Day 10 - St Augustine to Ft Pierce, FL

We left at 7:15 with a few light sprinkles, but sunshine and it looked like we were going to have a really nice day.  It was a slow go at first, with all the houses and marina's along the ICW, but all those that know me, know that slow is good when you can't see the next channel marker!

One thing we learned on this trip is in the south when they say "No Wake" they mean no wake at all.  Over the past few day's, both our captain and first mate have been scolded on the radio for going to fast.  Bob had 2 and Mike had 2, but don't worry, but the end of the day the tie would be broken.

At 11:00 I booked our flight home for Saturday afternoon.  We were not sure of what time we would arrive at Bob's house, and wanted to make sure we gave ourselves enough time to clean the boat and also make it to UPS.  I over packed of course and we need to send a few things home via a different method besides US Air.

We passed Daytona around 11:30 and then we were able to get back up on plane, but only 25 mph because of the Manatee's.  We also got to pass close to Cape Canaveral and could see both the launch pads and the assemble building.  This is were Mike broke the tie with being yelled at.  We went down a little cannal following another boat and both were scolded about minimum wake and if they didn't slow down the bridge master would report them.  We were going slow, but once again, not slow enought!

At around 2:45 an alarm started going off about water being in one of the drives.  Ugh, we had to wake the captian from his nap.  Bob got out the manuals and took over the helm while Mike tried to figure out what was going on.  He did find it was just a warning and nothing to be to concerned about at the moment.  Bob asked for me to get the phone number for the marina were he bought the boat so Mike could talk with the service manager.  Once we got a hold of him, he agreed it was nothing to be concerned about and how to disconnect the alarm.  Of course, we couldn't find it right away, so every 45 seconds we had to listen to the loud ear piercing noise.

About 20 more miles and it was time to pull into Melbourne and drop off Rick.  He had his bestman pick him up and then he was off to see family.  It was great getting to know you and really look forward to seeing you again in the future.  The rest of the trip will not be the same. 

We took a few "crew" photo's and then the three of us were off to Fort Pierce.  We wanted to make it as far as we could with the light we had left.  I started to look for marina's in that area and found one that was open till 7:00 and had a Boat US discount.  Yeah, finally a good find.

It was about 6:45 when we arrived and had a little bit of a problem trying to find the enterance.  Because of different hurricanes that have hit this area, they had to change were the channel was due to schoaling.  We soon got help over the radio from the marina and we finally were docked.

We stayed at the Ft Pierce City Marina and we were also there just in time to get fuel, so in the morning we will be ready to finish the last 30 miles or so.  Mike also was able to find the alarm, yes it was still going off, and finally disconnect it.

For dinner we ate at the Tiki Bar at the marina.  It was very casual with all different types of music.  Bob wasn't to impressed with the selection, especailly the B-52's (sorry Troy).  But we had a nice dinner, laughed a little and had a toast to Rick.

We went a total of 194 miles today and took 198.02 gallons of fuel at $2.82/gallon.

Just one more day of travel.