Nov 10 update

Wednesday, 10 November, 2010

We are now at New Smyrna Beach, FL after spending yesterday in St. Augustine.  We hoisted the anchor around 8 am Tuesday morning after anchoring in a beautiful tidal creek just off the ICW.  We knew it would take about 2 hours or less to reach St. Augustine and we wanted to arrive there on a slack high tide.  As it turns out, we arrived at the municipal marina there right at 10 am after passing through the beautiful Bridge of Lions at the edge of historic downtown St.Augustine.

We gassed up the boat, gave her a bath, pumped out the holding tank and then we both had wonderful, hot showers in the modern, well-kept facilities there at the marina.  We also were able to do a load of laundry since the restaurant where we had lunch (A1A Aleworks) was just across the street from the marina.  Scott had delicious fish tacos and I had a wonderful crab BLT.  After having to dodge crabpots for several days on the ICW, I felt that the crabs had it comin!' to 'em!!  It was sweet revenge!  After lunch, we had fun exploring the old section of town.  We went down many quaint alleys and walked all around the imposing Spanish fort there.

Linda Reynolds and her husband, Gordon joined us that evening; Linda was our boat broker during our purchase and we really enjoy her personality and expertise!  After sharing some wine in the cockpit we headed out for a wonderful Cuban meal and mohitos at the Havana Cafe.  After dinner, we strolled around the old section of town with them.  What a great city and Scott and I feel sure we'll be back there someday.

At 7:00 this morning, we eased out of our slip at the marina and headed on down the ICW.  It was another day of shallow spots and some bascule bridges but we managed to make it 70 miles before we put down the anchor just outside the channel south of the fixed New Smyrna Beach bridge.  We'll have a good night here and then plan on getting another early start tomorrow so we can make it to Melbourne by late tomorrow afternoon. for the SSCA gam set to start on Friday.  For those not familiar with the term "gam", it's a gathering of cruisers.