St. Augustine Municipal Marina, Fla.

We pulled anchor at 6:50 a.m. There was a change of tide at 5:30 a.m. and we were up. The current was 2.6 knots. You can't set a Fortress Danforth anchor with 2.6 knots of current! The aluminum is too light and it just wants to move through the current like a kite moves in the wind. You need some weight. So back we go to the plow with 100 ft. of chain for added weight.

Meanwhile, Chuck added a kellet and that helped. Note: If using nylon line, a bucket or sea anchor is needed in the back to keep the tension on the line constant so the line doesn't stretch then catapult the boat and pull the anchor.

We were up several times last night, once with the anchor dragging. We waited a few minutes and it caught.

At 7:47 a.m. we went through Sisters Creek Bridge MM739.2, which opens on demand. It's a Bascule Bridge, meaning it opens like this /  \. See photo. We noted that bridge openings are on Channel 9 in Florida, not channel 13 as in other states we've gone through. We crossed the St. John's River. At 8:30 a.m. we went under another fixed bridge.

At 8:45 a.m., we were going by Jacksonville Beach and hollered hi to my niece, Lisa, and her family.

The McCormick Bascule Bridge that showed on our chart was replaced by a 65. ft fixed bridge, which was still under construction. The construction worker had to leflt himself up under the bridge to get out of the way of our mast! (See photo at left). They were swinging a steel beam to our left. At 9:07 we went under another fixed bridge.

At MM750 there was lots of dredging equipment and piping. The two diamonds on the left of the equipment, one hanging above the other, indicated that the safe side to pass was starboard to starboard. The bow of the dredger was facing us. If it was nightime, two green lights, one over the other, would have indicated the safe side to pass.

There were beautiful homes, all with boats, all along the port side of the ICW. We went through bridge #6 for today at 10:30 a.m. Chuck was getting ready to pull out the jib as winds were about 10 knots. Jazzy hates the sails (they sound like thunder)and she bolted down the steps! She's never done that before, always cried for me to take her down. They are steep and I panicked, but she was so quick she made it down fine. Now we're really in trouble!

We took the dogs and walked all around St. Augustine--what a beautiful city. Patti and I did some shopping and came across this beautiful garden behind one of the shops.

I bought a sailing sweatshirt. I was planning on cooking tonight, but there's a nice restaurant that Wayne and Patti enjoyed on their last visit that we're going to instead. We have reservations for 6:30 p.m.

Tomorrow: Daytona.