New Smyrna Beach-Fernandina Beach - Apr 6-12

Easter Sunday afternoon, after a yummy BLT lunch on the boat, we took a walk over to New Smyrna Beach. Out of the blue, we heard "Hey Steve!" and there was Rob Vis yet another one of Steve's customers from home. Rob was in Florida with his family for Spring Break. There's that small world thing again! The beach was busy with many cars driving up and down it. Watch out!

Monday morning it was time to move on. We traveled a whopping 17 miles up to Daytona. Our friends Dave and Michelle from Just Us were at Loggerhead Marina so we joined them there. We had a fun afternoon by the marina pool catching up. Our stories continued over dinner at Caribbean Jacks.The last time we saw them was mid November in Orange Beach, Alabama. 

Dave helped throw off our lines early Tuesday morning as we were heading 51 miles to St Augustine.  It was another beautiful, hot day for traveling. About 20 miles short of our destination, we passed Matanzas Inlet and Fort Matanzas. This area was beautiful with sandy dunes and clear waters. We were very tempted to stop and drop the hook for the night, but we were not able to adjust our St Augustine marina reservations, so we plowed on. (Guess we can't stop and every beach!)  By late afternoon we pulled into St Augustine Municipal Marina. St Augustine is said to be the Oldest City in America with many beautiful historical buildings. We walked around town in the evening to get the lay of the land.

Wednesday morning we were up bright and early to go to the Outlet Mall. We walked a couple miles to the bus stop where we caught the local bus to the mall (only a $1.00 per person - what a deal)  After the first store, "Captain I Don't Shop" announced the the return bus options were either in 2 hours or 5 hours. Needless to say we were on the bus 2 hours later. It was such a beautiful day, that another dinghy ride was in order. Our dinghy exploration brought us to Salt Run which is a small bay near the Atlantic inlet. 

Thursday was work day! Sheli spent the morning catching up on wash at the marina laundry while Steve washed the boat  and removed, cleaned and reinstalled the water speed indicator unit in the bottom of the boat.

A little shopping and touring in historical downtown was in order when our chores were done. In the evening there was a band, food and drinks on the marina lawn as part of the festivities for the weekend sailboat race. 

With the big sailboat race going on, the marina was full for the weekend. We had the option to move to a mooring ball on Friday, but decided that morning it was best if we moved on. We left St Augustine by 10am Friday morning without a planned destination. Sheli got busy on the IPAD checking anchorages along the Intracoastal. We chose a spot 46 miles north just off Ft George Island which would give us protection from the nighttime forecasted wind direction.  Dropping the hook proved to be quite an adventure this time.  After putting the anchor down near shore the unseen current made the boat swing away from shore rather than down wind. So we pulled the anchor back up and dropped it again along with a stern anchor. At that point, a different current pushed us toward shore and on the bottom. Since the tide was dropping, we had to react quickly. We put the dinghy in the water, and took the dinghy out to retrieve the anchor and drop it further off shore. We could then pull this line and use the motors to get us back in deep water. With no way of retrieving both anchors at one time without again getting beached, we needed to abandon the stern anchor. After attaching one of our fender balls to the anchor line we threw the whole works overboard and went to work on lifting the bow anchor. We then settled for dropping the anchor in the middle the channel to allow us to swing with the ever changing currents and wind. Once settled, the captain had to take the dinghy out to retrieve the stern anchor. Whew...that was an hour and twenty minute parking job!  By the time we finished cooking steaks on the grill for dinner, the wind had dropped and stayed calm all night. Later that night, in the quietness you can only experience on an anchored boat, we heard what we thought was the drum roll of native savages coming to attack us. Only to realize it was most likely Drum fish making their normal drumming sounds under our boat. Definitely the better of the two options!

Saturday morning we cruised a pleasant twenty mile trip to Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island. Our home for the next three nights was the Fernandina Harbor Marina. In the afternoon we rode bike to the beach and explored the town. This is a quaint town with fun shops and restaurants right by our marina.

Sunday morning we attended the Memorial United Methodist Church. We thoroughly enjoyed their service. Around noon Tod & Angie Bierling from Jacksonville came to see us and have lunch. (Tod's parents & family have been friends of Sheli's family forever) After lunch, they shuttled us in their car to the local Winn-Dixie for some much needed groceries. Priceless. After they left, the rain arrived late so we settled in the Pura Vida to watch The Masters golf tournament. 

 Rob Vis & Steve discussing business on the sidewalk.

 Leaving New Symrna Beach.

 Starting to see shrimpers again.

 Private beach found off St Augustine Inlet.

 Lots of Jellyfish!

St Augustine church.

 Leaving St Augustine.

 Cars on the beach. Sailboat race in the background.

 Cruising "The Ditch"

 Captain retrieving stern anchor. 

 Here's what over an hour of setting anchor looks like on the chart plotter! (Yellow is land, Green is land at low tide)

 Tod & Angie Bierling.