New Smyrna Beach to Marineland to St. Augustine

OK...this is gonna be a "cliffs notes" version...it's just a tad late, and we know that tomorrow night we will not have internet coverage. So...to catch us up:

• We left New Smyrna Beach on Wednesday. We enjoyed this small marina...really great people running a nice operation.
• We landed at the marina in Marineland...and yes the town is indeed called Marineland. There is some history here with a facility that used to be a location for movie production, but is now more like a small aquarium. We didn't go to the Marineland facility, but enjoyed the beautiful beach one afternoon. It was huge, and very sparsely populated. A real treat and we had gorgeous weather for a beach walk.
• On Friday we traveled to St. Augustine, a very nice, short cruise. We had to leave early in order to arrive at slack tide, as there are strong currents here, and we wanted to have a stress-free docking experience...and it worked.
• St. Augustine is a great stop, and a great marina (floating concrete docks). We enjoyed the town, ate pizza and ice cream in the same day (not our usual dining choice) and had a really pleasant visit.
• Tomorrow morning we are off to Jacksonville, and plan to spend the night at a free city dock. If this works out (it is a first come, first served dock) we'll have a peaceful evening on a dock with no real services.

And now a few pics:

This tug is in a bit of disrepair, but classic lines.

Floating houses...interesting.

On one stretch, it was like a long avenue of boat houses lining each side of the ICW.

The beautiful beach at Marineland.



Shopping district in St. Augustine...we scored a hammock for our cockpit!

Sandy spotted a couple of eagles on our trip from Marineland to St Augustine...and snapped this awesome picture.