ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH, Fla. — Less than 24 hours after Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry closed all beaches in Duval County amid coronavirus concerns, thousands of people – including some from Duval County – made the trek to beaches in St. Johns County, where beaches such as Mickler’s, Vilano and St. Augustine Beach remained open on a beautiful Saturday.
“I mean, I’m a beach girl, so I have to be here at the beach,” Sharon Jones of Jacksonville Beach told First Coast News with an affectation that other sun-and-sand worshipers would intuitively understand.
Her intrepid desire to get a dose of "vitamin sea" was clearly shared by many. Jones said she was in plenty of good company with her Duval-displaced kindred spirits.
“Especially driving here through Vilano, there were a lot more people that I saw going to the beaches walking there,” she said, indicating that the roughly 80-degree temperatures had drawn many more from the Jacksonville area.
The displacement was heightened by other closures including neighboring Anastasia State Park, as the crowd abruptly turned to open sand where St. Augustine Beach meets the park’s property, a guard seeing to that from his parked dune buggy.
St. Augustine Beach police chief Robert Hardwick was empathetic toward the oceangoing masses.
“They are stuck in their homes and there’s nothing to do right now,” Hardwick said while standing on the famous St. Augustine Beach Pier currently under reconstruction, overlooking the beach and within earshot of the gleeful accompanying sounds. “And I think this is the best place for them to be, to get this fresh air.”
Hardwick didn’t seem to mind if the crowd under his watch was a little bigger because of Duval residents seeking the surf in his jurisdiction.
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“Our parking lots are full but really it’s a normal beach day for us,” he said. “If you look behind us here it appears that everybody is abiding by the CDC guidelines and regulations to the best of their ability.”
Hardwick was speaking of guidelines urging people to congregate in groups of 10 or fewer and to maintain at least six feet of space between parties. Many small groups, mostly families by appearances, were clustered together – even a newlywed couple kissed while posing for a photographer just feet away from their guests – but it was impossible to tell just how conscientiously people were maintaining distance amid so much activity on both the sand and the waves.
Nevertheless, Hardwick maintained the hope that the beach could be a safe and rejuvenating refuge.
“This is not the time or the place to make arrests,” he reasoned. “It’s the time to educate our public. We want them on this beach.”
The bustling scene didn’t seem to be helping businesses just footsteps away on the other side of A1A Beach Boulevard. As restaurants such as Salt Life and Little Margie’s Café have been ordered to limit service to take-out and delivery, there was no customer activity despite Margie telling First Coast News she was offering patrons discounts on her usually popular sandwiches and other dishes.
Chief Hardwick explained that restaurants are still allowed to serve alcoholic beverages, but only in sealed containers and not to be consumed on restaurant properties. The overall restaurant restrictions made for a stark difference between the beachside of the road facing east and the west side where many eateries are located.
Mackenzie Conaway of Jacksonville vamped for photos with two of her girlfriends as the waves wet their ankles. Asked whether the trip south of roughly 40 miles had been worth it, she and her friends chimed, “Yes! We were coming here regardless. We were trying to find anything to do.”
At a time when authorities are struggling daily for the right balance between caution and the continuity of everyday life, St. Augustine Beach resident Daniel Lamon recognized that closures closer to home could be forthcoming.
“I mean our beaches are open, nobody else can go to any other beach up north, so they’re here.”
For how much longer, it’s hard to guess.