Happy Thanksgiving

The fog finally started to lift Monday by 9 a.m. and gave us a half mile of visibility as we left Ortega Landing and traveled 62 miles to St. Augustine where we stayed on a mooring ball for 2 nights. When the sun went down we could see the white Christmas lights on many of the buildings and we were looking forward to going to shore on Tuesday.
I'm not sure where the rain came from Tuesday as it was clearly not in the forecast but it started sometime overnight/early morning and lingered until 10 am. Once it stopped we headed to town on the dinghy and met up with our good friends Bev & Ozzie who had driven in from Daytona Beach. Distillery and wine tours, dinner and the trolley ride to see the "Night of Lights" around downtown St. Augustine were the order of business. Being that we are "northerners" this warm weather doesn't bode well for getting us in the holiday spirit but, riding in the trolley looking at the Christmas lights, singing Christmas carols definitely had us in the mood. I believe we adjusted very well without gloves, hats, boots and winter jackets.

After traveling  52 miles Wednesday from St. Augustine to Daytona Beach we had a delicious dinner at Bev & Ozzies's along with Bev's sister Barb and husband Tom. The hospitality of Bev's family extended into Thanksgiving where we gathered at Bev's nieces along with other family members for a holiday feast. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and as we missed being with our family we couldn't have been more blessed to be welcomed into theirs. Hopeful that all of our family and friends near and far enjoyed a wonderful holiday.

While many Americans were busy getting their black Friday shopping done we headed 69 miles from Daytona Beach to an anchorage at Cocoa Beach. We anchored on the side of the Intracoastal in 10' of water, SW of the Cocoa Bridge along with 5 other boats. Today we saw our first manatee's of the trip and as I sit and prepare the blog I can hear the dolphins playing in the water around the boat.

Low visibility as we left Ortega Landing in Jacksonville

 

Lots of boat traffic in the St. John's River

 

Low tide had the birds looking for food

 

Cheers to over 40 years of friendship

 

From distillery to winery

 

"Night of Lights" with our glasses that made the

lights look like snowflakes

 

Flagler College all lit up

 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Making our way to Cocoa Beach

(enlarge the picture and the brown humps are manatee)

 

As we traveled past the RR bridge

 

The seagulls were in a frenzy behind us