Daytona Beach, FL

It's a sort of crazy and a little bit frustrating to think we left Orlando last Thursday, drove to Longboat Key, traveled on the boat for 3 days some 400 miles and tonight we are in Daytona Beach, less than 45 minutes from home?!?!  But the good news is, we ARE now officially on the east coast and headed north on the Intercoastal Waterway!

Knowing we had a long day ahead, we left Stuart this morning at 7:15am.  After a short 8 mile run down the St. Lucie River, we turned north on the ICW. The winds were quite strong today at 15-17 knots out of the the SE -- which meant the winds were "at our backs" and gave us delightful following seas the entire day. It was a great day on the water filled with dolphins, manatees, eagles and butterflies. There were lots of places where we had to go slow… really slow. No wake zones, manatee zones, marina safety zones… it was a zone filled day! 

We arrived in Daytona Beach 9 hours after we started the day this morning, washed the salt spray off ENCORE (and ourselves) and enjoyed a nice dinner at the Chart House. Now, it's time to review the next day's routing, watch a little TV and then early to bed.

Approaching St. Augustine