We’re as ready as we’re going to be. Most everything on the boat is working correctly, we have a ton of food, and it’s even stopped raining! We spent a final night at the dock at Holland Marine and woke up early the next morning to begin our trek south!

We finally made it through downtown Jacksonville and all of the bridges and commercial traffic.  Our destination tonight was a little dock at Sisters Creek, which is the last place to anchor before going out the inlet.  There’s nothing in that area so we walked around the boat ramp and then just went back and hung out on the boat a bit.

The next day we woke up super early so we could get out the inlet and sail offshore down to St. Augustine.

I didn’t take any pictures of our sail for some reason. It went alright but got more windy the further south we got.  We made it into the inlet and through the times bridge opening at the Bridge of Lions before continuing south.  We’ve stayed at St Augustine before so we didn’t have a huge draw to stay and explore there again when it’s so cold.  Cute town though.

We motored south and anchored for the night right by the old Fort Matanzas on the Matanzas River.

Another cold front with strong winds was forecasted so we headed south to New Smyrna beach and got a spot on a dock for a few nights to wait it out. New Smyrna is a cute little town. Very walkable and full of art galleries and art classes. Somehow I managed to not take a single picture of it though?

Once we left New Smyrna we headed south as far as we could go and ended up anchoring south of the hwy. 192 bridge in Melbourne which happens to be right by where we went to college and my parents old condo. If we had more time we could have taken the dinghy downtown and walked around and gotten some fantastic Cuban food! We also saw the tail end of a rocket launch!

From here we had another cold front passing through with yet more wind so we ended up on a mooring ball in Vero Beach. They have a very well protected anchorage and the marina has showers, laundry, and everything transient cruisers could ask for. There’s even a free shuttle to take you to the beach and the grocery store!