Monday January 23: Daytona Beach, FL

The River's Edge Marina last night was just that: at the St. Sebastian river's edge. They had a great restaurant next door (Hurricane Patty's) that promised great seafood so we went for lunch. It actually WAS good! It also had some fun stuff at the entrance and under the patio so we took advantage of the photo opportunities.

Last night's job was to reinstall the generator starter. Of course it took longer than anticipated and in the end: we are still without a generator! Apparently the problem was two-fold - frozen solenoid as well as a bad starter. So on to plan B: finding someplace to get it fixed which is a job that I think will wait until Marathon. We don't really HAVE to have it to spend a night anchored but is just more convenient.

Today Steve was up early as usual (his arm was hurting a bit from the 'normal' activities of living on a boat), so he went for a walk to check out the area. It turned into a wildlife tour with an osprey and fun duck spotting. We ended up riding the bikes into Old St. Augustine and along the waterway to check out the fog. Definitely not time to leave yet. We made that mistake once back north in Charleston and didn't want to repeat that experience!

Although there were many churches in town, this Methodist Church was by far the most ornate and unusual. Finished of the morning by stopping at George's Diner for coffee and a bagel (since we had oatmeal on the boat).

It was finally about 11 by the time the fog had lifted enough for us to safely head out. The St. Sebastian River looked like a different place at high tide. The day was beautiful with the puffy white clouds and jet tracks across the sky. A perfect combination of a cool breeze with the sun shining most of the time made for almost the perfect travel day. The waterway here in Florida is very straight with a nice depth of 11 - 16 ft. Definitely not like the mud of Georgia! Finally at about 5:00 we arrived at Dayton Beach. The place we are staying tonight is a yacht club that offers a free dock (well, they do charge $6 for electric) for one night to any other members of Yachting Club of America members (which we qualify as because we are a member of our trawler group) - definitely a great deal. Nice hot tub too :-)

Of course Steve thought we should be tied at all four posts: didn't happen but he gave it a good try by duct taping the two boat hooks together to try to loop the pole. Oh well, next time we'll have a better plan when coming in to dock!

Off tomorrow for Titusville, FL (about 50 miles).