Daytona to St Augustine.

Yes, we have been here before, all up this coast. It is comforting on so many levels, and I am happy to report that I am taking the shallows in stride. Waz is happy to report the same:)

Another early morning, but I missed the pink morning sky I saw out the bathroom window, first thing, and by the time I got topside, it was almost all over.:(..see what I mean. It was bright pink when I first looked out!

We were up well before the alarm, again...making a bit of a habit of this! Makes for tired people later on tho!
 We were surprised, frankly, to see the neighbor ship still stuck on the sand. Thank goodness, because we swear that little rope and anchor would not otherwise hold him in a stiff wind!

We started the engines, hauled up the anchor and turned in place. Retracing our path from the night before, we asked for a bridge opening, and got it in no time. On our way well before 7am.
The mosaics on the upright supports of the Main Street Bridge in Daytona are lovely.

 I think I posted these last year, too.

 Oh dear! What a shame. We see too many of these...

 Well on our way, and we are now coming into Marshes territory. We had the first of the large cattle flies visit us...Waz was flailing around the fly deck for a bit...and I went to get the screens out! All sorted now for when we leave St Augustine and continue through to Georgia and more marsh territory.

 Lots of little islands, as you can see in the above chart..well, maybe not THAT chart, but you can see that it is mostly marshes, at least, lol.

 A few people out kayaking...and we would have been too, methinx. Lovely and serene and so much birdlife and dolphin and Manatee.

The first tow we have seen for a very long time. ..:)

Rather pretty Boat Houses...don't you think?

 We rather liked this condo complex...at least the facades are different to the norm.

However, we couldn't say the same for this housing estate. The view is negligible in our opinion, and they are SOOO close together. We can imagine they are premium prices too! You can barely squeeze between the houses to build them.

LOTS of dolphin surfing our wake. This is mum and baby. There were several moms with their young learning to surf....or are they just born knowing how to surf?:)

 The passage along the ICW just inside the Atlantic coastline. We can see the ocean and hear it sometimes over the purr of our kitties downstairs....which leads me to something funny we heard today. We always refer to the engines downstairs as kitties or Cats...well, because they are a pair of CAT 3208's. Makes sense, right.! Well, a yacht we passed today was having a conversation on channel 16 with another yacht, and it went something like this: " You folks can go on ahead...you are longer than me and faster, and though my 'squirrels' are running as fast as they can...." Yep...that fella had 'squirrels' down below. The picture that conversation created was a bit hilarious to us...weird?

On to more important matters....time is flying and I am now waiting for Waz to return from the shower block, here at the Marina in St Augustine....I had mine off the back of the boat, per usual! Everyone else in the marina were inside their boats, so I had the place to myself.

I am always on the lookout for the unusual...and this caught my eye!:)

 

 Other boats and yachts coming towards us as we go towards Matanzas Pass, and skinny passage that is cause for much speculation in the yachting community using the ICW....some of these yachts draw 7 1/2 ft so they are a little challenged in some places that barely show that on the depth sounder. This is one of those places, but the shallowest point, going through the middle of the channel, was 14 feet...fortunately! Those are sand dunes in the background.

 ...and that, is the Atlantic Ocean.

 This is an old Fort at Matanzas Pass. I don't know the history, but Im sure, given time, I could find out. Not today Josephine! I just found out that Matanzas means 'Murder'! here is a link..http://www.nps.gov/foma/index.htm

Close-up of the shoaling on the pass, and how close the red marker is to the shoreline. We didn't go there!

 

 Do you think it was hot today???really??:) Out of the breeze it was deathly!

I was too busy putting out the fenders and rearranging the ropes to take photos of where we turned off the ICW into the river where our overnight marina is located, but I can go back to the photos of last year, and the place looks the same:)

Yes....this photo from last year is exactly what we see now. We came under the bridge in the distance, turned left sharply, once on the other side, and went about a mile up the river to the River's Edge Marina. Same people are still here.! They had 22 live-aboards at the marina last year, and this year they have 25 boats! WOW! Just like old times, tonight, when we said g'day to a couple of people we met last year:)

 There she is last year. This year we came in facing the other way. We are taking on 400 gallons,4
 or thereabouts, of Diesel in the morning...all ordered! So we had to face up river for the filling.
There is a different yacht next to us, this year, but the yacht in this photo is now further up the marina.

Well, Waz is back, and gone to bed. We did some laundry, ate lunch at Hurricane Patty's across the other side of the parking lot (typical bar food!) and walked to the supermarket after a salmon and cole slaw dinner. Good to have a walk, and we found a new restaurant in the supermarket parking lot that we knew was going to be built, last year. They do Eggs Benedict with crab cakes, so guess where WE are going tomorrow or the next day.

Waz has made a date with some Aussie/kiwis to meet for lunch, in town, so perhaps breakfast will have to happen the following morning before we head out to Jacksonville.

I will catch you up on our town visit tomorrow.
Ciao, and sleep well