Arrived in Florida BEFORE Thanksgiving Day!

We're here; 
This is our first "real" as in realaxing stop for this year's trip. We arrived from St. Simons Island, GA by way of a quick overnight trip down the coast. Arriving an hour and a half faster than expected, we meandered around the Safe Water Buoy "STA", watching fishing boats head out for the day.

For anyone who knows about arriving at a new inlet, unless it is lit up like a landing strip, it's best to do it in nice weather under full sunlight. This inlet is NOT marked on the charts except to warn that it is "continually shifting". Watching the boats head out and calling ahead for local knowledge AND waiting for sunrise was a MUST.

Here we are at the STA Buoy; ah, what a nice sunrise!

Once inside, we found there was no room for us at the marina, so we looked around for a nice spot to anchor and as we took a dinghy ride into beg the marina for a spot, we were greeted by a passing dolphin wandering by, just behind our boat.

St. Augustine is such a beautiful and freindly place
After having a hearty breakfast, we checked once again at the marinia office and found that they have a slip ready for us! We will be here a week, and to start the week off, we were greated by a very active cruiser community, and the local Yacht Club telling us of a social gathering to send off one of their own on a round-the-world solo "race".

Drinks, a tour of a great boat... what an evening! To follow Stanley's progress go to stanleyparis.com. The line to see the boat was long, and it was an impressive boat

or for more on the boat from the builder you can read about it here.

Oh and his house isn't bad either.

Off to the official St. Augustine lighting ceremony.
Though I'm not feeling well enough to go, Stacie is heading off to the official St. Augustine lighting ceremony. It appears to be again one of those big deal things we've stumbled on. Hope to hear about it soon, though I can see much of the town right here from the bow of the boat.

Glad to be in Florida!