Boating with Sunset Delight: 2020: St Augustine to Daytona Beach FL

10 December 2020

Depart: St Augustine Conch House Marina Resort 9:15

Arrive: Daytona Beach - Bethune Point Park Anchorage 4:25

Distance: 49.5 nm

Conditions: Sunny, chilly 48 degrees a.m.; 68 degrees with cold wind in Daytona Beach

Note: Additional adventures on our test run were added to yesterday's post.

Having completed our engine repair work yesterday and being satisfied with the results, we dropped our lines from the St. Augustine marina to continue our trek south. Before doing that, however, we needed to make a quick stop at the marina's pump-out station to clear out our holding tank. That only took a stop at the fuel dock and about 15 minutes before we were well and truly on our way.

Clark stationed me at the helm to pilot for the better part of the morning to allow him to pop in and out of the engine room to check for engine overheat, antifreeze leaks, or engine oil issues. As the morning progressed and nothing serious presented itself, he spent more and more time on the flybridge with me until lunchtime when he took over as the primary pilot as per usual.

It felt good to be back out on the water. As the stress of worrying about the health of the vessel decreased, out ability to relax and enjoy the ride increased.

Pictures taken during today's trip ...

St. Augustine, Florida

Castillo de San Marcos National Monument

Along the ICW ...

Sunken sailboat - "for the birds!"

"Barrier Island Bed & Breakfast"

Boathouse that looks more like a house on the water.

"Sundown"

After we passed by the Matanzas Inlet, we came to the spot where we encountered dredging last year. Given I was thinking about dredging, I use that to explain that I thought, what turned out to be a downed tree, was some dredge / drilling equipment that had been left behind.

Definitely looked like a huge drill from a distance,
turned out to be a downed palm tree

View on the waterway near Matanzas Inlet
Last year we could only see dredging equipment
as we passed through here.

Palm Coast Florida ...

Statue of a Man, boy, and a very large fish

In the middle of the ICW channel, we saw something up ahead that we were sure we did not want to hit. It turned out to be part of a dock that had planted itself in the channel. Clark captured the lat and long and called the USCG with the details and location of what we had found.

Pilings and planks in the middle of the channel

Along the way, we passed a colorful house. Each door frame was a different color - orange, green, blue, and then yellow.

We saw several sunken sailboats today and one sunken houseboat.

When we got to Daytona Beach we saw lots of bridges coming up ... 4 Fixed-height bridges and 1 low bridge that we had to have opened for us (it was about 1 foot too low for us to get under)

Aquatic murals on bridge supports ...

Progressive Sunset at Daytona Beach anchorage ...

Bridge in Daytona Beach, FL at Sunset

We wondered if we would see a launch from Cape Canaveral tonight, and the answer was "Yes!" A rocket launch scheduled initially for 8:00, launched at 8:09. We had a good view of the launch from the stern of our boat. A classified spy satellite was launched on a Delta IV Heavy rocket - a triple-body rocket formed with 3 booster cores.