CT to FL Day 29
New Smyrna Beach, FL to Cocoa, FL

We spent a stupendous evening with Peter and Charlotte Behr in Cocoa at their home for dinner. Had surprise with Ron Barringer picking us up at the dock and joining us for a couple of cocktails. Sorry we missed seeing his wife Mary, but she was on grandchild duty... :)
We departed at 0830 and had planned to cruise to Titusville today and stay at the Titusville Marina. We had won a free night's dockage and wanted to utilize it. The certificate had expired in May 2014 shortly after we had won it but we had called the marina in April explaining we were heading north and already past Titusville when we won the free night. They told us no problem that they would honor the certificate on our return trip south.
Well, that didn't happen... we called this morning and made a reservation for the night and told them we had a gift certificate for a free night. Not a problem we were told. An hour later our cell phone rings with the marina manager giving us the third degree about the gift certificate.... he was very confrontational and bottom line was they were not going to honor the free night gift certificate. Very Sad! we had never stayed here and were looking forward to checking it out. After the way the manager dealt with us we will most likely never stay at Titusville Marina.

We then changed our plans and continued on to one of our favorite destinations.... Cocoa, FL. We arrived at were securely docked at town dock at 1445 at
N28°21.294', W080°43.324'. We traveled today for 6.25 hours covering 45 nautical miles averaging 7.2 knots.


Posted at 2:00 PM
CT to FL Day 28
Palm Coast, FL to New Smyrna Beach, FL

Not having far to go today we made an attempt to sleep in and no alarms set. Didn't work and we were both wide awake at 0500. The weather was total crap outside. Raining and very windy. I go up and checked the wind gauge and it was reading 25 knots and gusting to 30 knots and we were in a protected basin. YUCKY DAY!
In spite of the weather we departed at 0900 bound for New Smyrna Beach. I had to roll SAILS off the dock against a piling and back out with north wind forcing against the dock. The winds did whip up the ICW a bit producing 2-3 waves in some areas but nothing worse. The biggest thing I saw was the wind was making the tide a couple of feet higher than normal and we had to request an opening for the Main Street and Memorial bridges in Daytona. Normally, we can drop the antennas and mast and slip under these but today there was no slipping under them.
Had some boat traffic today pass us heading south.... Two large 100 foot plus motor yachts one with a Miami hailing port and the other Fort Lauderdale.... One from Miami was a jerk and waked us big time as he passed... Fort Lauderdale boat was very courteous and slipped by without rocking us.

We arrived to our destination in New Smyrna Beach at 1445 at
N29°01.527', W080°55.154'. We traveled today for 5.75 hours covering 40 nautical miles averaging 7.0 knots.


Posted at 3:32 PM
CT to FL Day 27
Jacksonville, FL to Palm Coast, FL


We departed from Jacksonville, FL at 0645.... NO FOG!!!! and headed south down Sister's Creek toward the St. John's River. The current was running very strong against us. We crossed the St. John's River crabbing at about 30 degrees to maintain a straight path due to the strong flood current. Soon as we were across the river the current was with us and we were soon running along at over 9 knots. Speed and no fog.... it was a great start to the day!
Nothing out of the ordinary today.... no boat traffic.... weather was not great and never saw the sun but NO FOG! After 4 days of running in dense fog this was awesome!
Destination for the day was Palm Coast and docking at Lowe's house. We arrived on a good day as well being able to attend a Christmas Party at the Blake's home allowing us to see a lot of our Palm Coast friends. Staying just for one night in Palm Coast it's hard to get to see everyone we know here.... but with the party it all came together and we had a great time.
Anyway, we arrived at 1530 and were docked at
N29°35.679', W081°12.338'. We traveled today for 8.5 hours covering 55.2 nautical miles averaging 6.7 knots.


Posted at 3:30 PM