The next morning we were underway at 0825 and at 1125 anchored in the Mosquito Lagoon at mile marker 865 (near ATON #29) in order to watch the launch of the shuttle Atlantis which was scheduled for 1420. The air was a little hazy, but we still had an unobstructed view of the launch tower and shuttle on the launch pad looking south to Kennedy Space Center. The launch was picture perfect, taking place at 1420, exactly as scheduled! We had never observed a launch from the north before, and it was exciting to watch the shuttle from the moment of lift off arching out to the northeast as it passed right in front of us. We could see the booster rockets separate with the naked eye.
The following day (May 15th) we shipped anchor at 0835 and were on our way to Daytona. We passed by a long stretch of manufactured home communities along the northern end of Mosquito Lagoon, through New Smyrna Beach, and through the bridges of Daytona until we reached Sea Breeze bridge and an anchorage north of the bridge on the east side of the ICW - a spot we frequently anchor when heading through Daytona. The bridge pilings in Daytona have very artistic murals created with small tiles near the water, and they always elicit a comment about how nice they look and why other communities don't make the effort to create such pleasant structures.
The following day we passed through St. Augustine, where the new bridge is completed and the temporary bridge is being dismantled. Interestingly, we learned later that the new bridge which replaced an older bridge which was in the exact same spot, utilizing some of the structure of the old bridge, is a few feet closer to the water than was the bridge it replaced. This will necessitate opening the bridge more frequently for boats which cannot clear it's lower height!
On the way to St. Augustine the ICW passes within yards of State Road A1A as it winds its way south on Amelia Island.
We anchored that night at Pine Island (mile 765), about 15 miles north of St. Augustine and within three hours striking distance the next day of the St. Johns River.
On Monday, May 17th, we were underway at 0805 after spending the night checking the boat's position from time to time with the wind gusting to 25 mph and rain pelting the boat. The rain continued into the morning, and as we approached the ICW (mile 740) we determined that the tidal current on the St. Johns River would be against us (as much as 4 mph) all the way to Jacksonville, making for a very long day with extremely slow progress for the 20 miles up river when we can only make about 7.5 mph through the water! We opted to go into a marina for the remainder of the day to wait for a favorable tidal current the next morning, so at 1040 we had our lines to a dock at the Palm Cove Marina at mile 746. We spent the day cleaning the boat, and ate dinner at an extremely nice restaurant on the marina premises - Marker 32.
On Tuesday morning we cast off our lines at 0745 at dead low tide and worked our way across the muddy, shallow entrance to the marina back into the ICW. At 0900 we entered the St. Johns River and turned west instead of crossing to reenter the ICW as we usually do! The winds were from the west, the water was smooth, and the flooding tidal current almost canceled out the ocean-bound current of the St. Johns River as we headed upstream to Sanford.
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