The Promised Land!

SHIP'S LOG:

I got in to Daytona Beach yesterday with temperatures in the mid-60's. Today the temps hit the mid 70's and there wasn't a cloudy in the sky. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain but the temp will still be in the mid 60's as it is supposed to be for the rest of the week. I have arrived in the Promised Land! ! ! ! ! ! !

Hopefully, the last of the "winter" weather has departed and nevermore to return but one never quite knows about these things. Still the weather is a vast improvement over the last couple of weeks. I'll take all I can get. I am waiting for that night as I am trying to sleep and am tossing and turning because it is too9 hot. Let me have it!

The trip down from Palm Coast was uneventful which is just the way I like them, True to form, NOAA got the wind speeds wrong and it was rather more breezy than expected but it was warm. The ICW is a little bit spotty in depth but nothing that a sudden stop and a slow proceeding with eyes on the depth sounder couldn't take care of. Things really opened up in Daytona Beach but all that seemingly "open water" is around 4 feet at low tied and not all that deep at high tide. There looks like a thousand places to go but they really ain't there. One of the best spots, across for Caribbean Jack's Restaurant has w wreak right in the middle of it and if you are not careful you can add to the wreckage. I anchored past all the bridges nearer Halifax Harbor, a rather popular place if the number of "anchor-ees" is any indication. I'll be here for another day. It is a logistical problem. I would like to get to Titusville but that is almost a 50 mile run and that means 10 hours. New Smyrna Beach is about 14 miles down "the road" but doesn't have a lot of places to drop a hook. And Saturday it is going to rain. If I left today and got to New Smyrna, cutting 13 miles off the run to Titusville, and couldn't find the room to drop a hook, I would end up spending two days in a marina which I can't afford. So I'll stay in Daytona Beach and leave on Sunday and go to New Smyrna and if necessary, spend one night in a marina. Then make the shorter run to Titusville which has anchorages everywhere.

To let you know just how cold it got down here, when I was up in St. Augustine it got so cold and the wind blew so hard that the vinyl windshield in my dodger split. Also, there has even been a fish kill as the water was too cold for some to survived. Man, that's cold. I don't care where you are. But that's all behind me now . . . . I hope.