A birthday, a boarding and a bypass April 22, 23 and 24

The last three days have been “go-go-go”. Up before dawn and leaving when there is enough light. We left Vero Beach and cruised up the waterway with fabulous travelling weather. We were able to put the sail up often and take advantage of the fine south east wind pushing us north. Christopher has been very keen on keeping track of our progress and watches for familiar spots like Eau Gallie where we kept Tiffany Rose over Christmas. When we passed this spot we crossed the line of our route where part one of our journey ended. Another milestone.
We anchored north of the bridge at Cocoa. On Thursday, my birthday, we left at the crack of dawn. My first present of the day. I had asked for an easy spot to leave from in the morning, and it was just that. Once the anchor was free we could just head out to the channel, no worries about hitting any shallow spots. We wanted to get some miles behind us and felt like we had when we pulled into Rockhouse Creek near the Ponce de Leon Inlet. Then the festivities began! I got to relax in the cockpit while Dave cooked up a nice feast in the galley below. Then the party planner (Christopher) and his assistant organized the cake and candles event followed by some fun gifts, souvenirs from the Keys, like a t-shirt from the ‘Shirley Can’t Surf’ shop.
On Friday we headed out, looking forward to ending our day anchored outside of Fort Matanzas. We had stopped there on our way south and had looked forward to being there in warm weather, the beach nearby had looked inviting and Christopher had really enjoyed the fort. As well, my friend Margaret was on vacation nearby and it seemed a good location to meet. There would be parking for her and it was a short dinghy ride to shore.
Well, Friday didn’t quite go as planned. Our first interesting event of the day was when we were boarded by the Sheriff. I was at the helm and was a little surprised when their boat sidled up and he told me to keep going and that he was coming aboard. Feeling a little rattled I was happy to let Dave take over and I went to welcome our surprise guest. Seems they were doing a marine sanitation sweep and just wanted to check that our holding tank was in order. He went below and flushed dye into the head (toilet) while his partner drove their boat along side ours to see whether the dye came out from our boat. We were fine, they gave us a little form saying all was well and he jumped back onto the police boat to accost the next boat.
We made good time and were happy to be approaching Fort Matanzas by mid afternoon. As we rounded the bend in the river though something didn’t seem right. A boat that had been ahead of us was anchored in the middle of the channel. That didn’t make sense. I called to the lady on board to ask which side we should go around them for the deepest water as we were near low tide. She pointed but then we saw why they were stopped. Right where we were to turn off into the anchorage was another boat aground blocking the entrance. What to do? We went really slowly weighing our options. We looked at the chart for another spot nearby to anchor. Eventually we realized that we’d have to forgo this stop and keep going to St. Augustine. We were really disappointed. I got hold of Margaret by a really bad cell phone connection. St. Augustine was not going to work out for her. It was a really long travel day. Instead of the tranquil Fort Matanzas anchorage we picked our spot amongst the many livaboard and transients boats anchored south of the Bridge of Lions which is under construction. Dave who was tired as well, declared that it was still my birthday and took care of getting supper made. What a guy! Even though we hadn’t intended to get here now, the early arrival will give us time to get some errands done. The city is a very pretty one and the marina here will let those who anchor here use their facilities (showers, laundry, water, trash) for a $10 charge.