The morning after the second night at sea found us close to Florida waters about sunrise. The night was warm and comfortable. Early in the evening just after sunset we found ourselves sailing fast but going nowhere in a very warm cockpit. Realizing something was amiss we pulled out our data and found that we had moved into the Gulf Stream. Upon that discovery we turned west to move out of the stream. After about an hour our speed had gotten back above 6 kts and the temperature had dropped a bit. But, the waters remained in the 70's all night so the frigid temps of the Bay were gone and we enjoyed the comfort.

Once the sun rose with the warm water the day was quite pleasant all the way to St Augustine with no wind. In fact, the seas laid down and it was like motoring across a pond (a very big pond).

What''s really amazing is that despite the 57 hour trip from Beaufort, NC to St Augustine, FL including 2 overnights the time went by quickly until the last few hours as we got closer to our destination. Seeing the school of dolphins just before sundown was a good sign and welcoming us to Neptune's world.

As the sun began to set we could see land in the distance. It seemed odd that we were approaching land from the sea after crossing almost 400 nm of open water instead of simply coming down the coast.

As we got closer the reality of coming into the St Augustine inlet after dark began to sink in as we developed our strategy for how to meet the challenge. As we approached we called for a slip at Camachee Cove for the week and asked for updated information about the channel. The marina had no information so I called Tow Boat US who didn't answer and then I called the USCG.

They responded that we should not go in the channel after dark as it was a hazardous inlet and that there was no updated buoy information. We had found by googling that there was in fact a new lighted buoy from the last time we went in the inlet. So we passed our final waypoint and headed in the channel. We quickly identified the channel marks. Linda was up on the bow with a spotlight and found the unlighted marks and a couple small power boats passed us and we found our way in. After a few minor challenges with the current we found our way into the marina and backed into our slip where we have spent the past week.

More to follow about our week at the marina.