St. Augustine to Daytona Beach

—Blogpost written by Bob

We departed from the St. Augustine Municipal Marina at 7:05 AM (at sunrise) on Saturday, December 7, 2019.  (First light was a 6:38 AM.)

We had quiche for breakfast while underway—this is such a classy breakfast for boat bums like us!  As we motored south of St. Augustine on the ICW, we listened to the St. Augustine Cruiser’s Net for the first time (on VHF channel 72) and it was quite good. The net starts at 8 AM and lasts about 15 minutes. We should have listened to it everyday that we were in St. Augustine!

Lola sitting on the companionway
hatch as we motor down the ICW.

The Crescent Beach Bascule Bridge
opening for us this morning.

A sailboat anchored along the
ICW in the morning.

We passed Marineland, one of the first marine mammal parks, as I was completing my second one-hour watch at the helm. (Several years ago, we stayed overnight at the Marineland Marina.)

It was a long and boring day of motoring, mostly in canals. We had the tidal current against us in the morning and it was essentially neutral in the afternoon. We were planning to anchor out tonight near Daytona Beach but I called ahead to find out if Halifax Harbor Marina could accommodate us one night earlier than planned. It was all clear to stop in the marina early.  Later in the day, the tidal current was with us.

This was the first day of use for our new Navionics chart card—I was very impressed with the accuracy of the presented data!

We saw very few southbound boats today. The weather was perfect, sunny and about 70 degrees.

We tied up to our slip in Halifax Harbor Marina at 3 PM. It seemed like a very long day, mostly because we started out so early. We’ll be here for three nights.

First Stay Over Day in Daytona Beach

We both had a great sleep last night after an exhausting 50-mile day on the ICW!  We got up about 8 AM (on Sunday, December 8, 2019) and had a light breakfast onboard.  We filled up our water tanks since we were down to about 10 gallons total.  About this time I noticed that our lifeline gate was missing--it apparently unscrewed from one end of the lifeline and fell into the water.  I tried to find it with a scooper type net that was on the dock for retrieving trash in the water but it didn't work, even though the water depth was only 7.5 feet.  Our boat neighbor (Bill) generously offered to take us to West Marine and try to make a new lifeline gate but the local West Marine didn't have all  the rigging parts we needed.  So, we called a local diver to see if he can find it for us--I hope he calls back tomorrow!

s/v Rainy Days docked in Slip #I-12
at Halifax Harbor Marina
in Daytona Beach.

We got out our (folding) bikes and rode through downtown Daytona Beach and all the way to Caribbean Jack's for lunch (about 1-1/2 miles away).  Lunch was great but downtown Daytona Beach was completely dead today (Sunday)--it looked like it was dead most other days of the week too.  It appears as though all the local businesses are now outside of downtown, like many inland cities, except that the riverfront location of the downtown shops is absolutely beautiful.

The marina office fo Halifax Harbor Marina--it is a
1-mile walk from our slip to the marina office.

Looking north from Halifax Harbor Marina.

Some colorful bikes at the
end of I-dock.

We realized just today that our replacement dinghy running light was shipped by (my) mistake to St. Augustine where we just came in from.  We considered several ways to get it but, in the end, decided the fool proof way was to rent a car and drive to St. Augustine to pick it up--it's only an hour away by car.

Second Stay Over Day in Daytona Beach

We rented a car for the day so that we could drive to St. Augustine to pick up my replacement dinghy running light that arrived there.  St. Augustine is only an hour away by car which makes it seem odd that it took us 8 hours to get here by boat.  While in St. Augustine after we picked up my package at the marina, we had lunch at Pizza Time and then drove back to Daytona Beach.

The diver I called yesterday (Scuba Steve's Diving Services) called me back and he offered to dive near my boat tomorrow morning and try and find my lifeline gate that we dropped overboard yesterday.  He will arrive at 9 AM tomorrow morning.  Consequently, we will leave around 10 AM or shortly thereafter tomorrow.

The outside temperature today was in the low 80's.  We ran the A/C on the boat throughout the day while Lola was the only one on board.

Everyone we met in Daytona Beach was friendly to us--most were from someplace else.  The city of Daytona Beach seems like it is dying.  The beautiful riverfront shops are not doing much business.  Some restaurants advertised and recommended in our Waterway Guide are now out of business.  It is sad to see a place that could be doing so much better.

At mid-morning tomorrow we should be out of here...


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