The yacht club we belong to planned a cruise to St Augustine, Florida in October for a Halloween weekend. The plan was to cruise up on Friday and socialize Friday evening. Saturday was for exploring the city and Saturday evening was for the kids to dress up for Halloween and go trick or treating on the dock.

We were excited about the prospect because we had never sailed any distance, usually we did day sailing in the immediate area. This would be the first time we had a planned destination to sail to. It was our first test to see how we would do. It is about 41 miles to the St. Augustine Municipal Marina so I was estimating around 10 hours for the trip. Most of the folks traveling there would do it in 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours with their power boats.

We did not spend much time and effort worrying about provisioning being that we would be sailing on the Florida Intracoastal Waterway. I had recently done an oil change and the boat was in good shape for an excursion. I brought enough food for a couple of days, although as it turns out it is much better for my wife to take care of this part of the planning. I never bring enough or what everyone would like to eat.
The plan was to leave by 8:00 am to give us an early start. We ended up leaving at 10:00 and the trip began.