St. Augustine, Fla.

    After riding out three days of pea soup thick fog we left just before high tide to make our way to St. Augustine. We've enjoyed Fernandina Beach,  stolling through town shopping, eating at some neat little restaurants, even taking in their Santa Claus Parade. But we have our sights set to be farther south for Christmas, so we're moving on.

  We thought that we were past all the trouble spots, but we had a very slow pace for the first part as we had to pay close attention to shoals and to moved navigation markers. The Army Corp. of Engineers, who take care of the waterways place them where they are needed, sometimes not where our onboard GPS says they are. We got through fine, maybe hurt the pride a bit as we touched the bottom no less than 3 times.
   We crossed the St. John's river as the rain came down in a full out thunderstorm, slowly motoring from marker to marker as visibilty was down to about 100 ft. Who said boating isn't exciting?
Soon after, with the sun setting fast, so we pulled into Beach Marina, in Jacksonville.
  Today just happened to be their Christmas Party, so as guests of the marina we were invited. Free dinner with all drinks on the house. What timing. They sure know how to throw a party. There were over 1500 attendees.
 After untying the docklines early we continued on to St. Augustine, arriving early enough to walk around town in the afternoon.

 

     We have been in St. Augistine now for three days, with rain and high winds. Oh ya, did I tell you ......this is  Beautifull Sunny Florida. We are heading for Daytona Beach hopefully on Friday (tomorrow) to get the boat hauled out, to paint the bottom. It is long over due. Weather permiting.
  Our friends on Chassuer left today, as they were only going a little ways. We will meet up with them again. They bought us a gift, a small cushion that is now our motto.

    Thanks, Suzanne and Terry.