The Kindness of Friends

Before I get to the topic of this post I have to respond to a couple of e-mail queries and report on the Iguana Oil insect repellent.  In a word it was the proverbial "snake oil".  Both of us have used it and applied it liberally before going out; both of us have about a million noseeum bites.  So no, it didn't work as advertised....perhaps if our body chemistry was different it might, but then they might not bite us anyway!

After we left Cocoa we stayed the night in the most delightful anchorage that gave us a fabulous view of the Ponce inlet just below Daytona.  We had read about this spot the last time we were on this coast and didn't stop, this time we asked a cruiser we met in Cocoa about it and after hearing first hand what a nice spot it  it was we decided to drop our hook for the night.  What a great anchorage!  We were the first boat to arrive that evening and so we had our pick of spots, and we picked poorly.  We like to anchor in 8-10 feet of water so that we don't need to lay as much chain as in deeper water (don't ask, it's just more boaty stuff and the explanation would bore you non-boaters out there).  So we picked a spot and settled in, I had my sunglasses off and was squinting when we dropped the hook.  Then after we were settled and Larry came back to the bridge I had put my glasses back on and could see a patch of paler colored water just ahead of us (aah yes,  the benefits of polarized sunglasses).  About the same time I realized that we were at high tide and it had not yet begun to ebb.   Our spot wasn't as good as we thought. The short explanation is that when the tide changed our boat would swing into that patch of shallow water and the water would drop about three feet.  We reevaluated and decided to haul up the anchor and move fifty feet the other direction, it was a pain but an hour later when the tide turned we were so glad we had.  We were especially glad when we watched a little fishing boat ground on the sand and pole themselves off!

We are now in Palm Coast, it was a stop we enjoyed a few years back and we found it just as delightful this trip.  The marina here is small and friendly, just our cup of tea.  And they remembered us and even asked after Lauren, who was a toddler the last time we were here. Naturally that places them on the "A-List". 

I have mentioned before that we belong to several boating organizations, one of those is MTOA (Marine Trawler Owners Assn.), and we knew they have a number of members in this area.  Since we were in need of a big grocery shopping trip we called the local Port Captain, Phil Lowe and his wife Sarah.  They could not have been more gracious in bringing us a car to use, inviting us to join them for dinner at the Elk's Club, and taking me to get a haircut.  By the time we had all of our chores done it was Friday, when Phil offered to find us a free dock if we wanted to avoid the weekend on the water and save a couple of days of marina fees we quickly accepted.  Once again it is the people we meet along the way that make our lifestyle so enjoyable and so special.  

Tomorrow we will leave for Fernandina Beach, then Georgia.  Much of our next week will be determined by the weather, even more so than usual.  Georgia boating is a story that deserves a posting or two so stay tuned for more on that subject.

Shots of our weekend view as seen from our sundeck

In addition to lovely homes we were treated to dolphins feeding



This is where the dolphins were feeding