Century Club: Don Frick

We left Hilton Head at 2 am Monday morning on a clear calm night only to motor into dense fog 45 minutes later.  We navigated by chartplotter and radar for the next two hours until we entered the Savanah Channel out to sea where the visibility improved some. We had a nice sail down the coast reaching St Mary Entrance just at final light. We motored south for a few miles and anchored in the Amelia River for the night.  Tuesday, with strong NNW winds, we sail much of the way to St Augustine on the ICW with just the Genoa reaching speeds of 8 knots at times. We went to furl the Genoa just north of the Bridge of Lions before passing through only to find the furling drum was jammed.  In 25 know winds, we had to drop the sail before passing through the bridge.  We took a slip at the municiple marina where we were able to unjam the furling equipment and rehoist and furl the Genoa.  We walked through St Augustine which was beautifully lite up for the Night of Lights.  Again on Wednesday, the wind was out of the north at about 15 knot so we were able to sail a significant portion of the way to Daytona beach were we anchored on the south side of the Seabreeze/Oakridge Bridge for the night.  Thursday we again sailed a large portion of the route to Titusville where we took a mooring ball in the municpal marina mooring field.  We dingyed in and visited the outdoor exhibit of the Space Shuttle Program and then returned to the boat for a Thanksgiving dinner of wings, stuffing and green beans.  Friday the winds were out of the north but lighter at 5 to 10 knots so we sail much slower down to Melbourne Harbor Marina where we took on fuel and dropped off one the the crew.  
We then sailed a few miles further south and anchored on the west side of Serentiy Island inside a cresent shaped sand bar.  There were many (10 to 20) dophins milling about in the area and after dusk they hearded a school of fish into the little harbor formed by the island and extending sand bar and proceed to feed and splash about for the next several hours.  Pelicans and other birds had gathered in the trees on the little island before sunset and joined in on the feeding frenzy.  The next morning we found a fish in the dingy that must have been trying to get away.  Saturday we slowly sailed in light winds to the Vero Beach Municipal Marina where we anchored for the night.  Sunday we made the short run back north to the Laggerhead Marina, our final destination.