We cruised up from Daytona to St. Augustine, FL today along te ICW. It was a beautiful day with temps in the high 70s. A flybridge day.

We stopped halfway and picked up Harry and Debbie Vellines, friends from Illinois, at the Palm Coast Marina. Harry and Deb brought lunch which we ate as we cruised up the ICW. There were dolphins in the water frequently, but none of them surfed our wake. We also saw a bald eagle fishing in the salt marshes along the ICW. Harry and Deb will be staying with us tonight and then going back to their vacation condo in Palm Coast.


We stopped at the Saint Augustine City Marina, which is right downtown and within easy walking distance to all the historic district, and tourist shops and the old downtown Flagler College campus, so we walked the brick paved streets to see the town. Saint Augustine claims to be the oldest town in North America (founded in 1565). When we wanted to see a restored old village section, it was 4:18 PM and we found that it closes at 4:30. Then every other place we stopped also closes at 4:30.
We visited 16th century Fort Castillo de San Marcos, but we only saw the outside because, of course, it closes at 4:30 PM. That would have been a good tactic to keep the Brittish from attacking the fort...."sorry, you arrived after 4:30 PM so you'll have to wait to attack until tomorrow". Maybe tomorrow we'll go look for Ponce deLeon's fountain of youth, which is supposed to be here too. We'll just have to go before 4:30.

We plan to stay here for 4 days or so to see Saint Augustine but this very nice marina is booked solid for Friday and Saturday with yacht club rendezvous, so we'll anchor out in the river nearby for those 2 nights.