Sea Legs are Back!

* Cocoa, FL to Palm Coast, FL. *

Week one back out on the water is complete! It was an extremely leisurely week and it felt good. We’ve been averaging 8 mpg leaving us plenty of time to take in the sights and enjoy the journey.  Our week included four ports over our 140-mile journey from Cocoa to St. Augustine.

Our first night in Cocoa was very enjoyable so we stayed a second. With a nice dock, beautiful view, cool nights, and a rate of free, it was an easy decision.

The Captain had one more project and this dock was the perfect place to paint the anchor chain. Our chain hadn’t been painted since our first summer on the Now or Never, 5 years ago. We anchored so little on our first 3500 miles it didn’t matter, now we’ll be better prepared than our guessing game of the past. The dock provided the perfect lay along, sun and wind (to dry), to get the job done. After sharing the dock, the prior night with 2 boats, we had it all to ourselves this day and night.

The Chain Gang

Tasha spent the better part of the day mapping out their plan for the week. We’re on no set schedule and we’re leaving things loose so we can adjust easily to where we are enjoying ourselves. Problem is, we like almost everywhere we have gone so we might not move very quickly or get far.

We also needed to sort out our bike situation. We’ve (Dave) had trouble with our bikes. We added peddle bikes in Clearwater and then upgraded to our clown electric bikes in the Keys. Having bikes opened a whole new world to us and allowed us to venture way beyond the area we were docked. Whether sightseeing or provisioning, they were a great addition. They had been stowed for the better part of a year, after only having and using them for less than a month when we returned home. Dave needed to use them twice in Melbourne after we had no car prior to our departure. On the first trip, the battery just stopped. Went from charged to dead / black screen.

The second trip David charged both and took the spare battery. Both crashed and burned almost immediately. Of course, we didn’t discover this until we are T-3 days departing Melbourne. David spent hours investigating and could not come up with a way to fix them. They are out of warranty since we were away from the boat a year, just our luck. So it is with battery powered devices. We bit the bullet and ordered new batteries that represented 1/3 of the cost of the entire bikes. Not knowing how long they would take to ship, no way of speaking with a human, and unresponsive to emails, we had them shipped ahead to St. Augustine and we would just hold out there if need be. Low and behold, they arrived the next day, several days before our arrival! We were a bit nervous as packages in St. Augustine are left in the laundry room unattended and unlocked. They were there upon arrival.

We left Cocoa for an easy 50 miles cruise to anchor near New Smyrna Beach. Easy cruising as there was little to no traffic and the waterways are mostly natural and rural in this part of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). Lots of nature to see which included many dolphins and an aggregation (a new word to us) of manatees frolicking in the sea. We have no good photos, but trust us, it was most exhilarating to see these gentle giants playing in the water without a care in the world. There were at least 8 (we later learned it is mating season – quite the frolic!)! The dolphins are something we never tire of seeing. Mesmerizing to watch, the tranquility of the sea. We were treated to them both days in Cocoa and now on our cruise. Tasha would look out the bath window in the morning to the dolphins swimming by – so cool!

We anchored just south of New Smyrna Beach at a gorgeous anchorage, the city lights and bridge to the north and all nature to the south. There were other boats in the anchorage, but no one was on board any of them. We grilled, Dave played with his drone, and we watched a beautiful sunset. Such a peaceful evening and another incredible experience on our journey.

In preparing to leave our peaceful anchorage midday, we went to raise our anchor and brought up two! We were not close to any of the other vessels in the anchorage. Dave took time to take a photo to share and wrangled the two anchors to deposit the extra one back where we found it. It appears to have been there awhile.

After that small delay we motored the one mile to the city marina in New Smyrna. A very small but nice marina just a block from Canal Street which is the heart of the mainland area.

Having been out for three days, and strong winds prior to casting off from Melbourne, our boat was salt crusted (something we will never get use to as freshwater boaters), so we (David) gave the boat a thorough wash. This along with a conference call of Tasha’s, took the better part of the afternoon so we didn’t venture very far for exploring or dinner. We walked to Canal Street for dinner at Panheads Pizza. It was very good. Tasha ordered pizza and Dave alfredo, both excellent. Panheads was featured on Diner’s, Drive-in’s and Dives last September. We gave it two thumbs up.

We left New Smyrna and headed to Palm Coast. Another nice 43 miles cruise over 5.5 hours. We cruised by Mama Sally’s cousins house, on the barrier island on the ICW. Unfortunately, Tasha’s second cousin was not at home, we are hoping to catch up with him in October.

More beautiful country and much less building as further south. We spent two nights in Palm Coast, giving us time for laundry, polishing the doors of the sun deck enclosure, engine maintenance, and working on the blog.

Our last voyage for the first week was an easy 23-mile trek to St. Augustine. Winds had picked up and there was decent chop, this made the first mate a little wary. We visited St. Augustine 20 years ago by car. It was November, cold, rainy, and windy. We (David) had just started taking about the great loop (we are long time dreamers). We were on the waterfront in the heart of the city watching boats on mooring balls. The wind and rain were howling and the waves in the river were huge. We saw several sailors outside holding on for dear life trying to redo their lines. It was scary, intimidating, and looked downright miserable. Tasha looked at Dave and said never make me do this.

As checking weather, tides, waves, and wind, our travel day to St. Augustine was not ideal in Tasha’s mind. The Captain is more tolerable of conditions. It turned out to be fine, wind, current, and tides can be tricky in St. Augustine, but our Captain handled it very well.

We packed a lot in our two days in St. Augustine. We were excited to have our bikes back and toured near and far on them. It is not a biking town, so daring to do so and not for the faint of heart. We also walked a great deal through the back streets and alleys.

We visited Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth, the Castilla de San Marcos National Monument, made a grocery and West Marine run on our bikes, took a stool at several watering holes, tried too many restaurants, and caught up with the crews from Blue Phoenix and All In whom we met at rendezvous in October of 2021! We love the comradery of the cruisers and it’s fun to hear of their adventures the past 19 months since we met. The time flew by, and we know we could have filled a few more days, but the water is calling and we’re moving on. But we’ll be back!

Almost to Georgia and our sea legs are back, everything falling into place for the crew. Just slowly cruising and enjoying our great country along the water.

Cheers!  David, Tasha,  

                  & Remy forever in our hearts!

 Our sweet girl Remy loved her boating adventures.

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