The rally group continues it's stop-and-go progress down the east coast of Florida. After Sister's Creek, the next stop was St Augustine. St Augustine is the oldest city in North America - settled by the Spanish in the late 1500s, before the English settled in Jamestown VA and long before the Pilgrims came to Plymouth MA. The main historic site in St Augustine is the fort - started by the Spanish, taken over by the English, given back to the Spanish, taken over by the Americans. A lot of history that I won't go into. St Augustine also has a lot of historic buildings from the 1920s - and is very touristy. In the afternoon of our first full day, I spent some time visiting the fort, strolling the streets, looking into shops and having some ice cream (a very rare treat).

(for those who wonder how I spend my time on a 'lay day' (when not underway), that morning was typical: at 9:00, met some other cruisers who had rented a car, went to the grocery store and West Marine, came back, motored from where I was anchored to the fuel dock to get some diesel and fill a water tank, motored back to where I would anchor, and ate some lunch - about 1/2 of the lay day...)

Because we had a 70 st mile/60 nautical mile run the day we left, I got started early - up anchor by 6:30 am when it was still dark. Cruisers know this, but for those who don't, let me explain a little about navigating, starting in the dark. There are marks along the channel we are following, and some of these have lights - either red or green. The lights are flashing, with each mark having a distinctive flash - like 'FL R(ed) 4 Sec', shown on the chart. The distinctive flash would allow mariners, in the days before chartplotters, to identify each mark and know where they are. Now-days, I would see a flashing light, look at the chartplotter, and say 'oh - it's that one'. Much easier if less nautical, but important to have two ways of knowing where you are. The next item to be aware of is bridges. There are fixed bridges, which have around 65 ft of clearance (and sometimes less, as some of our party have discovered when a bridge swept gear off the top of their masts). Then there are opening bridges. On the chart it will tell you if it's too low to be a fixed bridge, which means it's an opening bridge. Then you need to see if it opens on a schedule - like every 30 minutes, or when requested - I just look it up on my phone. If it opens on schedule, you just wait for it to open. If it opens on demand, you need to call it on the VHF radio, by name (I always forget the name just before I call), saying "Haulover Canal Bridge, this is southbound sailing vessel Grace requesting an opening". The bridge tender will answer, sometimes telling you he wants to wait until traffic clears or more boats have arrived. Then, when you go thru, you say on the radio "Grace clear, Thank you for the opening", and sometimes he (or she) answers saying, "you have a good day, Captain".

I spent the night anchored off New Smyrna Beach, and the next day motored another 42 nautical miles, past Daytona Beach to Cocoa Beach.

A few sights along the way:

- we are seeing mangroves along the side of the ICW. Mangroves are the most tropical plant I've seen and a definitive indicator we are south.

- we are in manatee country, and signs along the water way tell boaters to slow down so as not to hit one. I saw one - basically just a large, roundish shape that disappeared under the water as I go close as I was exiting the Haulover Canal.

- going past Titusville, looking east, there was a large, featureless island with a huge building in the middle of it. This was the Kennedy Space Center, and the building was the Vertical Assembly Building, which is (I believe) the largest building by volume in the world.

For three nights we are staying in Cocoa Beach. Our first day was an all day Cruising Seminar, with Fatty Goodlander as the keynote speaker - basically just telling funny stories and bits of advice from his 50+ years of cruising. He was followed by speakers talking about the Bahamas, visiting Cuba, weather and boat electrical systems. The seminar fee also covered a barbecue dinner in a historic mansion by the waterfront. There is also a large street festival and craft fair, which I'll visit today. Tomorrow we'll have a group outing to the Kennedy Space Center. A rocket launch had been planned, but has been postponed, so we won't see one.

After Cocoa Beach, the group will begin to shrink as people go off on their own (I'm leaving in Ft Lauderdale). My next blog post will talk about some of their plans.