Days 272 to 276:

We continue to move up the very pretty Halifax River towards the land cut that leads up to Palm Coast Yacht Harbor, where we stayed on the way down. This Halifax River/Daytona/Ormond Beach area is where we (think) we see The Casements, the former summer home of John D. Rockefeller.

Two thirds of the way up the river, it really starts to blow out of the North. S sees 38 in the puffs over the deck and there is a tough little chop as well. Steve is glad that we are going to be in an enclosed place like Palm Coast. We wind up staying here two days. S had a flu bug in Daytona that hung on for our windy stay there for about three days, and now I have come down with it as well, followed by a vicious cough/cold. Here we have come all this way without so much as a sniffle and get lambasted with a virus. S says it was the bus load of tourists at the Space Center, and he may have something there. We stay put in Palm Coast this day and the next to get me somewhat recovered and for this bloody wind to die down.

We have a real New England fog the morning we try to leave Palm Coast and have to wait an hour and a half for it to break up a little before we can leave. S is anxious to get through the notoriuos Mantanzas Pass/ICW intersection at as high a tide as possible, but because of the fog the tide will be lower. We squeak through this constantly shoaling and shifting cut just barely. A powerboat in front of us calls us to say that he had seen a 4' spot. We make it okay, but it is pretty tight.

Along the way to St. Augustine we spot the Princess Palace. A beautiful lodge constructed in 1887, this property is named after the wife of an exiled Russian prince who lived at the property for over 50 years. Princess Sherbatoff was a home design trendsetter. Like many contemporary architects, she incorporated local materials, using pink coquina mined from local beaches. The wraparound porch is built of local cedar and palm trunks. The Princess also added a new architectural feature to her country home, the first in the state of Florida. Today the state is dotted with millions of these amenities, visible from the air as tiny dots of turquoise blue...she built Florida's first in-ground swimming pool!

The rest of the way to St. Augustine we have the current with us and we just fly. Back to the familiar Commache Cove Yacht Harbor where we hang out at their pool (it's hot again) and listen to a DJ play a lot of great songs with a big group of sportfishing people from the marina.

The next day once again our start is delayed for two hours by AM fog and we do finally get underway spend the morning and part of the afternoon fighting a strong, foul tide up the really beautiful Tolomato River to Jacksonville Beach. We hang here two nights (strong wind on our noses, what ELSE is new???) and then boot it up to Fernandina Beach Muncipal Marina. We feel like we have been in Florida FOREVER, but this is the end. On to the Georgia coast tomorrow!

Palm Coast to Fernandina pix in corresponding album.