Day 27

Today we left our anchorage outside of Daytona and continued southward.  We pulled the hook at about 8:00 and took off on calm placid waters with the sun shining and blue skies.  Just a picturesque morning.  We cruised along for several hours with a following tide, the engines were loafing along easily and we “sped” along at a brisk 9.6 knots.  At least that was the scenario until we passed Ponce de Leon inlet outside of New Smyrna Beach.  Then the current was against us.  We also had plenty of distance where you were restricted to “slow speed” and “minimum wake” through several manatee zones.  Well, alright already, how slow can I go, I’m only doing 8 Knots as it is.  So we slowed down to 7 knots to minimize our wake.  We did see plenty of dolphins playing in our “minimum wake” off the bow, and actually did see a couple of manatees.  It is Saturday, so there were plenty of boats and fishermen out, they were like mosquitos zipping around and lining the shoreline, all dipping a line or three.  We only saw a couple of fish caught all day, even with all those fishermen out there.  We came through one area called the “haulover canal” which had boats lining the banks and literally all over the place.  I wondered how we were going to get through.  It is literally a canal, probably no more than 50 feet wide.  As luck would have it, the local Sherriff’s boat was immediately in front of us, so people were getting out of his way and we just followed him through.  Just like following the ambulance to get through traffic.

We made it to the Titusville Marina around 2:30 p.m. and were assigned a slip.  Well, the boat has a 15ft. beam, and the slip we were assigned to is 15ft. 6in. wide.  It is a tight fit.  The boat is literally against a couple pilings, and you can’t get a fender in to cushion the two.  On top of that, the “gentleman” on the next boat over came back to his boat after we were all hooked up and took a mild fit.  There is literally two inches between his boat and my boat.  He had fenders out, and I put out a couple squeezing them in so the boats would not bang each other.  There is supposed to be quite a storm in the next day or so with winds up to 35 mph.  This could and probably will cause the boats to bob and move around a bit, which could cause them to collide, or touch.  He was more than a little perturbed that the marina put us here, and wanted them to move me.  The Marina is full and there are no other slips available.  He keeps talking about it and won’t let it drop.  Frankly it is getting a little old, and his boat isn’t that nice anyway.  It definitely needs some TLC.  What about my boat dude!

After we checked in the marina we picked up the new water heater.  YAY!  We met up with Connie and Gordon and had a beer on the boat before going to the local grocery store for some supplies and a stop by their house.  After that we headed to a restaurant called “Crackerjacks” for dinner.  Another couple that Connie and Gordon knew from Pa. who also moved here joined us.  We had a great dinner, lots of conversation and a great time.  Thanks Connie and Gordon!

   

Tomorrow is water heater day.  We need to disassemble/remove the old one and spec out exactly what we need to install the new one.  After we figure that out Connie and Gordon are going to take us to where we can get the part we need to finish the job.  Boy, I don’t know what we would have done without them.

All in all a pretty good day, hopefully we will be back in business with hot water tomorrow.  I don’t know what the weather will bring; they are predicting pretty strong wind Sunday night and Monday.  As of now we are scheduled to leave on Monday, but if the 25 to 35 mph wind materialize…. Well I’m no fan of being out in that kind of weather.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Today we traveled 47.2 mile for a total of approximately 1117 miles, taking 6hrs 22mins.

Until tomorrow boys and girls……