St. Augustine to New Smyrna

Izzy R with the setting moon

We left the mooring field at 7:30 this morning. We had a big full moon set as we were leaving the field. Richard had told us he had a great push and we were expecting to get one too. And we did. We should have been going maybe 6.3 and at times we were getting 9.0kts. That’s free push all the way to the North end of Daytona. We had some current against us until we got to downtown Daytona and then the push was back until we got to Ponce Inlet. Sometimes we get pushed and sometimes we have to push against the current.

Well, this reminder me of the old men getting together at a fast food place for breakfast.

Fort Matanzas

Out getting their Saturday morning exercise

"Stinky Bird Island"

We saw several resident and commercial docks that had been demolished by the hurricane.  There were several boats that had been grounded.

Ponce De Leon Lighthouse

We started noticing some very dark clouds near Ponce Inlet. We checked the weather and it looked like it might miss us, but our luck ran out. Just as we got past the George Musson Bridge it started sprinkling and then we had a hard rain as we headed toward our anchorage.

This sunk sailboat is right along the ICW at New Symrna. See how close it is to the marker?

Our luck ran out

We got here at 4:00pm in the rain. We had traveled for 7.5hrs at 7.2 kts for a total distance of almost 61nm. By the time we got the anchor set and started carrying things downstairs the rain had stopped and the sun came back out. We had a beautiful day except for the shower at the end. Well, we had a beautiful moon set, a great push, and found a new to us anchorage. You can’t have everything. But would it have hurt for the rain to have held off 30 minutes?

Our trip

The docks to the left of Escape are the yacht club. They have great Wi-Fi.

In this picture you can see Escape and near the top you can see Ponce Inlet and where the inlet joins the ICW (at the white boxy looking area) you see Rockhouse Creek, a favorite anchorage of ours. If we'd stopped at that anchorage, we would have been inside when it rained. Lesson? Don't keep pushing.