St. Augustine

We left Beaufort, SC at 7 AM yesterday morning and arrived here at the St Augustine inlet at 7:30 AM. Not bad! As much as I dislike overnights, it sure does get you there faster. What took just over 24 hours would have taken us three days travel. We could not have had better conditions last night. Even though it would have been nice to sail as opposed to motoring, the lack of wind ensured calm seas. We had less than 5 knots of wind and sea swells of around one to two feet. The wind did pick up during the night to about 8 knots and we had seas of two feet. We were headed straight into both so we couldn't put out the sails. This only lasted for a few hours then it was calm again.

While I was on watch I saw a breathtaking sight of a shooting star. I felt some what sad after knowing that it would never light up the sky again. We were also treated to sightings of several dolphin. They always give me the feeling of guardian angels watching over us while we are at sea.

I attempted to give you a picture of the setting moon but my camera failed to capture the beauty that I saw with my eyes. It looked like a large orange ball on a black back drop. Some times nature just doesn't allow us to put in print it splendid beauty. The moon was just short of being full and stayed with us until 4 Am when it slid behind a bank of clouds only to reappear and slip to the horizon at 5 AM. It helped to guide our way through the night. The picture I did give you is of the beautiful sunset last evening.

When we arrived this morning Larry and I anchored North of the bridge and Andy and Sally traveled on to a marina. They need to leave there boat for a few days and visit his cousin. We have now caught up with more friends of ours from Virgina. We are planning on visiting on their boat this evening and then traveling together tomorrow morning. We had planned to leave Virginia together but circumstances as they were with us made that impossible. We are glad to finally meet up.

Tomorrow we will leave here because the weather will change and this anchorage is not good in high winds. We will get to Daytona and anchor for the night then arrive in New Smyrna Wednesday early, where I hope to meet up with my Aunt Dot for a visit.