ICW Vero to Fernandina Beach

...Good friends Jeanne, Bob, Radeen and Hayden...

Returning from the BVIs and meeting good friends Bob W. IP-380 JUDITH III and his crew, Jeanne, for a fine dinner at the Chart House in Melbourne was a great way to come back to the boat. Thank you, Bob, for being such a great friend. It was a very fun evening. The next day, we did laundry, provisioned, fueled up and prepared to depart. Once we left, we  spent that next 5 days running the ICW from Vero Beach, FL, to Fernandina Beach FL because of NE winds on the ocean.

Home from BVIs time for a quick turnaround

The course we planned to run was offshore and was 040 magnetic which is NE. This would have been directly into the wind, plus the NE wind would have been opposing the Gulf Stream. creating steep waves. Both not a good situation. So, we ran the ICW inside and we did this 8-10 hours each day. Our runs were: Day 1: Vero to Titusville. Day 2: Titusville to Daytona. Day 3: Daytona to St. Augustine. Day 4: St. Augustine to Fort George (ran aground!) Day 5: Fort George to Fernandina Beach. (only 3 hours)

Buy a few provisions, we are good to go

While in St. Augustine, we met Mike and Kathy of IP-350 SHRUG for the first time. After wine onboard with lively conversation, we went out for a great dinner at A1A downtown. Sorry, no photos of the fun we had!

Now, we have reached the Florida Georgia Border. We plan to head to sea Monday June 8 at 0600 and run a course of 050 for 330 nm to Cape Lookout, North Carolina. This will take us about 60 hours, so we plan to be anchored in Cape Lookout Bight Wednesday night. Then we will stop in Beaufort at our favorite "HOME away from HOME" with our good friends, Greg and Kate. We will visit with these great travelers and enjoy catching up and simply relaxing & spending time with such wonderful friends.

From there, we will either sail out and around Cape Hatteras or run the ICW north to the Chesapeake Bay and home to Rock Hall, Maryland. So, we will be off the grid for the next three days. Our SPOT map will be updating as we press the SPOT transmitter, so you can see our latest position on our home page.

Here are some photos of the past 5 days.

Good bye Vero, what a great town!

Heading north on the ICW, easy

Radeen dealing with the AM sun rise on her face

NE winds and thermals create cloud banks over the land

Island Spirit St Augustine Moorings

International Speedway Bridge, Daytona Beach, FL

Bridge, Bridge, Bridge

Daytona Beach dondos in the morning sun reflect beautifully

Island Spirit ATV up on land. Follow the markers, not the charts!

Tall Ship "El Galeon" in St. Augustine

A walk over the Bridge of Lions

The Bridge of Lions

Old School ICW home

The New School ICW, this is the nearby neighbor to the last photo

Crossing the St. Johns River, Radeen off duty

Sunrise at low tide at Ft. George Island, near the remains of the 'Kingsley
Plantation, once the largest sugar cane plantation in the country

Sunrise near Fort George, FL

Birds fishing the low tide

Channel marker at the low tide slope

Amelia Research Vessel in Fernandina Beach, so interesting

Sharon's beautiful car returned to storage. She loaned itto us while in Vero. We really miss this!!

Here is our plan
Follow our SPOT map here