Thursday, May 24, 2012

A short stop before the Bay

Hello, there. We left Vero Beach Sunday, 5/20 and made it to Titusville. Beautiful most of the day, then the wind started kicking up around 24 kts. Before quite so much wind came along, we put the jib out to boost us along. Well, one of our sheets blew so that put an end to that for now. We'll replace the sheets in Jax. Waves were building as well and the Sunday boaters were busting it to get home. We found a good spot just south of the bridge so opted to anchor instead of picking up a ball at the Titusville Marina. The next morning we went into the marina to refuel. That place is just lousy with manatees! One was between us and the fuel dock, but moved on before we were ready to leave. They are not pretty, but very cool!

There are a number of shoaling areas on the way to Daytona, our next stop. We were really happy to hear a boat (with a 6' draft) in front of us calling TowBoatUS to ask for the better option in one area. We followed the advice offered (opposite of what ToeBoatUS told us on the way down) and communicated with Steve and Lynn on "Celebration" through several more areas of concern. At one junction, we almost took a wrong course, but Steve gave us some good direction and we proceeded on fine from there. We anchored in a lesser used spot in Daytona since we ran aground in the main anchorage there on the way down and the charted waters are not accurately charted. Good choice for us, and a nice night.

St. Augustine was our next stop and all went well. We caught up with "Celebration" there and took them a bottle of wine to say thanks for the help! They will be hauling in Deltaville to work on the boat some, so we hope to catch up with them there. This being our second stay on a ball in St. Augustine, we've decided we'll anchor nearby in the future. The current is strong there and if the wind and current are opposing, it's a bit of a battle with the mooring ball. We were keel hauling the ball and all the lines every few minutes for awhile and had concerns about the lines holding up. Fortunately, the wind settled and the tide changed and we were okay for the rest of the night.

We got the early opening of the Bridge of Lions before they closed for morning traffic and had a good day to Exchange Island where we enjoy anchoring before checking into our marina in Jax, as well as on nights before heading out of Jax. The dolphins were all over the place that day, jumping and tail flapping. One did a little backflip...it's belly was pink! Never knew they had pink bellies. We took our time this morning for a leisurely motor the 3 miles to River City Brewing Co. Marina, and managed to arrive at a slack tide. Tom backed us in beautifully and with Lee, our dockmaster's, guidance, all went smoothly. We're here for a busy couple of weeks, then we'll make our way to the Chesapeake Bay for awhile. We have air conditioning again! Woo-hoo! Nice to be back even for a short while.

We'll keep you posted as we head to points north. Thanks for traveling with us!

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