November 11, 2010.

We left Saint Augustine this morning and headed down to Daytona Beach on the ICW. Where else but the Florida ICW would you see a 50 knot powerboat skimming along the water just off your beam.

First a few thoughts on Saint Augustine. Christy & I love Saint Augustine, theres just so much to see and do.
The Bridge of Lions is finally finished. There's still some work going on while workers remove the remnants of the temporary bridge but the refurbished bridge is looking good.

Saint Augustine is in the process of installing mooring balls in the north and south anchorages. We decided that since they charge 10 dollars a days to land your dinghy and use the marina facilities when you anchor then we might as well just pony up 20 bucks for a mooring and have the other crap included. Instead of letting you just pull in and grab a mooring they issue you a mooring when you arrive and then send you out with very little direction to find it on your own. Marco! Polo!

They’ve also got a pumpout boat that seems to just mill about waiting for somebody to need a pumpout. He spends his time going from one empty mooring to the next coiling up the pennant of the mooring and sticking it down inside the cone on top of the mooring. Sure, it looks nice but when you come along with your boat pole it’s a giant pain in the ass to try and pluck any part of the pennant out.

Then they have to deal with people from an alternative universe like this guy. He takes a mooring but doesn’t trust its integrity so he drops his own hook into the water next to it. The tide switches back and forth every 6 hours so the boats anchor line wraps around and around the moorings chain. That’s going to be a nightmare to untangle that crap. As a result of the new moorings there are fewer derelict boats although this vessel with the see through transom struck me as special.

While we were there Alibi II showed up so it was off for an evening of fun with them and the Savages.