I read somewhere that when you stay at one place long enough you can experience new events that might escape a normal cruiser.  Meet the marina people.  Learn the roads and the best side streets to Walmart, WestMarine, and Wendy’s.  This is true.  We know Highway 1 north and south of this marina well enough not to have to use my smart phone app for directions.  We have learned the coming and goings of the fishing boats big/small.  We have a good idea of which boats have live-aboard humans versus empty boats waiting for company.   We are learning which commercial fishermen are considerate boaters and which ones are rude enough to wake us every time they come and go out of the marina.  There is a definite rhythm to life around a marina.  We are learning the tides and how that might affect our future travels.  All pretty pedestrian as compared to the critter life that surrounds us every day.  I know that ya’ll may be bored with my low tide musings.  There is life around the low tides in St Augustine that I find most fascinating.

I can see all sorts of life in the water’s edge at low tide.   For example, can you see the crab?  By the clump of seaweed?

Do you see the crab hiding?

How about now?  Isn’t it cute?  Hiding in plain sight.  Not enough for dinner.

Close up of the Crab

We have seen several “blobs” on the sand in the low tide.  Remember the first day we arrived in St. Augustine?  I photographed a “blob” later identified as a Cannonball Jelly fish.  I see them every couple of low tides.  Here is one that I decided to keep an eye on.

Cannonball Jelly Fish on the sand at low tide

I waited for the tide to rise.  The jelly fish stayed there throughout the sunny day, exposed.  I watched high tide come in and cover this little jelly fish.  It was late in the evening as the local time approached 8:30pm.  I watched waiting for movement.  A burp, a poop, or something got blurped out of this jelly. I think I see something moving..a fin or skirt or whatever that thing that moves.   It was alive!!  If only the sunset would wait.  Alas, darkness fell and I lost view of this little guy.  I was hopeful that the water would rise high enough this little fellow could get off the sand into deeper water.

Rising Tide covering the Jelly Fish

The sand spot was empty the next morning.  Wonderful!!  Then I spied a jelly on a low piling not too far away.    Could it be the same jelly fish from the sand I saw the night before?  How could one jelly fish encounter so many obstacles in its short life?  Looks about the same size.  Really?

4 ft pilings with a temporary resident

The first high tide was short several inches of covering the jelly fish. We wondered if we should nudge it into the water, but common sense prevailed.  We didn’t have a stick long enough to reach the Jelly safely and do no harm.    It was on this piling for over 24 hours through 2 tides before it was finally washed off.  We just hoped that during the next night tide the water would rise enough to help this guy out.  It survived a sunny day!!  Sometime during the night high tide, this fella was able to leave its perch and move on.

I would like to think it is this guy we saw a couple of days later…

Near the dock walls.  It looks about the right size.

How low is low?  Sandy low. I shared a moment with this white heron checking out the possibilities for breakfast.

A moment shared looking for breakfast

This can’t be the same fellow from before, can it?  See the sandy bump to the left of the Jelly fish?  This guy kept bumping into the sand hump and couldn’t get around it.  Wait for high tide, bub!

Sand Hump at low tide impeding progress

This evening, as I am diligently still trying to see my first turtle in the marina, I spied this thing in 2ft water.  Only at low tide would I be able to view such wonder…

Is this not the coolest little water critter you have ever seen!?!?

Sunset in St Augustine, FL