Day 18 - St. Augustine, FL to Indian Harbor Beach, FL

Today we are headed to Indian Harbour Beach, FL. It will be our last long trip. We plan to go about 120 miles. We never know how many miles we can make - it depends on our speed through the slower areas. Luckily today was a pretty fast day until we hit a manatee area. No wake the whole way through a very long stretch. We didn’t have the tight and populated canals that we had yesterday but it did slow us down. Today we pulled out and passed two sailboats right off and then we passed a power boat named Annie. We spent the rest of the day with Annie behind us. We were close enough all day that we felt like we were traveling together. At the end of the day we were pulling into Indian Harbour Beach for the night, Doug radioed Annie to say it was great traveling with them. It turns out they were staying at the same marina. I had remembered seeing the boat several times along our travels. After we tied up the captain came over to talk to us. He was out of New York and headed to Jupiter, FL. We had been to a lot of the same marinas all the way down. It is funny that you end up seeing a lot of the same boats all the way down. We tend to leave early and end by 1 or 2 every day. At the end of the day we find a lot of the boats we passed along the way pull into the same port. It pays not to be a jerk to someone because you may run into them again and again.

We fueled up, got tied up and then showered. They advertised a restaurant on site but it wasn’t the first time we found out that wasn’t true. It was getting really cloudy when we got in around 3 so we decided to let the showers pass and then go get something to eat. Even after the rain it was still 86 and super humid. We walked up to the corner. We were told there was an italian restaurant in a gas station and then one in a strip mall. We opted for the strip mall. Little did we know we had to cross a highway. Luckily there was a light but it was still hairy crossing the road. We walked to the strip mall. The restaurant was closed in the strip mall. Great. I was checking my phone to find out the next closest restaurant. Doug struck up a conversation with someone from the laundromat that was next to the closed restaurant. He asked her where we could go to eat. Then he told her we were walking because we were on a boat. That was all she had to hear. She told us how she loves boats, and that she would crash one if she ever tried to drive one. It was funny but we couldn’t get away. We decided the gas station Italian restaurant was sounding good. We had to cross over two intersections to get there. We stopped at the 7-11 but I walked out on that food. Gas station here we come! Nope, it is closed on Mondays. Back to the boat to cook dinner. Needless to say the showers we took earlier were a waste. It was so hot. We got back to the boat and it down poured again. At least we didn’t get caught in that.

We traveled 119 miles today in just under 7 hours.