St. Augustine to Daytona Beach, FL

We woke early in St Augustine eager to get underway. The weather was calm and cool so we ate breakfast and headed to the showers early, cleared out of the boat slip and moved to the fuel dock to use the Pump-Out. Just after moving the boat the fog started rolling in, and we ended up waiting about two hours for the fog to lift. When we finally departed at ten o’clock the tide was almost at peak high. We dressed in layers again as it was quite cool.

We passed under the temporary the Bridge of Lions a half hour later. Florida intends to replace the draw bridges along the waterway with permanent 65 foot high bridges, but the citizens of St. Augustine have fought replacing their historic bascule bridge. It architecture does blend with the historic Spanish architecture theme of many other buildings, but due to it's age and condition the Florida money is being used to refurbish the old bridge. In the future when Florida's bridge improvement boom is complete there will still be at least on 20x foot vertical clearance draw bridge. The temporary lift bridge currently carrying the traffic will be removed when the refurbished Bridge of Lions is functional. 

We passed a little bit of everything in the way of scenery along the waterway today including stately homes, small one story homes, hi-rise condominiums and trailer homes. There was also more boat traffic, maybe due to others waiting on the weather to pass.  We came upon the most unusual private pier we have seen to date. I would assume the owner is an architect. We came upon Florida’s version of “the painted ladies”. A beautiful condo complex painted in pastel colors. We passed marsh lands, small barrier islands, and tropical forests along the way.

On several occasions the dolphin were swimming along with us.

By the time we came into Daytona the wind had picked up considerably and we were getting tired and were feeling a little cold. We obtained a slip at the Halifax Marina, a huge complex so big that the dock hand traveled around in a small boat to welcome captains, help dock their boat and take care of docking payment right at the boat. We never went to the marina office. There were six building housing showers and laundry facilities around the marina basin.

We walked to the restaurant on the premises in the high wind and light rain only to find it was closed for renovation. We then walked about three blocks and found a little strip of gift shops, bars and café type businesses but nothing that appealed to us.

We had been told there was a Chart House restaurant in the opposite direction about quarter of a mile from the marina so we walked back to the marina. Once we got back to our starting point at the marina, we walked forever (it seemed) until we got to the end of the marina property. The we walked the quarter mile to the restaurant. Excellent work out. This Chart House had an upscale theme and, based on the wait time for a table, a very popular destination. We were right off the boat in jeans and casual shirts so we went into the bar and had really good food but very lousy service. To add insult to injury the waiter added three items to our bill with we did not order. I don’t think we will ever visit this restaurant again. This just goes to show that the person who deals with the public can make or break a business.

We walked back to Surprise in a brisk wind but no rain. The wind blew hard all night giving us a gentle rock to sleep.

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