SHIP'S LOG:
I am still in Daytona Beach, actually behind the beach and in the ICW. I discovered, when the wind shifted to the west, that I am also very near a sewage treatment plant!I have also discovered that the chart of this area is wrong and that the 13foot minimum depth is a myth. Possibly before the 2004 hurricane season it was accurate, but not any more. I haven't kissed bottom, but if I should do, it is all gooey mud!
I forgot to mentioned my encounter with Red Nun "18" north of New Smyrna Beach. As you recall from last December, it was the last place that I went aground where I needed the guys from TowBoat/US to come calling. It was also a spot where the shoal/sand bar/whatever was right in the middle of the channel. I had plotted my course very carefully but it looked different in real life looking out of the cockpit. Of course, it was all reversed from last December as I was going south then but north now. As I approached the buoy, I slowed way, way down, not wanting to go aground again. This tactic evidently enraged the large powerboat behind me who went roaring past and went around the buoy no problem. I just followed in his wake and again, no problem.
Not having seen a manatee except for the close encounter of the underwater kind in Miami, I am besieged by them in Daytona. They are HUGE! The come slowly trolling to the surface, snort for air, and then slowly dive back down to feed and to do whatever manatees do underwater. All day today, they came up from the south, surfaced on one side of ABISHAG and then dove under her. Well I won't be able to say I've never seen a manatee again.
The next few days promise rain. When ever "Perfect Peter" gives an actual percentage for the possibility of rain, it always rains. Doesn't matter if it's 30% or 40% or 10%, when he gives a percentage number, it always rains. Based on that it will rain Monday & Tuesday & Wednesday. I suppose I can't complain though. It has been rather dry down here this winter. And it could be worse, it could be snow!