Daytona Beach For Awhile

SHIP'S LOG:

Current Location:29'11.945/081'00.336

I am anchored just off of the ICW in a mooring field that is used by the Halifax Sailing Club. I got in yesterday(Friday) after a long slog up from Titusville, a jaunt of some 41 miles. It was a long slog in that both tide and wind were against me until I hit the Ponce Inlet and then at least the tide as with me.

One thing I discovered leaving Titusville is that I am back into the mud/clay bottom. The stuff holds fast and hard which is good in a lot of wind and a bear when you try to haul up the hook. The anchor and the weights come up covered with this sticky grey mud/clay that gets everywhere. Left unwashed away, it hardens into cement. If you get any on your clothes, it is there till the next washing. If it gets on you, you really have to wash it off right away or you will leave tracks and trails everywhere on the boat. The one good thing that can be said about the stuff, aside from its holding power, is that it doesn't smell like the stuff further north. When I get into Georgia and the Carolinas, the mud/clay also come with a real stink, something I am not looking forward to at all.

I have also re-entered the world of crabpots. It is not that there weren't any further south, it is just that there numbers are increasing rapidly the further north I go. The upper end of Mosquito Lagoon, where there are numerous fishing camps, is loaded with pots as is the waterway from there north. I have to drill myself to remember the golden rule of ICW travel, "Crabpots Rule." They are the most accurate indicators of thin water and are to be respected even when they contravene the actual marks and buoys. I learned that the hard way. I also have to start remembering that little saying, "Hey, Diddle-diddle, Stay In The Middle!". From here north, actually from Titusville north, the deepest part ocf the ICW is most often found in the middle of the channel, especially going through the canals that will show up more frequently now.

Speaking of the Mosquito Lagoon - I can remember on the way down i was rather anxious about the place. It was basically dead arrow straight and there was little room for errors. I white-knuckled it all the way down. This time, however, it was really a piece of cake and a bit of a bore. I suppose I am getting to be an old hand at this.

"Perfect Peter," the computerized voice of NOAA Weather radio has been experiencing problems recently. I am not sure how they create the voice, whether they type worlds into the computer and it gets synthesized into a voice or what. If that is the case, they have to use spellcheck more. Announcing that there might be an interruption in service, "Peter" apologized and said that he "appeciated your pratience."

The Halifax Sailing Club had a day for people who had never sailed before as a way of introducing people to the sport of sailing. They had a morning of instruction and then turned them loose on Sailfish. I had been anchored in front of the club and this morning(Saturday), one of the instructors came out and suggested I move . . . . "got your own safety." I thought he was kidding but I did move. Good thing too, as the sailing portion of the day was more like a demolition derby than anything else. There might have been 10 knots of wind, maybe, but most "sailors" dumped there crafts at least once. There were also several T-boning incidents that kept the instructors hopping. I doubt that a Sailfish could do much in the way of damage to ABISHAG, still it wasn't a pleasant thought to picture someone mashed up against her side.

Took another stab at trying to stem the leak in the front tube of the dinghy. This time I used water-proof adhesive tape covered with two coats of liquid electrician's tape. I did this on deck after haul the dinghy aboard. I took my time and let it sit in the sun after I was done. I also took the time to repaint the registration numbers which have slowly disappeared over the trip. I do not wish any further encounters with the water police.

Boat names of the day: Waste Knot, Want Knot; The Great Escape; Knot My Problem. As I mentioned, the traffic is a little thin these days.