Day 207: Saturday, March 30, 2013

Port to Port: Near Flagler Beach to St. Augustine, Florida

Underway: 8:04 am      Motor Off: 1:42 pm      Miles Traveled: 29      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First circus parade put on by the marina kids.

Mile 809 to Mile 780 (plus 2 up the San Sebastion River): Today was a beautiful travel day. It wasn’t quite as cold last night and the sun was shining when we got up helping warm the cabin a little. The wind was calm and we were ready to go to our next destination – St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest settlement in North America. We are looking forward to doing some exploring in the old city.

We lucked out big time in the morning with the tides. The tide was going out as we got back on the ICW and we rode a nice favorable current sometimes hitting 7 mph all morning. We slowed some as the bays got bigger and the tide switched but then we put up the main sail and got a boost that kept our speed above 5 mph all the way in to the dock. The tides here can be up to 6 ft and the current can run 4 knots or more in certain places so we need to do a little more planning than we have in the past.

We had planned to stay at the Municipal Marina but were turned off by the cost – $2/ft plus $5/day for electric (remember, we used less than $2 worth in 3 weeks at Fort Myers) plus tax. By the time we were done it would have been over $50 a night to stay on our own boat and use public bathrooms for facilities and no room service. Not a good deal. Even the mooring field was $20/night. But I found a little marina – Hidden Harbor – on a side river also near Old St. Augustine and they only charge $25 per night plus tax – a much better deal. As luck would have it, their monthly boater BBQ was at 3:30 pm just in time for us to dock, clean the boat, shower and make a cracker and cheese plate to contribute. Plus it is family run – they actually live on a boat in the marina with their young kids. We met some really nice people, had some great ribs, enjoyed some fun conversations and, as an extra bonus, some of the marina kids put on a wonderful spontaneous circus parade complete with hula hoops, cartwheels, acrobatics and bicycling in circles. What a special treat (brought back memories of a different time when kids used to do this kind of stuff every week). It is obvious we made a good choice.