Ah, warmin' up!

9 hours of steering the boat today.

A record 72 miles!

St. Augustine to south of North Smyrna Beach, FL

White pelican party!

Again, the GPS ................

This is earlier, but I was just outside (for Happy Hour),

along the gunwale when a dolphin came within 10 feet

of the boat.  It exhaled through its blowhole and I could

feel the breeze from it as the wind was blowing our way!

Cool!

Mosquitoes.

BAD!

Most (expensive) houses along these parts have

screens to keep the critters at bay.

Two houseboats!

A pretty pink and a limey green.

 



The anchorage just south of New Smyrna Beach, FL

Dolphin pokin' his head just ahead!

Sunsetarama!

 

We got up early, early, early today and got out of St. Augustine and

made the outgoing tide.  We were running 9.5 knots in some sections,

but averaging 8.5 knots.  Just smokin', just smokin' I say.  It makes

a very big difference over the course of the day.  This was our top

mileage day at 72 miles.  We went past Daytona, where I remember

riding with Ed Cooper and the boys and being a "Bo" back in the early

1980's with Scott "Rod" Smith, riding the Jeep along the beach.

 

We've found a beautiful anchorage for the night right off the ICW,

so it will be a real treat to just nudge into the channel to start the new

day tomorrow.  Hopefully, a rocket launch, or some sort, will happen tomorrow

as we past Cape Canaveral.  A real joy, on a previous trip on the 65' yacht Adorabee,

with Captain Richie, Paul, Chucko and others, was watching one of the space shuttles

take off.  You see it lift off and then 12 seconds later you hear the roars!!

 

Hopefully, another 60+ mileage day is ahead of us.

It is to be 78 degrees tomorrow.

That does make it much enjoyable.

 

(the camera has poo poo'd so additional photos will be with Lynn's phone camera)

 

Wednesday, November 28, 2012 (kind of :0))

Today Bob did absolutely nothing.  Oh, that's not true, he slept all day :)

I on the other hand, did clean somewhat then slept the rest of the day with Bob.

The day was dreary, no sun, lots of wind which made it kind of cold.  Just didn't have the
energy to go anywhere.  But tomorrow is a new day :D

At our mooring ball 1000 feet from here

Bird late afternoon feeding

My wife, yakking from the food store

 

Bridge of Lions, Lion

I've heard about this but have never seen it.

A complete canvas cover-all on a house for complete

infestation spraying.  As a neighbor I'd be nervous,

real nervous.  So the bugs run like crazy out of the house.

Where do they go?

Your house.

We did laundry today.  But we were rewarded by

another sunset to match many others.

The night lights of St. Augustine

Mooooooooooooon!!!!!!

 

Another loafing day.  But we did get something done.

Laundry.  Food Shopping.  Walked about 1.8 miles each

way to a small market.  Wow, a real small market.  Got

some beef and extras so we're good for another week or so.

Hopefully, Daytona Beach tomorrow!!

We just beat these guys into town.  The bow

rider really had to go!!!

The dinghy dock at the Municipal Marina where

our mooring ball is

Spanish somethings

Palm Tree = Warmth

The pirate ship, Black Raven

Same mooring ball, same time as last night.

The end to another beautiful day.

Through the lens of a life ring

The bird was not charged for using the mooring ball

 

A leisurely day in St. Augustine.  We lounged until 1500 hours when we went into

town, and walked the cobblestone streets peeking into the various small shops.

Two, $4.50 pieces of pizza did fill us up pretty good.  Mostly tourists running

around with us, but some of the locals were entertaining.  We returned to

Storymaker at 1700 hours for another perfect sunset and dolphins just off

our starboard side. 

 

 

Sunday, November 25, 2012

 

The morning sunrise gets us moving

Birds guarding the marker

Along the ICW there are some very narrow channels

that the US Army Corps of Engineers (responsible for

the ICW) has made between the marshes.  As the GPS

is not 100% accurate they install "Range Markers"

to keep you in the channel.  I am turning around to

look at these Range Markers keeping both Markers

inline to stay in the channel.

Not only a nice boat lift but a real nice roof

Under the bridge with 3 knots of current running

against us.  Need to keep the boat nice and straight

and steady or the current with take the bow and

move it to the side against the bridge piling

This guy was selling bait right out his back door,

I guess for all his buddies

Stunning!

The whole east coast from southern North Carolina

to mid-Florida is calving grounds for the Right

Whale.  Called the "Right' whale because it was

the best whale to harvest for oil and blubber,

it is now protected.  You cannot approach a

right whale from within 500 yards.

Approaching St. Augustine, Florida the

"Bridge of Lions" welcomes us.  The city just

finished a 20 million dollar update on the bridge.  They

added rope lights along the whole length and

is just spectacular at night.

City Hall

Happy Hour Sunset at our mooring ball.

 

The chart of St. Augustine.  We came from the

top of the page (north), whipped out just to the

inlet with the Atlantic Ocean, and found our

mooring ball just south of the 2nd bridge,

the Bridge of Lions.

The City installed a whole bunch of mooring balls

north and south of The Bridge of Lions.  Our

ball is circled.  $20.00 a day gets us a safe

anchorage, showers, water, laundry, lounge,

and a place to tie up our dinghy.

 

 From our beautiful anchorage last night, we had a bright and sunny day all

the way to St. Augustine.  The dolphin were more numerous and caught

a set riding our bow wake for a few seconds (they get bored with our

slow speed - they perfer powerboats).  They were jumping and frolicking

at the inlets happy with their finds of numerous fish.

 

After we got our mooring ball, we finally walked! into town and ate at

Subway, and got some moo, oranges, and bread.  We rushed back to the

boat to enjoy a happy sunset.  I took Zippy out for a night cruise to see

all the lights that the City and businesses have put up, I guess for Christmas

(there were white rope lights on the buildings and trees).  We're staying

here tomorrow (Monday) and hopefully, we'll get some photos tomorrow night.

Pretty tired we in bed at 8:30.

 

Tomorrow we check out the town!



20 miles south of Brunswick GA, this is the nuclear

submarine repair facility.  Two patrol boats just

circle all day keeping bad guys out.

Fort Clinch just north of Fernadina Beach

Keeping the bad guys out from 1652 until 1813

Many people live on boats

Here's a guy living on a 21 foot sailboat

Good luck young man, good luck

He did have a solar panel though

Another instance of the GPS being really, really off

We are not on land

Another balloon cam shot

St. Andrew's Sound, GA

Cumberland Sound, FL

Fernandina Beach, FL

Toast to another spectacular day!

 

We got up late but still managed a 35 mile day.  Many instances of shoaling

in the southern part of Georgia.  I thought I smelled a scraping of the bottom

but was incorrect.  We glided through 4.5 feet of water (we draw 3.5 feet) where

it had shoaled over.  A couple of boats behind us did a bunch of 360's trying

to find their paths, and all got through. 

 

We heard on Channel 16 (the hailing and emergency channel) that

a boat or ship had struck a right whale off the coast of Georgia.

There were reports of people in the water but then the transmission

became illegible as we moved further south.

 

A quiet day, still a tad cool.  It warmed

up by sunset, but got quickly cool again.  Some pork chops on the grill made

a wonderful evening!  Tomorrow we get up early to get to St. Augustine, one

of the oldest cities in the United States.

Aloha!

 

The Captain looked at the water even before coffee and it was

running 3 or 4 knots downhill! 

So let's just get goin' in our bathrobes. 

We were smokin' at 8.3 knots by 0800 hours!

 

Outriggers out to do some early mornin' fishin'

 

The dolphins appeared riding our bow wake.

We saw a little pup with mom this morning.

The pup was only about 3 feet long.

They approached the bow and then mom

glided the little doobiedoo right under our hulls.

You will see too many pictures from us of houses along the ICW

Looking east over Georgia's Sapelo Sound with

a view of the Atlantic Ocean.

We have a balloon cam!

Looking east over Jekyll Creek, Ga. at the

Hwy. 50 Bridge  

Capt gets a little break (about 2 minutes) while

Lynn takes the wheel in the huge, huge harbor

of Brunswick, GA. 

HUGE OPEN SPACES !

There was 40 feet of water

here so I felt I could nap for 2 minutes.

The I-95 Brunswick bridge that we didn't go under,

only passed by

Big shipos south of Brunswick

For some reason, it has taken us almost 800 miles

to see an open restaurant right on the water

Birds on a bridge

 

Found a little anchorage right off the ICW

Ready for Happy Hour

 

Sunset Peeper !!!

 

Jeeze, we are now over halfway to Key West.

It has been, cold, but it is no longer.

70 degrees today.

It has been enjoyable watching the deciduous

trees slowly going in reverse from fall foilage

to spring again.  We are seeing no colors in the

leaves now.  It is only green wherever we look.

 

Perhaps, the hardest part of the journey so far is

realizing that it will take 5 weeks to reach our destination.

It doesn't take 5 weeks to reach anywhere!

You can fly to New Zealand in about 24 hours.

You can sail across the Atlantic Ocean in 3 weeks.

You can drive to California in about 5 days.

Mason & Dixon did the whole line in about a month, didn't they?

But 5 WEEKS to somewhere?

It is challenging to think to HAVE to be somewhere

in a certain amount of time.  

We go 50 miles a day.  

We'd like to go faster but we can't.

So we must slow ourselves down, too.

We are working on that.

Lynn hasn't hit me over the head with a pan,

and I haven't thrown her overboard.

We are learning to slow ourselves down.