21 December 2020
Happy winter solstice to all! Yes, even in Florida we see that the days are short, sunset comes too early, and the nights are cold and long. But today marks that switch, and the days will slowly and gradually get longer again. It'll take a while to warm up again, but hey, summer is on its way.
We decided we'd do some exploring. The impetus was an article we received from Richard's brother, and then a news broadcast on TV. BIG news - an old ship was uncovered by the waves of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Eta, and it turned out that the ship's site was about 5 or 6 miles (almost 10 km) south of us, right here on Anastasia Island!!!
There are a number of articles 
that were published about this, but this article seems to be the most informative: www.staugustine.com/story/news/2020/11/19/shipwreck-found-st-johns-county-likely-19th-century-cargo-vessel/3776794001/
And another article with good photos: www.cnn.com/2020/11/22/us/shipwreck-discovered-hurricane-eta-florida-trnd/index.html
It's believed that this ship was the Caroline Eddy, built in the late 1800s. The lighthouse keeper in the 1880s kept a log, and wrote about a ship in August 1880 blown off course during a hurricane. This most likely is that ship. (There is a book about shipwrecks off the Florida coast, and if this is the Caroline Eddy, the crew survived by spending the night up in the rigging, no no one died.)
Anyway, we knew that the ship's site was somewhere in the Crescent Beach to Matanzas area, 
so we drove south and found a spot with public access to the beach.
Our first stop wasn't near the shipwreck site, but that didn't stop us from enjoying some beach time. Because Anastasia is a barrier island, it seems that the beaches are all backed by dunes, and 
then human activity is on the inland side of the dunes. So we walked up the stairs, across the boardwalk over the dunes, and down the other side to the beach.
The beaches are lovely powdery white sand closest to the dunes, but nearer to the water there 
are tiny bits of crushed shell, so the texture is rougher and the color more pink and orange. The water was chilly, so we only dipped our toes, but it was a beautiful sunny day and the beach was almost empty. Chilly and breezy, but still gorgeous to look out over the water and watch the squadrons and platoons of 
pelicans flying overhead.
These are brown pelicans, though they have white heads. Some groups went by in perfectly straight lines. Others would fly overhead in V formations. Sometimes the lines would meet the Vs and they'd turn into lopsided Vs.
And they weren't all heading south - no, these pelican posses would fly in both directions, back and forth over the beach, patrolling the waters. Some would occasionally dive in, though we didn't see any pelicans catching fish. No, they'd just patrol back and forth, as if it were their job.
I saw a gopher tortoise in the dunes, and of course had to run up and down the stairs taking photos of him/her. According to the info signs, gopher tortoises dig burrows in the sand, long tunnels as much as 30 feet (10 m) in length, with a large burrow at the end where they live. Other animals often take advantage of the 
gopher tortoise burrows and live there as well - I suspect the long brown snake we saw near our tortoise was one of those roomates.
Gopher tortoises are pretty big - this one was a good 16" or more, hard to say since I couldn't get very close. But definitely a good sized tortoise. And all the signs say do not put these tortoises in the water, they aren't turtles and they don't swim. They live on land, they are not lost. So please, don't try to be helpful and save the tortoise, let them just walk around.
There were other info signs about other animals we might see, like whales and manatees. We didn't see any of those, but we'll keep looking. No info about what kind of snake it might have been. Nor did we see any of the unique dune mice that live around here.
We eventually headed back to the car, finding another (and smaller) tortoise near the parking area. This tortoise was happily munching on grass, still with some sand on its carapace from climbing out of its burrow. I found its burrow under a bush - I'm guessing all those overhanging branches keep out 
animals like dogs, or anything that doesn't have the hard shell of a tortoise.
We headed a bit more south, and found Matanzas National Park. Matanzas Beach has a ramp to the beach, both for boats and for people who want to drive on the 
beach. (Which, if you ask me, is a horrible practice. But of course no one asks me.)
Anyway, Matanzas is the site of an old Spanish fort, dating back to 1742, when the Spanish still controlled Florida. The word Matanzas means slaughter or massacre, 
because the Spanish killed a large group of French soldiers near here - it wasn't exactly a battle, more of an ambush and subsequent slaughter. The actual fort is on Rattlesnake Island, in the intracoastal waterway. So between the island and the massacre, it isn't exactly a cheerful spot.
Usually there's a boat that will take visitors from the park office to the fort, but of course that's suspended right now. We wandered on the beach a little bit, and then asked about the shipwreck site.
Turned out it was right there - the pieces of the 
ship were uncovered and studied by archaeologists from the state, but both the air and the water/rain were damaging the 100+ year old wood. So after taking photos, measurements, and copious notes, the archaeologists recovered the site with sand, leaving posts and plastic tape to indicate where the dig site had been. It isn't clear if they plan to dig more later on, but the archaeologists have said that they don't plan to uncover the entire ship and move it to a museum, it's too delicate and also there really isn't enough of the ship to make it worthwhile. But it was an amazing find, one of those things that archaeologists live for - and having wanted to be an archaeologist when I was age 5, I had to run down the beach and take photos of the site, just so we'd have proof that we were there.
It really was pretty amazing! I mean, no one knew the ship was there for 140 years or so! It went down in a hurricane, and it was uncovered by the remnants of another hurricane after 140 years - remarkable!!! A once-in-a-lifetime event!!!
Less exciting have been our visits to the intracoastal waterway. Our road runs from the state highway to the intracoastal, where the road obviously ends. There's a walkway to the community pool, and then a boardwalk over the marshy wetlands to the little dock. There's a bench built in there, so it's a nice place to watch the water and the birds - herons, egrets, ducks, hawks, maybe even an osprey or two. And the ever-present vultures, hovering like Dementors or something.
Around the pool, there are lounge chairs - a nice place to read on a sunny afternoon, though by 4 PM it starts getting chilly. There's also a sort of lookout tower, with seats on the top platform for watching the sunset. Bathrooms are downstairs.
I've met a few neighbors as I've walked up and down our street, taking photos of flowers. One woman's daughter was stranded in Peru the same time we were! And another woman used to live on St. Thomas! Of course, we chat at a distance, sometimes with masks, but it's a fairly social group.
That's it for excitement around here. We had a quiet little Chanukah, and celebrated Richard's birthday with a cake. A friend who makes gorgeous decorated cookies sent us some, and they were delicious! The iced gingerbread candy canes were a big hit in our house! What can I say, even in a pandemic there are reasons to celebrate, in however a subdued manner.
Hard to believe we're now entering Week #40 of the pandemic and quarantine - going on ten months now. We've identified a medical practice near us that accepts our insurance, and the local pharmacies will be giving vaccines once they become available for our age group.
Life carries on, we do what we can to stay busy, and things are pretty good in northern Florida. If nothing else, we have flowers and sunshine and beaches!
And of course, there are more photos, because that's just how it goes. Besides, who doesn't need more photos of flowers and beaches on the darkest evening of the year?
