Saint Augustine to Port Canaveral

Another 24-hour ocean trip under our belts.  We crashed through the 6' to 8' waves -- and the occasional 10'(!) -- in the Saint Augustine channel on Saturday morning.  Virginia Dare made mincemeat of the surf.  I wish I could have held the camera steady enough to capture the huge sprays we created!

Throughout the night, we saw several shrimp boats.  They are UNBELIEVABLY bright.......doused in incredibly blinding halogens!  We imagine that their night vision is non-existent, but we sure can see them even if they can't see us.  And for those of you who are wondering, my seasickness lasted only two hours......a big improvement over the previous trip!

Closer to Port Canaveral around 4:00 am, we saw other lights on the horizon.....cruise ships....four of them, to be exact.  So David adjusted our course and speed and let them enter the channel ahead of us.  We tiptoed in behind the fourth and found Ocean Club Marina and their super friendly staff without a hitch.  Our slip happens to be right next to another Hallberg-Rassy and a very friendly and interesting couple.  Drinks on board Lirica last night.  Drinks on board Virginia Dare this evening, with a "night cap" at 7:43 pm to watch the Atlas 5 rocket launch -- an exciting event that David can tick off his bucket list :)

We're off to Fort Pierce tomorrow morning, heading back to the Atlantic as long as the forecast holds.

Before we left Saint Augustine, we checked out the channel we'd be using the following morning

Sailboat and shrimp boat passing in the channel

Smashed through the waves at the channel and hoisted the sails

So peaceful when you turn off the engines!

Got jet trails?

Military cargo plane flew right over us after taking off

Sunset behind the high-rise buildings on the Florida coast

Brief drizzle at sunset -- then a completely star-filled night

Sunrise and the crescent moon

Just before the sun rose

One of the many channel markers

Busy Port Canaveral

Did I mention cruise ships??

Cocoa Beach Pier - we walked from the pier up the beach to Port Canaveral and back to Virginia Dare (6-7 miles).  It was a gorgeous day and we were wearing shorts and short sleeves!

Ever present cruise ships

Pretty little birds with very long beaks

I spy with my little eye...

Don't have palm trees in Michigan :)

Sea oats

Heading back to the marina

Pretty flowers at the beach

The mouse left the "house" (channel) while we were having lunch

España

I'm certainly not a restaurant critic, but last night we had the best meal of the trip (so far) at España on 4th Street in Fernandina Beach, Florida.  A nice-sized pitcher of house sangria lasted the whole meal and rivaled our homemade recipe.  We started with two tapas: Gambas Costa Brava (shrimp in a spicy piri piri sauce) and the special of the evening, panko breaded, flash fried eggplant slices stacked between layers of manchego and rimmed with a rich mushroom/sherry sauce.......both were unbelievably flavorful and delicious.  David would like to replicate the spicy shrimp dish :)  For dinner, he had his taste buds set on seafood paella and was not disappointed.  I had seared sea scallops with a garlic-parsley-cilantro-wine sauce.  The scallops were cooked to perfection and the sauce did not overpower the tender scallops.  It was a meal we won't soon forget!  Unfortunately, the candlelight wasn't conducive to iPhonography.

Two other exceptional dinners worth mentioning along the ICW were at Saltus River Grill in Beaufort, SC where we had a belated holiday celebration (due to being sick at Christmas) and Coastal Kitchen and Raw Bar in St. Simons Island, GA.  Laura, the bartender at Coastal Kitchen, makes a mean Dark and Stormy!

Today marks one month since we've been "on the go" -- we left Deale, Maryland on 12-13-14 (easy to remember!) -- so far, we love living aboard, but can't wait to sail more and motor less.  I think that's just around the corner.  Weather is improving and we're hoping to get into the Atlantic for our next leg.