0500 - Awoke without an alarm. I guess my rhythm on the water is hard to shake.
0600 - Already at the boat storage yard getting the trailer / boat ready to roll. Remember the radar reflector that was about ready to fall off the other day? Well, at least it made it to the boat yard before it fell off onto the soft ground. It could have fallen off on the drive over from the boat ramp, but it kindly waited until now (see photo above). Lovely!
0700 - I saw a car pull off of the road outside the yard, a guy got out, and headed my way. I thought I might be in trouble or something. Dan introduced himself and said he had been following my journal / SPOT tracker. Dan is a fellow Tramp owner (Hydra), and he lives in the area. He read that I would be storing the boat at this location, and he had been keeping an eye out for me on his way to work. It truly is a small world. We chatted about the Tramp and my trip for awhile, but he needed to get to work. Thanks, Dan, for stopping by on your way to work!
0830 - I was wrapping up my road preparations when I received a voicemail from Francine, Bill's wife, wondering where I was. I called her back and told her that I would swing by Sandsprit park after I talked with Steve Marsh a bit. I think I stated elsewhere in this journal that my intention for Ama Mama after this trip is to sell her so I can get a bigger boat for the family to join me. So, Steve and I chatted for a while about the best options for "upping my boat game."
0830 - I was wrapping up my road preparations when I received a voicemail from Francine, Bill's wife, wondering where I was. I called her back and told her that I would swing by Sandsprit park after I talked with Steve Marsh a bit. I think I stated elsewhere in this journal that my intention for Ama Mama after this trip is to sell her so I can get a bigger boat for the family to join me. So, Steve and I chatted for a while about the best options for "upping my boat game."
0930 - I arrived at Sandsprit Park with a smile on my face and a bottle of tequila in my hand. I again thanked Bill and Francine for their efforts in getting me a new auto-pilot for the trip home. Of course we had to have a shot of tequila for the occasion! They had just arrived form the crossing around 0700, and I helped Bill get his car and get the mast down before I had to get back to check out of my hotel.
1215 - I got back to the hotel, showered up, checked out and headed back to the storage yard to pick-up Ama Mama. I had her in tow by 1330, and I headed North to check into the country at St. Lucie International Airport.
1500 - St. Lucie International Airport may sound fancy, but it really was a small airfield set-up for wealthy private planes to check in and out of the US on their way back and forth to the Bahamas for fishing and R&R. The US check-in procedure for boaters is kinda strange. You call a number when you arrive in the US, they give you a check-in number, and you have 24 hours to go physically check-in. Not very secure if you ask me. It seems like anyone could get into the US from sea easily if they wanted to. Anyway, I show up at the airport customs building, give them my check-in number / passport, and wait while the agent steps away from the check-in window. In less than 2 minutes, the agent returned with my stamped passport. Where's the "Easy Button"? Unbelievable! No questions about my route, days out of the country, where I was headed - NOTHING. I'm not complaining about how easy it was to check-in - that was nice - but the whole thing seemed like a waste of time and certainly didn't make me feel great about how un-secure our borders are.
1900 - Since it is a place on my list of places to visit. I got of I-95 at St. Augustine's exit and briefly considered driving into town for the evening. I checked it out on the map and decided there weren't any close-in hotel options with good trailer parking, and I really didn't have time to see the place anyway. However, while I was stopped, I refueled, ate dinner, and took a few minutes to pull the nets off of Ama Mama, I didn't want to have them blowing in the wind for 1200 more miles.
2100 - I finally stopped for the evening at Chaffee Point Blvd. Holiday Inn Express just West of Jacksonville. Below is a photo of the car and trailer under a security light out back of the hotel. I like Holiday Inn Express because they have a reasonable amount of security cameras both inside and outside - lets me sleep easy.
2300 - Lights out after catching up on some email. Siri says 1,040 miles to go (all West) or 14 hours and 58 minutes of drive time. Not sure how far I will make it tomorrow.
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