St Augustine, day 1

We made it into St. Augustine just ahead of an approaching storm.  We knew the front was wreaking havoc all across the country and wanted to be someplace secure.  Moorings are generally much safer than being at anchor and sometimes even over being in a slip.  No chance of a fender slipping or a spring line breaking and having your hull slam against the dock.  This isn't an ideal mooring field due to the swift run of water in the river.  As I write, we're experiencing steady 20 kts with gusts in the 30s.  The boat shifts with the running of the tide so sometimes we are at a 90 degree angle to our mooring ball.  We went to shore to register in a ripping current and opted to take a walk and wait for the tide shift.  The wind would still be against us but  the current would be better.  We didn't want to battle both.  It was a short walk to check out the church we'll attend on Easter and look at some of the spots we had visited a while back by car.  The weather is due to be horrendous for about 36 hours so this was our chance.  We had originally planned on only a few days but have decided that this is the place we'll stay until I go home to Fort Walton to take care of the house and yard and generally catch up with friends and even work a few shifts at West.  David has his list of projects to take care of while I'm gone.  I know we'll miss each other but we're both looking forward to our own projects.

On the way up the river, we passed so much marshy scrubbed.  Then
it opened up to this vast savanna of marsh grass.

You can see why it's called the Palm Coast.

This is part of the original Fr. Matanzas built by the Spaniards in the 16th
century at the now shoaled in  Matanzas Pass.  Now a National Monument and accessible
by a park ferry.  On our list of some-day places to visit.  It matches the fort at the mouth of the
inlet at St. Augustine.  I hope we get the time to visit there since we missed
it on our last trip to St. Augustine.  

This is a large flag, usually requiring over 15 kts of wind to fill. Yep,
it's windy out and still building!

Once an elegant hotel built by Henry Flagler as a destination for East Coast
vacationers.  Now the site of Flagler College.

This is a scale model of the Alhambra Castle.  Also on my list of
places to visit this time.

One of my favorite museums ever, the Lightner.  Mr. Lightner was a wealthy
man who didn't have time to really shop for his treasures so he specialized
in buying entire collections and he didn't seem to care what the collection
involved.  You can see china sets, clocks, egg cups and hundreds of other
subsets of items.  Very eclectic and some things are quite beautiful.

On the Palm Coast

Since we have a sort of notional idea of how long we have for the entire trip, we moved on.  We stopped about half-way to St. Augustine at a marina called Palm Coast.  It was just going to be a place to tie up for the night but we were pleasantly surprised.  The staff were extremely welcoming and friendly and gave us directions to places to see.  The entire community, both sides of the river is a planned one and based on a Mediterranean theme.  The roads are pedestrian friendly and bike paths are all over.  We wished we had know how great it was and allowed more time.  Maybe on the way back.....

Barge building a new dock and boat house.

This castle even has a turret.

A neighborhood gazebo.

This is a stretch of the original ICW first started in the early 1900s. 
You can see how narrow it was allowing barges to go single file.  As
the waterway became popular, the need for wider channels became obvious.

That is going to be one tall boat in this slip.

Riding Around Daytona

On the only full day we had, we rode our bikes down to Ormond Beach, over a bridge to the island then along the island and back over to the club.  From there we rode all around the other direction to see the harbor district.  This was a great trip of about 20 miles which is a long way on our little folders!  We really liked the little towns along the shore but were a bit disappointed in the beach side.  It was a strange blend of 50 year old motels on one side, tired large hotels on the water side interspersed with new high rise condos and hotels.  It was nice to see some places were still affordable for families albeit small, older rooms.  If you want to go to the beach, the room is only for sleeping so size isn't important.

These trees have all their foliage leaning away from the wind, not from pruning.
You commonly see this along windswept sea coasts.  I'm glad we didn't
experience the wind like that this day.

One neighborhood we rode through clearly had a sense of whimsy.  The huge
old oak was covered in resident's donations of gnomes and gnome related items.

Just some of the things around the base.  There were also gnomes on the
branches and in the crooks.  There were gnome playgrounds, cars and
gnomes of all types and sizes.  Hard to quit looking for what else there was to find.

This new dock was being built near one stretch of parkway.  It looks like
the kind we've seen that allow short term tie ups for boaters to visit the shops ashore.

Daytona has several bridges and we were impressed at how attractive
each one was.  The designs combined beauty and functionality.  

Each support had a mosaic all along the base depicting different sea creatures.

Even the sides of the bridge were beautiful.

We don't usually see the ICW identified on road signs, only the river being spanned.

A view from the top of the bridge.  It was one of the 65 footers
so we had a commanding view.

Turn about is fair play.  We were held up for a sailboat to pass under.
You can clearly see the open architecture of the road bed so water
doesn't stand on the roadway.

Another view of the bridge under construction.

A real treat for us was seeing a family of manatees.  That little side node
is a baby clinging to mama.  If we hadn't ridden over the tall bridge, we
would have missed them.

It wasn't just one boat but a parade of trawlers .  The all slowed down
for the manatees.  It looked like they were traveling as a group.  They
all had looper and Motor Trawler Owners flags.

Another manatee diving down as a boat passes.

Downtown Daytona

We didn't have a long time available to be tourists so once we were tied up to the dock, we went for a walk in the historic downtown area.  The Halifax River Yacht Club has been a part of the cityscape in 1896.  It is the oldest, continuously active club in the same location on the entire Eastern Seaboard.  That is quite the claim!  The city has obviously made a tremendous effort in revitalizing an aging area.  Beautifully landscaped parks line the river and the old buildings are full of shops and restaurants.  The main drag, Beach St, is divided into distinct districts from the Harbor, to Arts, Historical and Garden.  There is a nice pavilion giving a short history of the city and all it's parts.  Of course, most know about the car racing but the first racing was actually on Indian (Harley Davidson) motorcycles.  My mother's father used to have an Indian a little over 100 years ago.  When he seriously started courting my grandmother, her family made it clear that the bike was not looked upon favorably.  True love for her won out, and the cycle was history.

The original clubhouse wasn't replaced until 2006.  The membership commissioned
a very lovely club.  The interior is full of original parts in display cases.  One entire
hallway is dedicated to the club history.

Most of the dining and lounge rooms open on the the river.

Fire station #1 is immediately next door.  It was built in the early 20s.

There were a few of these, to us, weird retention areas along the waterfront.
They held back water a few hundred yards between the road and the water.
There was no inlet and only these little dams for overflow.  All we could
figure was some type of erosion protection during storms.

This is the detention area next to the club.

These stately palms line about a 2 mile stretch of Beach St.  Commerce on
one side with park on the other.

One stretch of the park had these shaded benches for footsore pedestrians.

All the side roads have been converted to pedestrian only walkways.
These attractive arches delineate the streets.

This cute pair of ducks kept looking to us for handouts.

This turn of the last century post office was built of the local dredged
coral called coquina.

The landscaping ends.

I never knew I had a summer condo!!

On to Daytona Beach

From Smyrna YC we headed to our last yacht club for a while, Halifax River YC in Daytona Beach.  The trip up this stretch was, as usual, full of wildlife both in the water and in the air.  This is such a nice stretch of the east coast and I'm glad we're taking the time to cover the inside route.  On the way home in the Fall, we'll probably be in more of a hurry and take the outside route for speed if not beauty.

This is a deceptive view of the entrance to the Ponce Inlet.  You see bigger
boats up in the area but beyond this point it is too shallow for us to use the inlet.

The historic lighthouse at the inlet.  No way to get there from here for a visit.

People take advantage of any available spit of sand to enjoy their time on the water.

Daytona Beach here we come!

There is about a 5-6 foot tide change and this shrimp boat seems to have
found the bottom at the dock.

This bridge used to be an opening bridge but a new 65 foot bridge is
under construction.  The hazard here is to watch out for the construction barges.

Up the Space Coast

We left Titusville bound for New Smyrna and the yacht club there.  The ICW at this point is a series of rivers with cuts dredged between them.  As such, they are subject to swift running currents that we're not really used to navigating.  We had a solid 2+ knots against us making for slow going.  We trusted the forecast (I know, we never seem to learn) and left early to avoid the coming wind.  Well, we had a great sail since the dreaded wind came on the trip not as we arrived at the dock.  Instead we had a hellacious current which played havoc with our tying up to the assigned dock.  Thanks to 4 or 5 club members we made it on with no damage to people, boat or dock.  We now know to plan more carefully around tide stages!  We wanted adventure and this was a definite learning point for us.

Sunrise at Titusville as we were slipping the mooring lines.

This couple was turning someone's really rotten luck into a nice spot of shade.
It must have been quite the surge to get this boat so high and dry.

This was Mosquito Lagoon.  I'm glad we were moving and didn't find out
if the name was appropriate.

This was a very inconvenient bridge.  It was the end of a short channel just
before we made a hard left turn.  This is the end of Merritt Island, to the left
in the picture.  It is the unofficial end of the Space Coast.

On the charts, this is a marina.  Not much of one that we could see.

The water and winds were rough.  This was a disappointed family
group who had planned a kayaking outing.  You could see one of the young
boys arguing to go anyway.  Stay tough, Mom!

This was a huge downed tree just to the side of the channel.  I'm glad it had been moved
out of our way.  There wasn't enough depth at this point to leave the channel to avoid an object.

That is one, huge golfball!  Or maybe a raydome.  Golf ball makes a better story.

I can only imagine the stresses of bringing such a long span up.  You
wonder why it's one instead of the usual split in the middle.

All along this stretch were retirement communities with well kept
yards and modular houses with screened porches added on.

I love the look of these trees, Australian Pines, but they are so invasive and communities
are waging war to wipe them out.  They are all over the ICW and crowding out native
species, especially the very beneficial mangrove.

A long, narrow cut between the end of two islands.  You can count on the
current being swift here as it's squeezed from two large bodies of water
through a narrow gap.

The Smyrna Yacht club facing the water

I would like to know the story behind their emblem of the laying down S.

Cedars are starting to be common this far north.  We went for a walk in the
surrounding neighborhood and saw many of them.  It was a very pleasant
place with lots of other walkers out early like us.

Another view of the club.

After our stressful docking, we looked forward to a nice lunch and drink
at the club Tiki Bar.  As usual, we met many nice folks there.

Blue Moon tied up safe and sound.

A highlight of our 1 day stop was seeing my nephew Greg.  He was in
Florida on business and traveling between St. Augustine and Tampa
and Smyrna was close enough off the trail to stop by for dinner and a tour of the boat.

Greg and his friend Beth.  All four of us graduated from the same
high school, Nolan Catholic in Fort Worth.