Green Turtle Cay to USA!

Wow... this one is hard to post.. We can't believe how fast the time has flown by....what a wonderful experience it has been...

We left Green Turtle Cay for our three day leg back to the states.. The voyage from GT to Great Sale was very nice.. not too much wind and not to rough... There was nothing on Great Sale, but a nice , protected stopping point to anchor on our first nite... We dropped anchor around 2pm and GodSpeed was right behind, and Paragon right behind them... We all jumped in and went swimming.. it felt so good!!! GodSpeed invited all over for Happy Hour and some fried Spanish Mackerel bites ( that he caught along the way, that day) We all talked about what we enjoyed the most and all of our adventures.. Very fun nite... The next leg was to Memory Rock area on the Little Bahama Banks... The wind picked up quite a bit and it was a choppy ride.. when we anchored, we knew we were in for a not so fun nite... The Banks are right on the edge of the ocean side and the depts drop off almost immediately.... We made it thru the nite, although , the sailing vessels had it a little bit rougher... everyone pulled anchor just at daybreak and off we went again.... still rough seas and wind, but not as bad as the prior day... We started seeing land about noon time.... Could not believe we were seeing the USA for the first time in 5 months.... We made it into Ft. Pierce inlet mid afternoon and anchored just off the Causeway Island area... God Speed made it in behind us.. Paragon made their way to Manatee Pocket to meet up with family.. We had burgers on SeaVeyor and we all crashed early... The next day we all shared a cab, along with some new friends from Canada on Knot Ha Gan, and made our way to the airport to check back in with customs... All went well and back to the marina for lunch, then walked to stores in the area.... made our way back to dinghy and back to our vessels... From FT Pierce we then traveled to Cocoa Beach and anchored out just as a storm was approaching.. Captain Dwayne immediately started scrubbing our decks in hope to get a good rinse from Mother Nature.. and yes, she obliged! God Speed was right behind and anchored just after the storm passed.... The next morning God Speed left at daylight and I captured a great sunrise pic of them.. It looked like one of their sails had skewered the sun!!

From Cocoa we made our way to Daytona and enjoyed another restful evening on board...

It is amazing how much wildlife and marine life that you see on the ICW.... that was the one thing that surprised me about the Bahamas... the areas we were in did not seem to have much of either.. I suppose that lack of fresh water is one reason for the lack of bird life and did not see many porpoises either.......maybe next time...

Since traveling up the ICW, we've seen manatees, porpoises, pelicans, cranes, ibis, ospreys, and even Mr. Toothy... alligator.. he was hanging out in the Haulover Canal Bridge area... Big Fella with big overbite!

We are in St. Augustine now and hope to shove off in the am and head towards Fernandino Beach and continue to make our way up ICW.....

It's funny going back and reading my journal on the way down the ICW.... we have learned so much ! St. Augustine is a beautiful city..it was founded back in 1565!!! Yesterday they had festivites at the fort, Castillo de San Marcos and a pirate ship was firing on them from our anchorage!! Very cool.... We dinghyed to shore last nite and had dinner at a great little restaurant, sat outside under a pergola that had jasmine all over it.. beautiful and the aroma was wonderful.. food wasn't too bad either!!

More news at 11.................