THE FRIEND HOP

St. Augustine, FL 29º53.140N | 81º18.374W

Almost full moon over Halifax Marina in Daytona.

Our 'job' this week is driving up the ICW. We spend our long work days, swapping two-hour shifts, plodding north all day, making distance a car could travel in an hour. Vero to Cocoa, 57 miles in nine hours, then Cocoa to Daytona, 64 miles in 11 1/2 hours.

You'd think after a day like that, we'd crash on the couch. NO! Our friends G.W. and Jan, formerly of the Outer Banks, live in Daytona, so drop the dinghy and off we go to shore.

G.W. and Jan in front of their beautiful S/V Serenity.

We met (and loved) sweet Jan back in the mid '90s but met G.W. online when he started reading our blog during the days we owned the wine shop. He not only became one of our most loyal readers but has generously helped us many times with anchorages, routes and most importantly finding good weather windows to cross the Gulf Stream. It was great to catch up with them and to learn they are planning to cruise in a few years.

Cara Mia pointed north again at 7:22 a.m. We pulled into St. Augustine, a perennial friend stop, at 4:15 and once again dropped the dinghy to meet more former Outer Bankers, David, Barb and Seth.

St. Augustine is like visiting home now.

Tomorrow: off to Fernandina Beach, one day short of Cara Mia's final destination for hurricane season: Brunswick, Georgia.

Lovely street scene in St. Augustine.

Oopsie. A little balcony bender in St. Aug.
Will be interesting to see if the truck
has been removed today.