The Journey Continues with Half the Players - Sevilla continues with us to Daytona (Mile 831 ICW)

St. Augustine
 Lighthouse

Birds doing more than eating bread
 from Pete's hand...
John needs to wash Andiamo again!

     We feasted with the family over Thanksgiving weekend and spent Saturday and Sunday making our way back to Florida.  The most direct line from Cleveland took us through Charlotte.  It gave us a great opportunity to visit my sister Stephanie and her family.

The Ravelin at entrance to the Castillo

      Monday and Tuesday, we had some provisioning to do as well as some sightseeing to complete.  Downtown St. Augustine is a beautiful old town full of history and shops as well as the Castillo de San Marco, Flagler College, museums and galleries.  The Bliss’s and McElderry’s are headed back north for the holidays.  However, before they left we enjoyed fabulous seafood dinner prepared by John with everyone else chipping in on the rest as a farewell dinner at Jay and Pegg’s.

One of the storage rooms

    Wednesday morning proved to be cool, rainy and very windy. The crews heading north had little problems as they chased the severe weather as it traveled north.  However, Seville and we decided to stay put and wait for the winds to settle a bit more so we can head south. After helping finish off some last night leftovers at Jay and Pegg’s, Pete and I decided since we had the car to head to the movie to see the new Harry Potter movie, “The Deadly Hollows - Part I.” Being fans of Harry’s from the beginning, we are looking forward to seeing all the movies, even though they deviate from the novels.  

     We were up at 5:45 this morning in order to make the 7AM Bridge of Lyons opening. However, the calm breezes and mild temperatures we delayed for never appeared. We cast off lines prior to sunrise with a wind chill hovering around freezing and a very strong current that made pulling out of the dock very interesting.  Thankfully, Pete is a true master when it comes to maneuvering the boat.  We had to wait a little longer for the bridge as it had some technical problems, but the opening was only delayed 4 minutes. 

The rest of the gang

 Thankfully, the St. Augustine’s Municipal Dock opens at 6:30 am so we were able to get a pump-out before beginning our travels.  By 7:30, Sevilla was all set and fell in behind us.  Our destination is Daytona, 50 miles down the ICW.  Pete had checked the software on the IPad with the notations and updates.  He found that at marker 35 and 37 there is some recent shoaling and just in the past 2 weeks, new day markers have been placed at 81 with A, B, C and it is important to keep to the western edge of the channel to avoid the shoaling in the channel.  We cleared these areas with no problem, but were about 5 miles below 81 when we heard a sailboat hard aground needing assistance in the channel.   The ICW is very narrow for this entire leg of the trip.

Pegg and Mrs. Bliss join our
farewell dinner

     Our bridge tenders have been very friendly and helpful.  One of our tenders joking told one boat not to give her problems today as it was her birthday.  That boat sang “Happy birthday” to her and every boat going though her bridge has wished her a happy birthday as long as we could hear it on the radio.  All the bridge tenders have been wishing everyone a happy holiday, and looking forward to seeing us on our return trip in the spring.

One of the parapets from the Castillo that overlooks the river

     We booked the night at the Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona.  Sevilla has been sitting on a mooring ball for 10 days without electricity, plus with the cold today, and the cables that cross the bottom in anchoring site we all feel this was a very good choice.

     Tomorrow we head to Titusville and part with Sevilla. Glen and Maureen will be spending the next month in this area, visiting with friends and playing golf.  There was a possibility that we might have been able to see the launch of the Shuttle this week. Pete and the boys have seen it and what a thrill it would have been. However, it has been scrubbed until the New Year due to problems. If we can drive up to see it, we will, but I am not holding my breath.  Pekabu will continue our journey on to Palm Beach.  Pete and I discussed our options, and with the weather being so cool for the next few days, we will not be doing the overnight from Cape Canaveral to Lake Worth (Palm Beach).  We will stay on the ICW and enjoy the sights and the warmth.

  58.7 / 1025.8  Total Statute Miles                                ~  ~ (\_~ ~ ~     Kathy and Pete