As we continued to head North, one thunderstorm came through and we were caught in the tail-end of the storm. It wasn’t too bad, a little bit of rain and a lot of wind. We reefed the mainsail and took in part of the jib to reduce our sail area. My wife and kids went below in the cabin and I was left to steer and manage things on deck. It was actually quite enjoyable. The bimini protected me somewhat from the rain and it was in the high 80’s so it wasn’t too uncomfortable.

I was coming to the realization that we were not going to make our destination during the daylight hours. Our options were to continue on or to find an anchorage and resume in the morning. We chose to continue, although I was a little apprehensive trying to navigate in the dark not having traveled these waters before. We had also been told it can be challenging coming into the St. Augustine Municipal Marina if the tides were not slack. We realized that before our next excursion we would purchase a spotlight to help us identify markers that were not lit. This was probably the biggest challenge to completing our journey that evening.

We arrived around 8:00 pm. The marina allowed us to tie-up at the end of the docks until morning. It turned out to be fairly easy to pull into our slip in the morning but I was glad to be maneuvering in the light. The marina staff were great and very helpful.