February 18-20, 2015 St Augustine to Merritt Island, FL

2-18-15
Last night we received e-mail notification of our mail.  There was a check there from our Health Savings Account that would be best to be deposited before leaving for the Bahamas.  Since we aren’t going to be in one place long enough to receive our mail, we decided to drive 25 miles to Green Cove Springs.  Camachee Cove marina let us use their courtesy car!!  Otherwise we were going to rent a car.  So we took off about 8:00 and stopped for breakfast at a little diner we had found the last time we were in town.  We didn’t even use the navigator in our phone this time.  It is a pretty drive through wooded area and then over the St John’s River.  We had to find an ATM that would allow us to deposit the check, since the nearest branch was about 30 miles south of St Augustine.  Found one in St Augustine, made that stop and were back to the boat by 11:30. 

Most marinas give you some kind of "goodie bag" with information about the marina, the area, and some kind of gift.  This marina gave us a nice drinking glass with nautical flags.  Then you could buy matching one for $3.  Good marketing, it worked on us. 

We left the marina about 12:15 pm and headed south.  There was another tall ship docked in St Augustine.  The current was pretty strong today against us.  And it was windy, averaged around 15 mph with gusts over 20 mph.  Dave was bringing the boat under a bridge and there seemed to be “confused waters”.  He commented that he didn’t want to have the feeling that he was riding down a snow hill on a saucer-you know you were facing forward when you started.  In other words, he wasn’t sure where the waters were going to take us.  But he made it through just fine. 

Bridge of Lions in St Augustine is such a pretty bridge

another tall ship in St Augustine

We only planned to go 15 miles today.  The next good anchorage was quite a ways and would have put us anchoring in the dark.  We stopped at Matanzas Inlet.  There is an old fort at the inlet that sounds like it is nice to tour.  Maybe on a trip north again.  It was too cold and windy to get into the dinghy at 4:30 when they probably closed at 5:00 anyway. 

Another nice evening an anchor.  Dave even played a game of cribbage with me!

Fort Matanzas

2-19-15

That was a rough night.  We had current and wind, so our anchor chain would occasionally yank or “ka-kunk” against the bow, or the other anchor hanging on the bow, when we changed directions.  I wondered if I would be able to go to sleep, but no problem.  The noise did wake me about 5:00 am.  I was about ready to record the noise along with Dave’s snoring, but then it settled down.  But he did jump up to check things a couple times during the night.

It was down to 30 degrees overnight.  So our heated water was no longer heated.  When we are at a marina, we have power for our water heater.  And when the engine is running, it heats the water.  But overnight, it doesn’t stay warm when it is this cold.  So we were back to heating water on the stove to wash our faces this morning.  Then I waited to do breakfast dishes until we were under way and the engine could heat the water.  Got to work around these things.

Today, we stayed on the ICW and traveled 45 miles to New Smyrna Beach.  We were tempted to go to a marina for the night so we could take a taxi to the Garlic Restaurant.  We were there with Kate and Brian Sweeney and his mom, Rita, the last time we were here.  But that would have added about $100 to the restaurant bill.  So we settled for tostadas with guacamole. 

It was another cold, windy day.  It started out at 34 degrees with windchill of 25.  And the high was 45 degrees.  So Dave navigated the ICW while I stayed warm inside.  Still have this cough.  Did some reading and perfected my solitaire game once I found out my new favorite game was on the mini iPad.  It can be charged with the 12 volt charger :)

You wouldn't know this was Florida.  Just passed that draw bridge in the background

Tonight, we ran the water maker for the first time since early December.  Everything worked great!  That was a relief, since the last time it sat for a few months, there were problems.  We can make 30 gallons an hour filtering the water we are sailing in.  We made about 40 gallons tonight.  So with just  drinking water, washing dishes, faces, brushing teeth, and flushing our heads, we use about 10 gallons per day.

2-20-15
That was a nice anchorage.  Much calmer night, so we slept well and stayed cozy warm.  But I could see my breath this morning in bed.  When we left anchorage around 8:30 am, it was 40 degrees and it made it up to 50 today.  Looks like we’ll see 80 pretty soon.

I stayed down below again today.  Dave likes being at the helm and I think my cough is getting better.  I was studying up on the Bahamas today.  We have a chart book of the Bahamas that is also a guide book.  Lots of good information.

Dave is noticing that he has to use the binoculars much less after his cataract surgery.  He’s enjoying his new view.  It also corrected his distance vision.

We anchored near Merritt Island, near Patrick Air Force Base, south of Cocoa, FL.  I usually take the helm and Dave’s drops the anchor.  We have a system of hand signals that works really well for us.  I thought Dave had come up with a new hand signal, then I realized he was shading his eyes looking for a crab pot that we had passed on our way into the anchorage.  HaHa! 

It was a beautiful afternoon with a beautiful sunset.  So we decided to have happy hour in the cockpit (with side shields and dodger still blocking the breeze).  After Dave put on his “wine goggles”, he thought life was pretty good and couldn’t be happier.  I had to agree.  

Selfie with sunset on our faces and hat hair and new drinking glasses

Box wine stores well on the boat.  Beautiful glow to the horizon after sunset