Day 88, Year 10: Passage to FL, Day 8—St. Augustine to Daytona
Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Winds N to W 5-10, Temp in the 70’s F
Latitude: 29 12.412 N
Longitude: 081 00.351 W
Location: Anchored on the South Side of Daytona, FL
Miles Traveled: 47.2 Nautical Miles
Remember our friend Lynne’s adage, “You make plans and then life happens.” Well, that happened again today. We had hoped to be able to go further than Daytona today so we could make Cocoa tomorrow. But the shop in Rockledge that is going to do the work on Lee’s dinghy motor called this morning and said he wanted to pick up the motor today in Daytona. We got here at about 3 o’clock, anchored, and then prepared to get the dinghy motor to the agreed upon meeting place on shore. The motor has been traveling on the back of our dinghy on our dinghy davits for the past couple of days. So Mark rowed over to Lee and Lynda’s boat and they towed our dinghy behind their boat over to the marina. Mark went with them and they didn’t get back until after sunset. The guy picking up the motor got delayed in traffic and they finally had to just leave the motor there and return to the anchorage before it got too dark. The parts should arrive tomorrow and we hope the shop doing the gets the job done tomorrow so we can pick the motor up in Cocoa on Thursday morning. There are constantly all of these “if, thens”, which is always the case in life. IF the motor is repaired and ready for pick up when we reach Cocoa on Thursday morning THEN we’ll get it and continue on. IF it is not done THEN we’ll wait the day in Cocoa and have a shop there look at our dinghy motor. Where we go on Friday is anybody’s guess! So stay tuned.
All of these uncertainties cause us to spend at least two hours every night going through the cruising guides to troubleshoot the next day’s course and to figure out just where we can go to find a suitable anchorage for the next night. Intracoastal Waterway travel, at least here is Florida, is challenging because of the shallow depths, the bridges that are just not quite as tall as they claim to be and that all open on different schedules, and the dwindling number of anchorages due to municipal rulings and the addition of moorings. The moorings are safe and very convenient, but they cost money. We had planned to anchor out every night, but already we have picked up a mooring two of the last four days. So much for plans! But even with all of the issues we have had and my dislike of the inland waterway, today felt great. I did a laundry early in the morning and hung it on lines I strung across the back deck to dry. Somehow it always makes me feel good to do a hand laundry. It smells so fresh when you take it down off the lines—which I did before we got to Daytona so we would look ‘respectable’. And even though we are now out of the marshlands and into housing development country, there is still wildlife to be seen. And I do love that. It is currently looking like we won’t reach Fort Lauderdale in time to get settled and get Mark to his first doctor’s appointment there. But we can get to the Lake Worth area on Sunday. From there we can call Sue and Brad, my sister-in-law and her husband, and they will help us out with transportation until we do reach Fort Lauderdale. Sue called this morning to assure me that they are ready and waiting to help out. We are so thankful for that. Between now and Sunday, we will just put one foot in front of the other and inch our way further down the ditch.
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| 150106 Day 88 Passage to Florida–Day 6, St. Augustine to Daytona |
