The fog bank that rolled in from the Atlantic Ocean last night stayed with us all morning. We were finally able to weigh anchor after noon o'clock which meant we weren't able to go very far so we anchored in the Matanzas river inlet, in front of the fort, in 13-15 feet of water (s.t.m. 792.4) The current here is strong - running out at 1.6 knots (we're approaching low tide). Neat looking fort (in the picture) but after reading the history - kind of gruesome. Matanzas means slaughter in Spanish and more than 300 French Huguenots were killed where the fort stands in 1565. I guess that a group of them left their settlement somewhere near Jacksonville to attack the Spanish at Saint Augustine. They evidently got lost and shipwrecked here near the inlet and when the Spanish discovered them, on the beach, they demanded that they surrender and renounce their protestant ways (and change to Catholicism). They did surrender but when they refused to renounce their faith, the founder of St Augustine (Pedro Menendez de Aviles) ordered their deaths. They were bound and led behind the sand dunes and all summarily stabbed to death. The fort was then erected sometime after that to guard St Augustine's from further attacks that might come through Matanzas Inlet.

The surf sounds loud from where we're anchored. There's a ferry (free) that runs from across the beach over to the fort. They give a tour of the place and the history (once again gruesome). An osprey flew overhead with a small fish. Is this guy following us? Stay away from our mast and boom. Gorgeous birds...