May 5th- Melbourne to Titusville, FL
We’ve been in the habit of sleeping late but are attempting to reverse the trend. The days are much longer now with the sun setting around 8:00. Still, it’s nice to get a few hours in before the sun is blazing. Today we experimented with leaving our harbor awning up while motoring along. We can’t use the main sail with the awning up but the shade was much appreciated. We mostly just use the jib when motor-sailing.
Sunrise at Melbourne.
We had another entomology lesson today. Lovebugs (Plecia nearctica) is a species of fly native to South America and southern Florida. They’re hatched in May. Luckily they are vegetarian and don’t bite poor sailors.
Catalpa was covered.
The bugs eventually left. Our destination for the evening was Titusville. The marina recently reopened from its covid-19 shutdown. Onward.
May 6th- Titusville to Daytona Beach, FL
Another sunny day. Ollie to shore. Start the engine. Drop the mooring lines. Coffee in hand and off we go.
Haulover Canal. There are tons of fish in here. I believe NASA runs the bridge.
After Haulover we spent a few hours sailing down Mosquito Lagoon. No mosquitoes today. It’s a very scenic area with lots of sandy, wind swept, islands.
Our destination for the night, Daytona.
Can we go to the PARK!!!!
A fiery sunset.
Catalpa anchored in Daytona with a nearly full moon over head.
May 7th and 8th- Daytona Beach to St Augustine, FL
Today was another long haul. We got out early.
New Bridge being built.
Today was forecast to have some heavy North winds. We are going north. Prudence would have had us stay at Daytona for the day. Our Daytona anchorage is kind of seedy so I decided to push on. The wind blasted us all day. For several hours we traveled at only 3 knots. Part way through the day we started looking at other anchoring options. I didn’t think we’d make it to St Augustine. We had reservations but the marina closes at 8:00pm. We both were looking forward to being there for a long weekend. Catalpa pressed on. Upon entering the Matanzas River we picked up a favorable tidal current which pushed us along at over 6 knots. YAY! We smashed through the wind and chop. We arrived at the St Augustine marina around 7pm. Filled up with diesel, ice, and water, then went through the Bridge of Lions to our mooring for the next few days.
Today (the 8th) we lounged around Catalpa for most of the day. The night was great for sleeping as it was cool (upper 50s) due to some kind of Polar vortex. We’re here for the weekend to relax.
Some scenes from St Augustine.
The fort is right off the back porch.
Me and Ollie on our morning walk. Lynne took this shot from the boat. (She takes most of the good pics)
The fort is pretty empty in the morning. No leash needed. Happy dog. He cleared the moat of all pigeons.
Catalpa moored in St Augustine.
