2025-11-9 Warmer weather, but still moving south. Met up with friends

Sunday we left the free dock, and headed down the ICW to St. Augustine.  There are quite large expansive homes along the way.   I always wonder how many people actually live in them.

Large and fancy homes

Always wonder what they did to earn so much money

New construction going on

When we came into St. Augustine, we had a sandpiper land on our boat.   We figured it would fly off when we anchored, but it didn't.  In fact, it came into the cockpit.   We gave it some water and a bit of wheat bread - which was probably a mistake, as it drank the water almost immediately, and ate the bread, then proceeded to leave 8 watery poops all over the boat and cockpit in the next hour as it explored its new territory.   Hence, we named him "Sir Poopsalot" 

     He was a bold one, even pecked on Deans toes.

Sir Poopsalot eyeing Deans toes

After cleaning up the poop, we took the dinghy to the free dock at Vilano Beach, across the bay from St. Augustine, and walked the short two blocks or so to the Publix.   Loaded our backpacks and bags with groceries and headed back.  Vilano Beach is a very small but cutesy touristy spot, lots of retro 60s style buildings.

Public pier where we tied the dink up

Still a little chilly, but not bad

Nice to see this old motel being renovated.  Bunnies on the sign, and pink flamingo inset into the walls by each door.

Vilano Beach - cloudy and windy

Back on the boat, Sir Poopalot was still around.   We left out the water, and all the bread was gone, but he hung out all day on the boat, leaving us fewer, but still too many presents we had to clean up before they stained the deck.

Monday and Tuesday were boat days.  Wind was blowing 12 to 15, and it was chilly in the wind outside, so we just sat at anchor and relaxed.   Dean made cinnamon rolls.  Kris played computer games.   We did a few odd projects – Kris looked at a water pump that was no longer working well to see if we could rebuild.  Dean changed a seal on the raw water pump on the starboard engine. 

Kris working on the motor

If you don't get a photo quickly of the cinnamon rolls, they may not be many left to photo.   Dean was not as happy as Kris with the rolls, as they were mostly wheat flour this time, so did not puff up much.  Kris loved them

Sir Poopsalot visited us a couple of times, coming to the door to beg for food, but we did not succumb to his cuteness and he gave up finally.

Wednesday we were off again, but a short trip, only 13 miles, and two bridges to open to Matanzas Inlet.  We knew the next leg of the ICW would be too long for us to do in one day, as there were a couple of bridges to open, and we wanted to stop for fuel so we split it up into two days.  At Matanzas Inlet anchorage, there is the Fort Matanzas National Monument.   We have never been, so this was our chance.   We could not go inside, as with the government shutdown, the fort is technically closed.  But we walked around it and saw the cannons.   It is very small, compared to most forts we have seen.

The current rips through the anchorage at 3 to 4 knots, so we definitely swung to the current, not the winds, which were light.

You can see it is not a large fort

Up top, required cannons and nice view of Charm anchored in the back

Thursday we headed down the ICW, and stopped at Palm Cove Marina for fuel.   Since we have been doing the ICW, we have burned through more fuel than usual, and they were offering a $1 off per gallon special if you mentioned the Waterway guide.  Great price on fuel, so we filled the tank, and then headed further south to anchor near Daytona Beach.   That evening, our friends on Sojourn and What If also came into Daytona Beach.

What If looking good, Ed on the bow ready to drop anchor while Cathy's at the helm

Sojourn coming into anchor, Duane and the bow and Karen at the helm

Friday we were middle of the pack of the 3 Mantas heading south.  What If led the way, with Sojourn in the back.   Very windless day, and easy motoring.  We anchored just North of the NASA Causeway bridge.  We made our Friday pizza, and had What If and Sojourn over for dinner.  Nice evening with good conversations – but forgot to take a photo.

Saturday What If and us headed south again, and we will meet up with Sojourn again further south.  We stopped in Eau Gallie with What If.  We went for a nice walk through the town of Eau Gallie downtown, and stopped and got parts at the Ace Hardware.  Lots of murals for a small area we walked.

Mural on the side of the library

Small funky Ace Hardware

Relaxed rest of day on Saturday,   had an Egret land on the boat for a while.  Do we have a sign-up or something saying we are bird friendly?

After dinner, Kris finally could not ignore the odor she felt was increasing from the head.   A quick exploration and found that there was a hose leading from the macerator we use to pump overboard that was leaking.   Was not too much leakage, but enough, no poop leakage is allowed on Charm.   So Saturday night was a couple of hours of cleaning.   We will fix the hose once we purchase a new one in Vero Beach.  No pictures of cleaning poopy water leakage included to protect our viewers from sudden indigestion.💩