Still cruising

We left Fernandina Beach with fond memories. We stayed on the mooring ball til after the front moved through. We felt like we were on a stranded island as well as our friends, Ame & Dan. After 2 days of this, the weather changed for the better and we all went into town. Ame and I shopped, while the boys drank coffee(got cha, you thought I was going to say beer!!)Anyway, we had a great time. Ame & Dan left the next day heading North. We stayed because we were waiting for our mail and a spare raw water pump.

Saturday, March 1, we headed out at 8:45 am. Weather was great. We stayed on the inside (the ICW) to St. Augustine and dropped the hook around 4:15 that afternoon. After a peaceful evening, we got up the next morning for our next push. Got on the outside (the Atlantic Ocean) at the St. Augustine inlet and cruised 7 hours to the Ponce de Leon inlet (see lighthouse photo) in New Smyrna, FL south of Daytona Beach. After cruising around trying to find a spot to anchor out, we ended up docking at "The 'Ol Fishin' Store" I kid you not, it was an experience. It's where the boaters meet the bikers!! It was bike week there. What a hoot these characters were! We all had a good time and finally we turned in around 11pm. The cruise was great on the outside. I even got time in the sun to clean and polish the stanchions (handrails),(if ya'll are going to read my blog, I have to get you boat lingo savvy). We saw several dolphins playing and putting on a show for us. I had to borrow Dan's, picture's his turned out better than mine, thanks Dan.

Monday, March 3, we left the dock at 8:30 am. We stayed on the inside today. The sun was shinning but it wasn't really warm. I stayed inside reading. Then Clay and I studied the charts to plot today's travels. See where we can anchor out. We want to get as many travel hours in before this next front comes in. We got as far as Cocoa beach, south of the NASA Space Center. I didn't take a picture of it because it just looks like a square building on the other side of the ICW. We hope one day we will be in the area to witness a launch. They say it is really cool to watch from the waters. We found a nice anchorage spot, dropped the hook around 4:30. Clay and I had a nice candlelight dinner, flowers included compliments from Clay, on the boat, then called it an evening.