The chartplotter stayed on all night so we could see the wind graph.

And the answer is…

…. 42kts! (48 mph). The forecast vacillated several times, leading us to figure that the boats still on moorings in St Augustine wouldn’t have it too bad, and even at 8pm the prediction was for a max of 30mph. With typical middle-of-the-night timing, the wind reached a noisy level around 1am with that 42kts soon after. For the next 24 hours we had 23-36kts, dark skies but not really any rain. Fortunately the wind was out of the north, pushing us on the dock; much preferable to having all our lines stretched like taffy.

Stella, a British Lab waits hopefully for a playmate

When walking became possible I used the free washer and $1 dryer- not going to pass that up. Tops on our list that afternoon was to walk across to see the wave action on the beach. Was closer to low tide than to high so the view wasn’t as dramatic as it could have been.

Looking out toward the Atlantic at Marineland

Checked out the gift shop at Marineland- mostly to see the aquarium residents.

Jimmy Durante fish tickles our fancy in the gift shop tank

Look! I found Nemo.. and his protective friend anenome

That evening we gathered aboard Traveling Soul for happy hour. Russ made his famous fresh-baked focaccia bread; always a big hit. Ann gave us a tour of their multi-level, multi-stateroomed boat. A full-sized fridge, a huge walk-in engine room, the living room contained an L-shaped sofa, coffee table, end tables and a round glass-topped dining table. Very, very comfortable.