Day 200
In perfectly still waters, with only slight, but humid breezes, we left our slip at Cocoa Village Marina at 7:45 am on Monday, 03/29/21. Skies were overcast and up ahead of us, on the far side of the upcoming bridge, appeared to be a low-hanging fog bank, which we hoped was only an illusion. We cruised along slowly in the gray, gloomy morning, but – even though it looked like it could any minute – it didn’t rain on us. We continued northward, past Sharpes, Port St. John, and Titusville, FL, that morning. After Titusville, we turned to starboard and cut east underneath Courtenay Parkway near Allenhurst, FL, out into Mosquito Lagoon. This point began the Indian River North portion of the ICW.
On into the morning, the wind began to pick up and we could see rain falling over to our west. We had to completely zip up the flybridge because it suddenly got COLD. Within moments, the rain began to fall on Legacy as she cruised. NOT the most pleasant traveling weather. Several days earlier, a strong cold front brought some big, flooding storms through middle Tennessee. It dawned on me we were now moving right through that very same cold-front, but fortunately it had calmed by the time it reached us down in middle Florida!
As we motored along in all that gloom, we saw the Kennedy Space Center off to our east. I wanted to take my usual 4,320 pictures that day, but I knew from experience that the dim light and haziness just does not make for good photos. One true upside was that we were traveling straight into the increasing winds, which made for much smoother cruising than if those winds had been hitting us on our beam. The winds rose all the way to 27 knot gusts. From what we could tell, that cold-front was stalling out right over our heads, which meant several more days of less than stellar traveling conditions.
Late morning, we passed through the narrow Haulover Canal at Allenhurst, FL. The sun teased us by peeking out here and there as we traveled. Once past Allenhurst, civilization ends along this portion of the ICW. Just tiny islands, sandy beaches, and tons of palm trees. Actually, rather than islands, they were more like sand BARS, connected by never-ending mangrove beds. The whole area looked extremely Gilligan’s Island-esque, appearing so isolated.
Slowly, but surely, civilization began to reappear. We passed Oak Hill, Eldora, Bethune Beach, and Edgewater, FL. This area of the Indian River North contains many fish camps/RV parks just west of Turner Flats. It was odd now, seeing all those RVs setup right on the water’s edge. A sharp contrast to the multi-million dollar residences to the south, in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area!
All of these RV developments have pilings, piers, and boat-docks extending out into the water from them, which means one, long no-wake zone for those of us traveling along side on the water. So it was a slow cruise toward and into the New Smyrna Beach area. (When you consider that “full speed ahead” for us only means 10 mph, you can imagine JUST HOW SLOW those no wake zones can get!)
We arrived at New Smyrna Beach City Marina at 1:45 pm. The air was so much cooler here, it was obvious that front had already passed through New Smyrna. (Yes, we were once again dressed in long pants and long-sleeves. UGH!) Once we got the boat tied-up and plugged in, and showers taken, we walked over to the small town area of New Smyrna Beach, directly adjacent to the marina. We had already researched that the Corkscrew Bar and Grille was definitely the place to be. They seated us outside for dinner, where I enjoyed the tastiest quinoa salad! It was so yummy that – if I was the type to snap and post pictures of my meals on Facebook (aren’t you glad I’m not??) – this one definitely would’ve made the cut. We noticed the clientele consisted mostly of very elderly patrons and dogs on leashes. The outside tables were closer to each other than is common for these relentless COVID times, which would’ve been fine, had the seating staff not continuously crammed parties with dogs into tables right next to each other. Much growling and whining accompanied our meal, and several canine scuffles broke-out. A most amiable elderly gentleman (86 years old, he told us) and his daughter were seated right beside us, with their Blue-Tick Hound, named Ben. Ben was NOT thrilled with his plight, being relegated to lie on the hard pavers beneath the couples’ tiny, aluminum bistro table and chairs. Ben would rather have sauntered over to the table next to them, where a petite little Peekapoo or Lhasapoo, or Snickerdoodle dog was sitting and making moon eyes at him. Ben’s owner kept pulling Ben back, but to no avail. When Ben was not allowed to flirt with the other dog, he would let out a long and forlorn hound-dog howl that had everyone around him laughing. Finally, the older man decided to tie the end of Ben’s leash to the base of the rickety bistro table at which they were seated, which I found to be an alarmingly dumb idea, as Ben was large and strong enough to actually pull their table right along with him, should he choose to! Once the couples’ meals were served, the precariousness of the situation increased exponentially. As I’d mentioned, the older man was very friendly and struck up a conversation with Steve about our boat and our travels. So in between bites, and talking to Steve, and grabbing hold of their teetering table, we all ate our meals. I felt kind of sorry for the man’s daughter, who had just flown in that day to visit with him and instead was monitoring the determined, nefarious activities of her dog-brother, Ben, and listening as her father gave all his attention to the complete strangers next to him. Being the obsessive control-freak that I am, the whole scene drove me nuts. Especially when the seating hostess placed yet another dog-laden eating party right next to poor Ben! Thankfully, all went well – at least up until we left anyway – and we didn’t all end up in a restaurant calamity scene fit for an episode of The Carol Burnett Show, or that old restaurant-based sitcom called Alice!
We were only spending one night at New Smyrna Beach, so since there was still plenty of light after dinner, we strolled around the quaint little town. New Smyrna Beach might’ve been small, but we both agreed we wouldn’t mind returning there for a longer visit, next time we travel through the area.
Position: N 29° 01.645, W 80° 55.214
Distance traveled: 52 SM
Total distance traveled: 2811 SM
Total marina nights: 178
Total nights at anchor: 21
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 27