Heading South Isn't All It's Cracked Up To Be

On Monday, the 19th, we picked up a rental car and drove to Jane's and Peter's lovely home. The plan for us was to do provisioning for our trip home and for Jane and Peter to arrange to bring Kinvara back to her marina. The only snag in the plan was that Jane's and Peter's refrigerator had experienced some sort of catastrophic event during their months away and had died. Being boaters and quite accustomed to things not going perfectly, Plan B was put into effect for the short term. Happily, a new refrigerator is on the way.

On Tuesday, we dropped Peter's and Jane's cars off at the Little Harbor Marina and all headed back to Vero Beach. Early Wednesday morning we waved good bye to Jane and Peter as they unrafted from Ceili and left on Kinvara with promises to stay in touch. We stayed on in Vero Beach an extra day do some last minute shopping and errands (it never ends!).

Thursday we made a short hop (about 20 miles) to Titusville. The plan was to stop there and then, on Friday, head to one of the anchorages in Daytona. By doing this, we'd be able to by-pass New Smryna Beach, the site of a rather unpleasant experience the previous fall. But, as with all things in boating, you can't ever expect things to work out according to plan. In mid-afternoon we learned there were thunderstorms in Daytona and they were heading our way. In light of that, we decided to stop in New Smyrna Beach. We called the Smyrna Yacht Club, located right along the ICW and were offered transient dockage for the evening. Between the wind and current it took four of us, and lots of lines, to get Ceili tied up to the dock. Once all was secured at the dock, we found our way to the Tiki Hut where we had a chance to chat with some of the club members , including one who so kindly helped us dock. It's a lovely club and the members were very friendly and helpful. As a note of interest, the first question I was asked by the club manager was "Do you belong to a yacht club?" It was only the second time we've ever been asked to show proof that we belong to a yacht club before being welcomed aboard.

At first light we left New Smyrna Beach without incident and headed north to St. Augustine. It was a 63 or so mile passage and we arrived there around 4:30 pm. We had enjoyed St. Augustine on our trip down and looked forward to a chance to spend more time there. We grabbed a mooring on the south side of the Bridge of Lions in the St. Augustine City Marina.

The next morning, we dinghied ashore to sign in and go into town. We took our time poking around the myriad shops, spending quite a while in one of the shell shops on St. George's Street. We also returned to the Pepper Palace where Bill had purchased some hot garlic in the fall. Sadly, they were out of hot okra but that didn't stop us from finding other hot items to bring back. In our search for some stationary items we found ourselves touring Flagler College, winding up at the bookstore. Flagler is a private, 4 year, co-educational liberal arts college. The centerpiece of the campus is the beautiful Ponce de Leon Hall, the former Ponce de Leon Hotel, built by Henry Flagler in 1888, his first in a series of hotels along Florida's east coast. On our walk to the bookstore, we also noted that there is an outdoor pool and beach volleyball court on campus. I suspect Flagler might be much more fun than the place I went to college.

That evening, we had dinner at the Santa Maria Restaurant, located over the water on a long dock. It's very interesting place. It started out in 1763 as a landing for ships to dock and unload cargo. Two hundred years later, in 1949, Louis and Marguerite Connell opened a restaurant on the crumbling dock. It has been a family run business since. A sign on the dock leading to the restaurant encourages patrons to 'feed the fish while you dine!' The restaurant offers casual dining, very good food and something I can say without reservation is an absolute dining first: the restaurant has trap doors next to the tables for feeding the swarms of catfish and mullet that surround the building.

We were seated by a window overlooking the harbor and, along with our drinks, the waitress brought us a basket of bread, which she cautioned, was not meant for us but for the fish. We didn't see any fish coming around for dinner but outside the windows sea birds of all kinds were flocking and staking out their territory. For a moment I thought I'd been transported back to Bodega Bay, with white birds rather than black! A young family was seated at the table behind us and every little while we'd hear the 'Bang!' of the trap door as it slammed shut, the cacophony of the birds outside scrambling to score the piece of bread and the kids' squeals of delight. The birds are so accustomed to this program that they show up in the afternoon expecting to be fed...in fact, those that sat outside our window seemed almost to glare at us as we steadfastly refused to offer them so much as a single crumb. Truly a dining first.

We left St. Augustine on Thursday morning around 7:20 am so as to make the 7:30 opening of the Bridge of Lions. Once through, we motored down in time to make the next opening of the George E. Musson, Coronado Beach bascule bridge. The remainder of the day was spent motor sailing the distance to Fernandina, about 62 miles. It was a beautiful day and we were lucky to see lots of dolphins and birds of all kind. The wildlife of the ICW never gets old to us.

We arrived at the Fernandina Municipal Marina around 4:00 p.m. As it was a long day we opted to have dinner at Brett's Waterway Cafe which is located at the dock. All in all a good trip from Vero Beach so far. This morning's mission is to plot a strategy to get us successfully through Georgia's shallow portion of the ICW.

The photo was taken in the Halifax River; the boat was smack dab in the center of the ICW.