New Smyrna — Cupcake Afloat

Our time in St. Augustine was great fun. We extended our stay to three days so we could socialize with our new friends, enjoy the town, and take a break from daily travel. It was time well-spent. Everyone we met was friendly, fun, and interesting. We hope to meet up with them in the Bahamas in the coming weeks and months. The only issue we had was with our social calendar. These cruisers like to go out and play. They wore us out.

We occupied our days with trips to the playgrounds (swings and slides for Moss, marine stores for Ellen and me). And then in the evening there were cruiser events at local restaurants and bars: Tuesday was half-price wings night, Wednesday was free dinner at another bar. After that dinner we dropped Moss and the girls from Orion off on Cupcake so the adults could go into town for a few hours at a martini bar. (Don’t tell DHS. Or the grandparents.)

The down-the-coast portion of our adventure is drawing to a close. We anticipate arrival in Hollywood before the 20th, and as soon as the turkey is digested and the winds cooperate, we will make the jump across the Gulf Stream to Bimini in the Bahamas. I’ll get into the details in a week or two, but because the Gulf Stream is a northward-flowing river in the ocean between the south coast of the US and the Bahamas, it is critical that we cross it when the wind is not out of the north.

As we saw in Buzzards Bay, Atlantic City inlet, St. Mary’s Inlet, and countless other places, when wind blows against current, conditions deteriorate to anywhere from uncomfortable to perilous. We are eager to avoid that whole spectrum.

The scenery is beginning to change now that we are south of Daytona Beach. The water is green again. The marsh grass has given way to mangroves. The signs along the ICW are more likely to be about manatees than alligators. The solitude has been replaced by more homes and high rises. And we are seeing many more boats: southbound cruisers on powerboats or sailboats, and lots of what Moss calls “mosquito boats.” Mosquito boats are the little center console fishing boats that buzz past us all the time.

This one isn’t even abandoned, it’s a liveaboard.

We are also seeing lots of derelict boats, usually sailboats. It’s likely many of these are storm-damaged boats abandoned by their owners. Florida has a real problem with these things because of the cost and logistics involved with removing them. Actually, Florida doesn’t seem to be removing them at all…yesterday we sailed past a sunken sailboat that was in about 25’ of water and was within 20’ of the approach to a drawbridge. Only the top 15’ of mast was above the water. Seemed like a hazard to navigation. (Actually, it also seems a little bit like an algebra problem.) Yesterday we passed dozens of abandoned boats. Today we are anchored near another ten or so.

For the most part our weather has been splendid. Temperatures are right where they belong in the low 80s during the day and the high 60s at night. Most of the time we have all hatches and portholes open. Even the bugs have taken a break, for the most part.

The OceanPro binoculars…loyal companion, ready for some R&R at Spa Nikon.

The only problem we’ve had from the rain was when it killed our trusty waterproof Nikon OceanPro binoculars. One lens is fogged now, so for the time being they are monoculars. We’ve had them since 2005 when my in-laws got them for me as a law school graduation present. Fortunately, Nikon will repair or replace the binoculars for free. Go Nikon! Unfortunately, there’s no time to get that task completed before we head east.

When we were visiting with new friends on Tiger we checked our their floating, waterproof binoculars and liked them a lot. We also liked the price. We especially liked that the research on which ones to get was done by a retired Coastie. A sailor with Coast Guard training has got to be able to pick a binocular better than I can. So we copycatted them and expect Amazon to have the binocs waiting for us at the in-laws’ place in a few days.

Speaking of cats, we got to tour some pretty big catamarans this week. One had four bedrooms and four heads, another was 50’ long and two engines, two generators, and a full-sized chest freezer. Inside (and outside) catamarans are really foreign-looking boats to us monohull sailors. Snooping around on a catamaran feels a little as if we have found ourselves aboard some kind of alien spacecraft: all the shapes and spaces are radically different from what we are used to on Cupcake.

We just set anchor just south of New Smyrna and are planning a beach afternoon. Sun is bright and warm, winds are gentle, anchorage is calm. There seems to be unprotected wifi in the area (thanks “Yacht Club Outside” hotspot). Things are pretty great here in Florida.