Chapter 44: Daytona to St. Augustine

Log 44
Daytona to ST. Augustine

5:05 AM
Wednesday, May 17, 2000
ST. Augustine Municipal Marina
ST. Augustine, FL.

Day 45

Yesterday was a great day…

We were in no real hurry to leave yesterday morning because we only were going a little over 50 miles. After I typed my log, I walked down the dock to send my e-mail, and it was beautiful. At 6:15 there was almost no wind, it was already 75 degrees, and the sun was just coming over the horizon. I was surrounded by huge boats, in a beautiful marina, and I thought to myself that this must be heaven. If not, it ought to be like that. As Barb, my mother in law, would say “If you can find something better than this, I’ll go in with ya”
We left the marina about 8:00, and took our time going through Daytona. It was nice, but the farther north we went the nicer it got. The water way narrowed quite a bit, and some of the homes that lined the water were amazing. The entire trip was pretty, some wide areas, but mostly narrow rivers, and man made canals. It wasn’t until we got almost to ST. Augustine that it widened again. A very enjoyable ride.
We arrived at ST. Augustine about 1:00 PM. We didn’t need any fuel, so we pulled directly into our slip, and we had no more than tied up when it started raining. It was weird, because it didn’t even look like rain until all of a sudden it started to sprinkle, and we looked up to see one cloud. One dark cloud. It turns out the rain was over the Atlantic, and the wind switched, blowing it in. It only lasted about 20 minutes, and we sat up on the bridge, and watched it.
After the short rain the sun came back out in force. We washed the boat, I checked in at the marina, and visited the marine supply store. Nothing new! Donna wanted to see some of ST. Augustine, so we chose a marina that was right down town. We all decided to take a walk into town with different agendas. Donna wanted to site see a little. Deb was looking for the perfect Pina Colada. I was looking for a hardware store. Darrell? I don’t know, I think he was just glad to be with us. As it turned out we didn’t find anything we were looking for, but I don’t think we cared.
A short note here; during our walk I got a call from Neal Walsh, our customer in Richmond. He was not having a good day, and he said “he wanted to talk to someone about something other than business” He knew I was making this trip, so we talked about how it was going. The point of all of this is as we were hanging up he said “Have a great time, your guys are handling things just fine” If he would have given me a sack full of money he wouldn’t have made me any happier.
While walking around we found a place for Deb to try the Pina Coloda’s. She said they were ok, but I found the perfect Margarita. Or at least I can’t remember one better. After that we split up. Deb, and Donna stayed in town, and Darrell and I went back to the boat, where I spent about an hour with the charts, getting ready for the today.
The evening was great as well. We walked into town and ate at a place called Harry’s. Great seafood, and they even gave us a 10% discount for staying at the marina. Back to the boat, and a short walk up and down the docks to walk our dinner off, and we called it a night. Even Darrell went to bed early. (9:00)

Today….
Up a little earlier than usual. (4:45) I need to get this log written, and we are going to head out at first light. We have about 100 miles to go today, and all on the inside. Having made this part of the trip before I seem to remember the waterway changing quite a bit from here. Once we get past Jacksonville, it turns from rivers, to swamps, with only a narrow ditch to navigate in. It’s not really a problem, just slower going than in some areas. The other thing we have to contend with from here is being much more affected by the tides. They range from 5 to 8 feet, and the current they make, can really change the speed you can go.

I’ll keep you posted….
BK