Friday - St. Augustine

Up before the dawn, again.  Beth got up, walked the dogs while I prepared to get us underway.  It was warmer this morning and it wasn't necessary to bundle up quite as much.  The tide and wind were with us at the start but that changed quickly.  The wind became out of the northeast as it became stronger and the tide turned about noon and slowed us down.  Beth wasn't feeling much better, in fact she was worse so she took the dogs into the berth and slept till about 2pm. 

We crossed the halfway point between inlets and the tide was with us so we started making good time.

  Ft Matanzas at the tip of Rattlesnake Island

Bridge of Lions - St. Augustine, FL

We arrived in St. Augustine for the 3pm opening of the bridge of lions and by 4pm, we had refueled, made it to our slip for the night and secured the boat. 

St Augustine Light House

Castillo de San Marcos

St Augustine's Cross

The marina we chose for today is the Camachee Island Marina, just slightly north of St. Augustine but by far, one of the best marina's we have ever stayed at.  The dock hands that greeted us and fueled us up were friendly and helpful, The office staff was great and the overall marina is fantastic.  This marina is definately one of the upper scale marina's but at a very reasonable price.  They give discounts for BoatUS members, have clean facilities, beautiful grounds, numerous shops within the area and they have courtesy cars.  Once we were settled we took advantage of one of the courtesy cars to make a quick Winn Dixie run, with a stop at West Marine. 
I have always enjoyed the beef that Winn Dixie has so when I saw they had steaks on sale, I knew what was for dinner.  Once we finished with Winn Dixie and West Marine, we headed back to the boat, unpacked, and relaxed for a bit.  I had chosen a beautiful porterhouse steak for dinner and after using the grill on the boat to cook it to perfection, I dropped it into the water.  It was a true oops moment.  Just as the steak was done and I was taking it off the grill to put on the plate, it went swimming.  Needless to say I was greatly disappointed but I am sure some fish or crab really enjoyed my dinner.  I had also picked up a nice pork steak so I grilled that and Beth did share some of her steak with me.  After dinner, We watched some TV and we now have our local channels back so we relaxed.

We made 52 miles today which given the wind and the shifting tides, we did pretty good.  Much of our distance is dependent on where we can get before dark and where the marina's happen to be.  This is the last marina north of St. Augustine for another couple of hours sailing.