Monday, April 5th, 2010

What a beautiful day. We got up at 5:00 am this am to walk 15 minutes to the top of a nearby bridge which got us up obove the city of New Smyrna Beach to watch the take off of the shuttle Discovery. It went off right on schedule and it is an unbeliveable site even from 25 miles away. It was still dark, but it was like the sun coming up. Then it punches into the stratosphere and leaves this bright vapor trail that lasted for an hour with the rising sun reflecting off of it. It was cool.

By 7:00 am we let our lines go and headed out to sea once again. The seas were calm, and I mean just glass. There were gentle swells from the SE which only helped our progress up the coast of Florida.

This is Right Whale season, and I only saw one come to the surface. We were the only boat out this am, so we had the ocean to ourselves. By 2:00 we were at the entrance to St. Augustine Inlet, and a half hour later we were tied up at St. Augustine City Marina. Mike Priede had insisted that we stop in St. Augustine and he was right. What a great city. Shelley and I were soon walking the streets and learning of it history beginning in the mid 1500's. Not much going on in Kansas at that time but Buffaloes and south wind. We had a martini on the waterfront street at the Tiny Martini Bar and I once again learned that one martini makes me list hard to starboard. Then Shelley had picked out a great french bistro, Bistro de Leon. You know how Shelley evaluates her restaurants, and she called this the best meal she has had in months. It was great.

This is a really neat city and one well worth a future visit. Once again, we have some cool pictures of the shuttle launch, but it will have to wait until next week before we can download them. Tomorrow we are off for the St. Mary River and the border between Florida and Georgia. Our goal was to get Rock Chalk out of Florida within 90 days and we will meet that goal tomorrow. Three more days to Beaufort, SC. Rock Chalk continues to treat us well. Knock on wood for our good fortune. Marc and Shelley