Launch of newest rocket (by Jim)

Well, we hadn't been back in Titusville for a week yet when Paula nabbed a picture of the new SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that was launched! The launch was by a private company owned by one of the founders of PayPal.

Our personal water taxi (by Paula)

We thought we should post a picture of our dinghy or "dink" as we call it. When we are at anchor or on a mooring this is our taxi. This is what we use to go to shore, pick up friends, get groceries or just to go exploring the waterways! We also use it to fish from and just play. It's also our lifeboat, although we will hopefully never use it for that purpose! Our dink is a RIB (rigid inflatable boat). It's 9'8" long, has a 15 hp motor, and will go up to 28 mph. This picture shows it tied behind the Sea Eagle. When not in use or when we're traveling, it's kept on an upper deck. It's raised and lowered on a davit with an electric winch.

Heading for Titusville our "Home" port (by Jim)

"New" Bridge of Lions

We left St Marys, GA on Thursday, December 2nd, and traveled 72 miles to St Augustine, FL. We had a beautiful day and an uneventful (meaning nothing bad happened) trip. We arrived in St. Augustine and picked up our mooring around 3pm. St Aug charges $20 per day for a mooring ball. That includes dink dockage, showers, laundry access, etc. We walked all over St Aug for several hours Friday and Saturday, including a trip to the St Aug Winery for a bottle of port and seeing the Christmas Parade on Saturday morning. We had planned to stay until Monday, but a cold weather front was about to move in so we decided to leave on Sunday for Daytona. We traveled 52 miles and were anchored just north of the Seabreeze Bridge in Daytona by 1pm. Heavy wind out of the north beat on us all night long. We left Daytona about 8:30 am, planning on being in Titusville by about 2 pm. Unfortunately, crews were working on the JayJay Rail Road Bridge (aka NASA R.R. Bridge). We were stuck on the north side of the bridge with 8 other boats for about an hour waiting for the repairs to finish.

Black Raven and Freedom (St Augustine) tour boats

Of course Paula spotted this Bald Eagle as we went by Ormond Beach!

Sunsets and Kingfishers

Another great sunset in St. Marys. We've had truly amazing sunrises and sunsets almost every day here!

This little Kingfisher is continually flying around the marina. Paula named it Eddie (for Eddie Fisher). Then one day she got a closer look and noticed the red band around the chest. So Eddie became Edwina!

Edwina stretching her wings.

Our time here is getting short. We will be leaving in the next few days, but we will definitely be back!!

Thanksgiving 2010, St Marys, Ga (by Jim)

This is a panning video of the anchorage in St Marys on Thanksgiving morning. We had a very heavy fog that had mostly cleared when this was taken. The day turned into a beautiful, sunny, 78 degree day. Cruisers are invited to St Marys for a Thanksgiving feast put on by volunteers at the local hotel. This is the 10th year of the tradition. 10 to 15 boats a day have been coming in all week. More have arrived since I took the video. The final count was 102 boats and over 300 people. If you figure that each boat brought a side dish and the town residents brought 15-20 hams and turkeys, you can imagine how much food we had! It gives new meaning to stuffing the turkey!!

Watch this cool video of one of the sailors playing the saxophone this evening for the people in the anchorage.

Anchorage music.

The Otter Family (by Paula)

There is a family of river otters living here at Lang's Marina in St. Marys, GA.  We've been enjoying watching them fishing, diving for oysters, and endlessly playing.  Here's a short clip of three of them goofing around on the "playground"

Back to St. Marys, GA (by Paula)

Here are a few shots from our last few days of travel. After leaving Jacksonville, we ended up stopping for a couple of days in Fernandina Beach. We headed back to St. Marys this morning. As we came into the dock a snap came undone on a fender and the fender fell off and started floating quickly away.  It's always something! Fortunately there was a USCG boat (like the ones in the picture below) getting ready to dock and they were kind enough to retrieve it for us, saving us $80 or more to replace it! We are now thinking we may stay here through Thanksgiving so that we can attend the huge dinner that volunteers from the town put on each year for all the cruisers. 

Beautiful sunset at Fernandina Beach













 Cool "string art" bridge.  Anybody remember doing that stuff as a kid?

Navy helicopter sneaking up from behind

 Obligatory Bald Eagle shot

We've become really adept at spotting these guys!

 Two Coasties playing tag

 An Osprey fishing for breakfast