Fort Matanzas

Fort Matanzas, FL
29 43.01 N 081 14.45 W

Several times before, cruisers told us that Fort Matanzas was a great anchorage. I think it is a favorite of Done & Margaret & Tiller and of Pat & Walt. Always before, we passed it by because of fear of running aground at the entrance. This year, we arrived at the entrance at high tide, so we took the chance. It worked fine. We saw no depths less than 8 feet entering. Tomorrow morning at 0644 it will be high tide again and we'll exit.

So what's so nice here? In the first place, is the Fort. Fort Matanzas was built by the Spanish in 1740 to keep the British out. It was also the site of a massacre of 300 Frenchmen by the Spanish in 1565. Today it is part of the national park service. We took the dinghy over to the park office, and rode the park's ferry over to the fort. The fort is very small, very basic, but because of its superb strategic location is was invincible and could not be challenged. The fort needed only a compliment of six men. We learned a lot of history.

We also hiked on the park's nature trails. It is a wonderfully pristine area of unspoiled Florida nature. The inlet also abounds with fish. Alas we don't have Florida licenses and there are Florida Wildlife Commission men running around checking up on the fishermen. It is interesting that neither the Spanish nor the French were able to survive here without external provisions of food. One wonders why they couldn't simply fish for their supper.