THE MARCH SOUTH CONTINUES!

OMG! AIR CONDITIONING!

   Once again, I get ahead of myself, but I have to announce that when we tied up at a marina in Daytona Beach, we actually turned on air-conditioning! What a treat; we went from using a blanket to A/C in just one day!

St Augustine, Bridge of Lions

   When I last made an entry, we were in St. Augustine, FL, enjoying one of the nicest and most historic places I’ve been in this country. It turned out to be worth the slog to get there. We left Fernandina Beach on a chilly, windy and rainy morning. After taking on fuel at the cheapest depot in Florida, we turned our bow south. The first few hours were just fine with a following current speeding our way to the St. John River which leads to Jacksonville, FL. We decided to bypass that city this time and continued on the ICW toward St. Augustine. Of course, what God gives, he takes away…in this case as we sailed south of Jacksonville, we were hit by a an adverse current that brought our speed down to less than 4 knots! Going under a few bridges, we actually saw less than 3 knots! It took a couple hours, but the current eventually slackened, but it was s l o w going for a while.

Sunset in St. Augustine

   St. Augustine is, by far, our favorite city of the trip so far. We picked up a mooring just south of the Bridge of Lions and spent almost 5 days exploring the city, visiting just about every wine bar around and sampling the local cuisine…which was great! We even rented bikes for a day and did the mandatory trip to West Marine and the grocery store and even visited a local winery for a sampling tour! By the way, if you are ever in this picturesque city and have a craving for pizza, definitely go to PIZZA TIME restaurant on St. Charles street. We had good ole pepperoni slices and they were the best since we lived in Bayonne, NJ as a kid! Even got to talk to the owner who was originally from Brooklyn and knew the pizza joint we went to in Bayonne! Small world.

  After our extended stay in St. Augustine, we decided we needed to make tracks south and started reeling in the miles as we worked our way south. Next stop was Daytona Beach where we actually got to stay at a local yacht club (at a really good price!) for a couple days. Great place as well and the yacht club personnel and facility was fantastic. Superb restaurant, cheap laundromat  and even a heated pool made the stay memorable.

  From there, we continued to work our way south, but I’ll put more in my next blog. Suffice to say that while it has gotten much warmer, we have a few tales to tell as we worked our way along the east coast of Florida!

  Till next time….