2018- St Augustine – Vero Beach

With a little patience and a lot of luck we were rewarded with perhaps the most benign offshore passage we have ever had. We headed out of Beaufort, SC down the Beaufort River and the historic Port Royal Sound.

Just down river from Beaufort is Marine Corp Recruit Depot Parris Island. Can only imagine the solders that have passed through these historic lands..

Beyond Parris Island we quickly entered the Port Royal Sound and headed for the Atlantic. We had a outgoing current and winds from the east which made for a choppy departure. We quickly found the autopilot was not holding course made the decision to press on in-spite of having to hand steer all night. Now you might laugh but its really tough to stay on course. Next time you are driving close your eyes and see how long you go straight…on second thought don’t do that. When there is no visual reference on the horizon all you can do is pick out star and steer towards that…yup we were reduced to steering by the stars! The below is out actual GPS track so you can see we did pretty good.

Setting Sun 30 miles off the coast of Georgia

We were so grateful to have a benign passage having to hand steer. It still made for a long night but we arrived the inlet at St Augustine shortly after dawn. Some one commented on how rough the water looked in this picture, trust me this is as good as it gets!!!

The St Augustine Light has been light the inlet entrance for nearly 150 years and as you can see she was still lit..probably JUST for Magnolias arrival :-)!

We quickly retrieved a mooring ball just north of the Bridge of Lions which is central to the his historic district. I snapped the below during a middle of the night walk around (I usually wake up atleast once take a walk around to make sure all is it should be). You can see our dinghy Blossom moored off Magnolias stern

Bridge Of Lions

Downtown St Augustine

After a good nights sleep we went to visit my great uncle Wayne and Carmen. Wayne is my grandfathers youngest brother. He recently turned 100 and is very focused on the fact that his brother made it to 101 and 7 months. Them Laibe boys are very competitive! Sadly our gabbing resulted in no pictures except during our departure!

Carmen showing off her decorations!

Mooring field St Augustine North

We picked the wettest day of our visit to me Wayne, Carmen and cousins Pam, Larry as well as Barbara & JY. Annette and I arrived ahead of a passing shower so we celebrated are dry victory waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive. Again, more gabbing than pictures!

From St Augustine we made an overnight stop in Daytona before arriving Titusville.

As luck would have it we passed through the cut from Mosquito Lagoon into the Indian River just as Space-X launched a resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Falcon Launch
Booster coming back we later learned landed in ocean

You can say what you want about this area of Florida but they have the nicest lit bridges in any area we cruise. This was the bridge at Titusville.

The next morning we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise with a view of the Vehicle Assembly Building 

We next made a 2 day stop in Cocoa Village FL to visit with our mentors and friends Greg & Marie from SV Second Sally. If you are long time readers you know these two are responsible for much of what we have learned. Greg and Marie are REAL sailors so we try and catch up whenever we find ourselves in the same longitude! Gabbing no pictures…I have to do better

Now hardly a day goes by that we don’t see several dolphin. These guys though swam in out bow wave for seemed like an hour. Not who was having more fun, us or them!

We anchored just above Vero Beach and had a quiet evening enjoying the locals taking are of business!

I will work harder on the pictures…I write this blog for the old “me.” Someday when we are old gray I am going to edit all thee bad grammar and organize this better. The more we do what we do, the more normal what we do feels. The one thing that continues to grow is our appreciation for the opportunity we have taken advantage of. So many people have helped us along the way and so many friends we have made is what makes this so special. I also need to make a special shout-out to friends and followers from Shennecossett Yacht Club. We thank you and and look forward to connecting again!

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