Northern Florida is Great

We have had 2 absolutely perfect travel days. We went from Daytona Beach to Palm Coast Marina yesterday under absolutely perfect weather. We had a very favorable tide part of the way too. The Temps and wind were ideal.

We got into the marina around 11:30am and easily tied up. After a quick lunch I had to tackle a very despicable job -- that Y-valve I cleaned and lubricated the other day is leaking and needs to be replaced! I hate sanitation plumbing.

I used one of those "chucks" or inconstancy pad rather than sacrifice a towel. Worked Great!!

The job was just as daunting as I thought, since I had to remove 3 1 1/2" hoses from the valve that had been on for 7 years. A lot of wiggle, screwdriver plying, and the heat gun got the job done. The new valve is working great with no leaks.

Karen and Vickie went to the Publix here by taxi and bought a few groceries -- mainly a cart full each for both of them!! Oh man we are going to undo all our weight loss from the Bahamas in short order.

After my job I went to Victoria Gaye to help Buck with his leaking fitting on the water heater. Boy that barb fitting was shot and nearly broke off. We had to break it the rest of the way then extract it from the pipe. Since it was nylon we got it out easily -- just drove a knife into it and turned it out.

Buck was able to get a ride to the hardware store and get a replacement -- working fine now.

We had a nice evening and got to sleep in this morning. We needed to navigate the Mantanzas Inlet and need to do that near high tide. We left around 10am this morning and had a great ride to the Mantanzas with a favorable current pushing us along at nearly 7 knots. The inlet was not too bad with one area around 8.2 feet for a hundred yards then fine after that. We made St. Augustine at 1:30pm which was a good run.

We took a mooring ball for 2 days and then will go to a slip at the marina for 2 days to weather some really bad storms expected this Saturday and Sunday. Ohhh the mooring ball is number 69 and the second to the last in the mooring field. It is a L O N G dinghy ride to the marina to tie up.

St Augustine is a great place to spend a few days. So much to see and do in the downtown historic district for example a jewelry store called "Jewelry for the Filthy Rich"! Lots of places to eat drink, art stuff and just other cool stuff. Karen wants to tour the Lightner Museum too.

Looking forward to enjoying St Augustine since the weather is putting a crimp on our travel plans -- this is what it means to be a cruiser -- don't keep a schedule and stop to enjoy when the weather makes travel difficult.