New Smyrna Beach

Sometimes the scenery to and from a destination is more interesting than the destination itself. The scenery changes as we move northward. No more mangroves, but sea grass and other plants...still palm trees.

New Smyrna Beach has a free dock located next to a park. Current is really swift and docking can be a challenge. Most often the wind is coming from one direction (trouble) and the current from the tides is coming from another (double trouble). We must always be vigilant and make sure we don't untie the lines to the dock before we are safely on board. Lines are strategically tied to allow us to untie while aboard. Tides are becoming more of an issue. We are seeing a change of up to 7 feet from low to high tide. The "super moon" (of 3/20) creates more extremes between the high tides and low tides. We are being very careful as the low tides give risk of grounding and the high tides affect the height of the bridges.

Sunrises have been amazing. Sorry if you are tired of the sunrises and sunsets, but we continue to enjoy the beauty.

In New Smyrna beach a park is located next to the city dock. We can imagine our friends from Negotiator, our 3 darlings(!) must have had a great time here. There is a nice downtown and the River is beautiful. We had a nice dinner at Jason's Corner downtown and we were ready to go.

Jim did manage to get another coat of varnish on the teak. He continues to work on the small teak around the boat, as well as another coat on the rails. Jim stripped the teak with the heat gun and is now putting on 8 coats of varnish. Needs a day to dry in between, so he is tired of adding coats! I am tired of the blue painter's tape!

He is a diligent mechanic and checks the engine room before we leave the dock for each trip. He also checks the oil and lines, fuel lines and generally looks around the engine room to make sure everything is working as it should. Depending on our dock or anchorage, he will clean the sea strainers.

We have really enjoyed watching the fishing boats along the ICW. I love the photos of people as they live their lives along the ICW.

For my sailing friends, a picture of a Morgan Out Island 41. We have seen SO many of these boats and many in fabulous condition - many or most (?) from the 70's. In my 20's I enjoyed a week cruising the Georgian Bay on an OI41. Great boat and roomy. Not a racer, but a great old cruiser.