Had a very nice three day stay (November 21-23) in the new mooring field north of the new Bridge of Lions; this is the `SM’ (for San Marco) field that is in front of Bay Street and the Castillo de San Marco. For $20/day, you have access to the dinghy dock and the bathhouse (very nice facility), and to a pump out boat (we didn’t use the service so I don’t know the schedule). The moorings are about a month old at this writing; we had not understood the system, and when the installer came by he told us how to correctly attach ourselves (with the `keyhole’ much closer to the boat than we had understood) and even sent his diver to detach us so we could easily make the correction. I know the installation of moorings has been controversial in the cruising community, but given the shallow depths, the proximity of the seawall, the channel and the bridge, and the excellent access to marina services and the attractions of Saint Augustine, I have to say that I think the $20 is a bargain. Discounts for longer stays, I understand. Captain Leigh Hough

A reader requested an explanation of the term “keyhole” and here is Captain Hough’s response:

Hi Larry. I was afraid that terminology would be confusing. So there is a yellow “float” attached by a line to the ball itself. It may be sitting down inside the “bowl” on the top of the ball. Above that float is a loop (it is rigid, not a line, therefore my description of it as a “keyhole”) through which you want to pass your line (we attached to something below the float originally, and the installer came along and corrected us, and said they had seen several folks make the same mistake). The office is supposed to be giving people better directions now (so said the installers); the moorings had only been in for a month or so when we were there in November. I am attaching a not-great photo; I may have another more helpful one and will dig it out and send it along. Happy New Year!

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