The winds seemed to have died down a bit this morning, but as usual about an hour into our day they picked right back up, though still not a bad day on the inside. The first five bridges we encountered were fixed at 65 feet, but the sixth one was a bascule at 27 feet. We had lowered the outriggers in Stuart so we were sure we had at least a 27 foot clearance, but we took it slow just the same. There were several bridge workers on the second span of this bridge and they all gathered to watch us go under. As we made our way under you could see them all bend over in unison to see if our outriggers make it. Well we did make it with only inches to spare, and received a standing ovation from the workers, as well as a “Well done Captain” from the bridge tender. This would have been a great photo opportunity but I was too busy watching our clearance to grab the camera.
Oh, just saw two pink flamingos’ fly right over the boat! First ones we’ve seen. Beautiful creatures.
We are trying to make St Augustine today, and in order to do that we need to travel on the outside, so we stuck our nose out at the Ponce Inlet to test the waters. Well, we didn’t even make it out of the inlet when we turned around. All you could see out on the ocean was white. I bet it was at least 20-25 knot SE winds and wave heights of 6-8 feet. No thanks. You could hardly see the beach outside the inlet from the wind kicking up sea mist and sand. Guess we will have to see how far we get on the inside. The channel getting us from here back to the ICW was a bit treacherous too. We only came across one green channel marker and it was in the middle of a “beach” (low tide shoal) so we tried moving over to the left of the channel. The depths varied from 5 feet to 12 feet, and constantly changing. We must have looked like we had a few too many if you watched us come up the channel! We did this for the next ½ mile until we were back on the ICW and in 18 ft of water. The rest of the trip was uneventful.
We pulled into Palm Coast Marina at 5:00. Nice facilities, very helpful and friendly people. After we got the boat washed down and secured we cleaned up and headed out in search of dinner. The marina office had provided us with a map of the area and told us that just a 10 minute walk away was a nice outdoor European Square with shops and lots of restaurants. So we took her advice and walked up there. What a great place! It was a huge courtyard surrounded by café style restaurants (mostly Italian) and quaint little shops (most of them were closed for the day), and the air was filled with the sounds of live Jazz, there was a saxophone player and a drummer in the middle of the Square playing that slow bluesy jazz. Over top of the businesses were villa's and European style apartments with flower filled balconies overlooking the Square.These were actually resort hotel rooms, but gave it a very Italian village feel. We decided on Mezzaluna’s for dinner and sat outside so we could listen to the music and watch all of the people strolling by. Busy place. Our food was wonderful and the Chianti was molto bene!
We were going to anchor out tonight but with an approaching thunderstorm we opted to tied up to a dock for the night. Tomorrow – on to Fernandina!
Oh, just saw two pink flamingos’ fly right over the boat! First ones we’ve seen. Beautiful creatures.
We are trying to make St Augustine today, and in order to do that we need to travel on the outside, so we stuck our nose out at the Ponce Inlet to test the waters. Well, we didn’t even make it out of the inlet when we turned around. All you could see out on the ocean was white. I bet it was at least 20-25 knot SE winds and wave heights of 6-8 feet. No thanks. You could hardly see the beach outside the inlet from the wind kicking up sea mist and sand. Guess we will have to see how far we get on the inside. The channel getting us from here back to the ICW was a bit treacherous too. We only came across one green channel marker and it was in the middle of a “beach” (low tide shoal) so we tried moving over to the left of the channel. The depths varied from 5 feet to 12 feet, and constantly changing. We must have looked like we had a few too many if you watched us come up the channel! We did this for the next ½ mile until we were back on the ICW and in 18 ft of water. The rest of the trip was uneventful.
We pulled into Palm Coast Marina at 5:00. Nice facilities, very helpful and friendly people. After we got the boat washed down and secured we cleaned up and headed out in search of dinner. The marina office had provided us with a map of the area and told us that just a 10 minute walk away was a nice outdoor European Square with shops and lots of restaurants. So we took her advice and walked up there. What a great place! It was a huge courtyard surrounded by café style restaurants (mostly Italian) and quaint little shops (most of them were closed for the day), and the air was filled with the sounds of live Jazz, there was a saxophone player and a drummer in the middle of the Square playing that slow bluesy jazz. Over top of the businesses were villa's and European style apartments with flower filled balconies overlooking the Square.These were actually resort hotel rooms, but gave it a very Italian village feel. We decided on Mezzaluna’s for dinner and sat outside so we could listen to the music and watch all of the people strolling by. Busy place. Our food was wonderful and the Chianti was molto bene!
We were going to anchor out tonight but with an approaching thunderstorm we opted to tied up to a dock for the night. Tomorrow – on to Fernandina!
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