Vero Beach to St. Augustine

--Blogpost written by Bob

Vero Beach to Titusville

We left the north mooring field of Vero Beach City Marina and stopped at the marina's fuel dock to top off our water tanks and to get more ice cubes.  We departed from the fuel dock at 7:30 AM on Thursday, April 12, heading north on the ICW.

It feels good to be on the move again though it’s a bit cool this morning. We put on sweatshirts for the first few hours of the day. We passed two sailboats during my first watch. We’re taking 2-hour shifts at the helm. We are cruising at an easy pace of 6.5 knots as we proceed north on the ICW through the Indian River.

This is the first time that I can recall meeting
a tug and barge on Florida's ICW.

Originally our plan was to reach St. Augustine in 3-1/2 days but we think we can make it in 3 days by gaining a little bit more each day.  We have more daylight hours than in the fall which helps us considerably.  We can safely travel between 7 AM and 6 PM, and even an hour later if necessary.  We are watching a weather window for April 18 and 19 to make an ocean passage bypassing Georgia's ICW.

Today's original plan was to reach Cocoa Beach but we got there shortly after lunchtime and we decided to just keep on going.

This sailboat was apparently caught in high winds
with the jib insufficiently secured.

As we came by Cape Canaveral there was a huge red rocket on the launchpad—it is supposed to lift off at 7:30 PM on April 14.  We might be able to see it from St. Augustine. 

Our entire day of travel today was solely on the Indian River.  We were held up about 1/2 hour waiting for the NASA Causeway Bridge to open at 5 PM—it is closed between 3:30 and 5:00 PM due to heavy traffic.  It was the only bridge that had to open for us today.  

We finally anchored for the night along the ICW at 6:15 PM in Titusville near MM 878.  We traveled a total of 74 statute miles today in 10-3/4 hours!  My feet are still vibrating from the engine running all day.

A view of the sun setting over Titusville
from our anchorage.

Titusville to Daytona Beach

We selected Daytona Beach as today's destination because it is roughly halfway to St. Augustine from Titusville and it is a place where we can anchor.  (There are long stretches of the ICW between here and St. Augustine where there are no good anchorages.) 

As I was lying in the v-berth this morning (and I was still tired from yesterday’s travels) I was thinking it would be nice to stay in Baltimore next winter. Then, as I got up looked around outside and smelled the salty air I knew this was where I belong—not in Baltimore!

We got an early start—7:15 AM on Friday, April 13.  The sun was just coming up but it was still cool. Some of the other sailboats anchored near us were already out ahead of us. As we pulled up the anchor, it was packed in dark black mud containing lots of shells—it was caked onto the anchor, requiring us to blast it off with the deck wash.

We made it to Haulover Canal in about an hour. The channel is narrow in this area and the surrounding area is full of palm trees rooted in low-lying sandy soil. There are always fishing boats in the canal. We saw a manatee and a dolphin in the canal.  This is one of my favorite areas on the ICW.

As we headed into Mosquito Lagoon (on the other side of Haulover Canal and one of my least favorite areas on the ICW) we experienced a 10-knot wind from behind us and a 1/2-knot tidal current against us.

This photograph of Maggie at the helm was 
taken just after we switched watches 
on the Mosquito Lagoon.

As we are motoring along, we are calculating the time to get to New Smyrna Beach where we want to avoid a situation with low tide. We think we will make it there about an hour before low tide (which is a roughly 1 PM today). I should have planned an earlier departure this morning because of this. We’ve run aground there previously. It’s one of the very few areas on Florida’s ICW where extra precaution is needed.

One of the residential canals along the ICW.

We just missed the 11:30 AM Bridge opening (Coronado Beach Bridge) and had to wait 25 minutes for the next scheduled opening. After getting through the bridge, the ICW eventually took a left turn away from the inlet from the ocean. As we made the turn to port, the outgoing tidal current pushed us to starboard and I just made it inside the green buoy—however I hit a sand bar.  Fortunately, we barreled on through it because of our momentum. We had two other near groundings in this area. If we had come through at a higher tidal state, it wouldn’t have been as bad.

This sailboat was aground just north of New Smyrna 
Beach and suffered damage from high winds. 
There were a lot of derelict boats in this area.

We anchored in Daytona Beach near MM 831 at 2:30 PM. It was a short day but there were very few anchorages available to us further north on the ICW.  We anchored in almost this same spot on the way south in the fall.  We made a reservation for St Augustine Municipal Marina (a mooring) for Sunday and Monday (the only availability) and then a slip at Marineland for Saturday night (since we couldn’t get a reservation at St. Augustine).  

So, right now we are drinking frozen margaritas at anchor in Daytona Beach and talking about our new Maine Coon kitten, Gypsy.   A nice cool (12 knot) breeze is blowing from the east.  All the extra effort we put into our 74-mile day yesterday is now for naught because we couldn't get a mooring reservation in St. Augustine.

Daytona Beach to Marineland

We were underway by 6:45 AM this morning, before sunrise on April 14. Again this morning, the anchor was very muddy. There was very little wind this morning and the sky was clear. Two bascule bridges had to open for us today, both opened on demand and did’t delay us at all.  

The homes along the ICW near Flagler Beach appear
to be mostly retirement homes and condos.

We have had a favorable tidal current in early morning, moving along at 7+ knots but later in the morning the tidal current was against us, slowing our progress to under 6 knots.

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I transferred about 12 gallons of diesel fuel from the auxiliary tank to our primary tank while we were underway. (I don’t trust the accuracy of the primary tank’s fuel gauge when it is below the half full mark.).  It is so nice to be able to do this!

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We came into Marineland Marina at 11:30 AM. We came into our assigned slip #47 on new floating docks where the dockmaster, Eric, met us and helped us get situated. We washed down the top sides of the boat and it really felt great having unlimited fresh water for such frivolous purposes.  Not that it was that hot outside, but we even used on onboard air conditioner for a level of decadence we haven’t had in quite a while.

Marineland Marina is a municipal marina 
and is separate from Marineland's
Dolphin Adventures.

Looking north on the ocean beach
at Marineland, FL.

Marineland, Florida has a population of only 16 people!  While there was a lot of activity along Route A1A which separates the marina from Marineland's Dolphin Adventures, most everybody we saw lived somewhere else.  As shown in the photograph above, the beach has a layer of gray-colored areas (like clay) nearest the water, then a course reddish brown sand a little further up, and finally, normal fine white sand.

We took showers (they were fantastic!) and began our evening of relaxation in our air-conditioned boat.  What a life!

Marineland to St. Augustine

Today's journey, from Marineland to St. Augustine, is only 3 hours long.   We left the marina at 8:30 AM.  Shortly after leaving the marina our chart plotter went into touch lock mode.  I don't know how this happened but I couldn't even view the electronic map until we figured out how to get it out of the touch locked mode,  We finally got it and it was simple but there was a lot of yelling and screaming for a short period of time. 

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Traveling past the Matanzas Inlet is always unnerving, having to pass between some green buoys and the shoreline, a distance of about 50 feet.  It looks all wrong but that's where the deep water is located.  We made it through without seeing a depth less than 12 feet.  Of course, it was high tide.

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After passing Matanzas Inlet, we came upon this house called "Sundown" which is completely built over the water.  There is a 75-foot long pier leading to land where the owner parks his car.  (I wonder how his property taxes are calculated?)

This house built over the water is located just north
of Matanzas Inlet along Florida's ICW.

The bottom side of the home's floor joists seem to be about four feet above the water level at high tide.  Just imagine, no grass to mow nor any basement to leak!  Porches (or decks) are on the west and south sides of the house--we are looking at the north side in the above photo.

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We made it to St. Augustine Municipal Marina at 11:30 AM.  We topped off our two diesel tanks and then, had to wait for the Bridge of Lions' 12 o'clock opening to get to our mooring buoy (#3) in the north mooring field.  This is the first time we were ever in the north mooring field but today is was calmer than the south mooring field.  The wind and tidal current was coming from the south.

We immediately got the dinghy setup and went into the dinghy dock and walked to Pizza Time Restaurant for lunch.  When we got back to the boat, the wind kicked up some more, the sun went behind clouds, it became rather dark, and a rain storm was imminent.

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I spent an hour or two planning the next phase of our trip home.  By next weekend, we will be in the Charleston SC area.

Stay tuned for more of our ICW travels...thanks for following our blog!