Author Note: I must apologize for the lack of postings. Work responses to the Argentina DISSUB rescue and other working dog tasks have taken up most of my spare time lately. We have to pay for this adventure somehow.

We left St. Augustine around 7:30A and were followed by FLYING FISH and BOREAS. We briefly met FLYING FISH at the St. Mary's Thanksgiving gathering. They have three young kids (about ages 5 to 11) onboard for the season. They are home schooling and what an experience that must be. They were well mannered beyond their age at Thanksgiving. FLYING FISH is heading to Daytona Beach also. Then they are going to Titusville for a few days to wait on a rocket launch. Just out of St. Augustine there is a ICW Cruise Liner (Cruise America) anchored and it is quite amazing how many boats call it asking which way it is going and what side to pass it on. You could tell the radio operator was a bit exasperated telling each in kind that they were anchored (see the anchor ball) and the boat underway could choose. Kind of reminds you of the common joke about the aircraft carrier and the lighthouse. The captain comes out on the wing bridge as we pass and yells that he wishes he was on a sailboat too.

At one of the bridges while calling on Ch 9 I hear in the background SECOND OPTION calling the George Musson Bridge in New Smyrna Beach for an opening. After we get clear of our bridge and they have time to clear theirs I hail them on CH 16. Come to find out they were heading to the Bahamas and had stopped in Vero Beach for a bit and while there found and offered on a house which was accepted promptly so they were actually heading north again to slip the boat in New Brunswick Landing Marina in Georgia. Another one gets trapped at Velcro Beach. They are stopping in Daytona Beach for the night at Halifax River Marina where we stopped to see Jeff and Sue on QUINNY B last spring on our return. We share itineraries and may meet up for dinner by dinghying in as we intend to anchor out. Bill and Kathy on SECOND OPTION keep their boat in Solomon's Island, MD. during the summers. We met them last spring in Spanish Wells when we were riding a storm out on the mooring balls. We were on the mooring balls and all the others (DAGNY, HEARTSTRING and SECOND OPTION) were in a slip at the resort. Those mooring balls were positioned just so our stern was about 5 feet off the shore line to where you could've stepped into the dinghy then onto shore as the winds were NE. That was one place reading the Active Captain entries about the moorings was where we came across a few regarding a broken mooring chain with a boat on shore in a storm about 8 months before we were there. Guess who didn't sleep much for three days. We ended up OK as did CHIC AND SWELL and LA TOISON D'OR from Canada. It was interesting that at cocktails in the bar one night Alan from DAGNY and the guy from LA TOISON D'OR were talking and realized they had raced each other at one of their marinas several years ago. What a small world.

The currents were favorable and we past Daytona Beach about 1:30 and decided to push on to Ponce Inlet where we anchored last year in view of the lighthouse. Along the way we pass SECOND OPTION so we say our goodbyes. That will be the only time we get to see them this season. Maybe we will see them again next year. We pass Ponce Inlet on a good current and keep going until we get held up at our next to least favorite bridge, the George Musson Bridge in New Smyrna Beach. The current is always ripping here and we dance with FLYING FISH, BOREAS and two others to keep clear of the bridge until it opens. The schedule is different than printed in the cruising guide on top of this has to be the slowest bridge to open. No wonder they changed to hours and half hours instead of every twenty minutes. We get through and make it to the anchor field south of the 65 ft bridge just before dark. It is quite tight so we anchor close and watch the flounder fisherman with the big spotlights just after dark. A couple more episodes of House of Cards (will it ever end) sleep and off to Titusville tomorrow.