But I did arrive in time to see some of the Island Roots Heritage Festival on Green Turtle Cay. Marlee was there with some friends.

Junkanoo parade on Green Turtle	The Bahamas Police Marching Band

When I arrived at West End, I refueled, checked the latest weather forecast, begged a shower to wake me up, and decided to head on out to Cape Canaveral.

Fuel: 35 Gal.

As I was approaching the inlet, the sky in the west was getting darker by the minute. I was racing for the inlet, hoping to beat the storm, but it was not to be. A big ugly thunderstorm was moving in from the west, and I had to turn around 1 mile from the inlet and head back out to open water. The storm hit with initial gusts of 40 knots or so, then settled down to blow 25-30 for the next 30 minutes or so. The last little insult at the end of the trip - or so I thought...

I had planned to stay that night at Cape Marina, just inside the inlet and close to the Customs Office, where I had to check in. But they were full for that night - fishing tournament - and I found another marina in the Canaveral Barge Canal, just past the drawbridge and canal lock. But not so fast - it was 4:15pm and the bridge's next opening was at 5:15. So it was drift back and forth for an hour until the bridge opened.

But then, the little aggravations turned into good luck. When I tied up at the marina, there was another sailboat at the dock flying the 'Q' flag indicating a vessel newly returned from outside the US. I looked at the name and saw it was 'Diva', a name I had heard many times on the radio. I went over the next day (Customs was closed and all I did was collapse and sleep) to see if they wanted to share a cab to the Customs office, and met Carl and Debbie. They had rented a car and had already cleared in, but offered to drive me over to the office. We then went on to Wal Mart and out to lunch, and later on they introduced me to the infamous "D-dockers" - Debbie and Carl used to keep their boat in that marina on 'D' dock, also known as the party dock. So I ended up staying an extra night hanging out on D dock drinking wine.... I saw an alligator in the marina!

GPS track from my storm diversion	Carl & Debbie on Diva.

Pulled into Halifax Harbor Marina because the wind really picked up and I was unsure of the exact location of the anchorage I had planned on stopping at tonight - and more thunderstorms are forecast, so I ended up staying another day here to avoid the rain.

Got to St Augustine and anchored north of the Bridge of Lions. I have done this before and had some problems due to the swift tidal current that runs through the anchorage. But tonight I did not think I would have a problem as the winds were very light. But after slowly swinging around completely on my anchor rode in the space of 45 minutes, first coming to within 8 feet of another anchored boat and then moving over to very near the boat anchored on the other side, I decided to pull up the anchor (at about 10pm), go back through the drawbridge and over to the city marina for the night so I would not have to stand anchor watch all night.

From here on out I will stay in the marina when passing through here.