Happy Destiny: Sunday 6/14/20 Titusville to Daytona Beach Marina & Monday 6/15 Chillin in Daytona Beach

6/14/2020 - Titusville Municipal Marina to Daytona Marina and Boat Works

Arising our typical early hour we did our usual voyage preparations which include making sure all windows and hatches are closed and sealed, checking engine and transmission fluids, ensuring bicycles and all other things on the boat deck are stowed and getting routes ready on Navionics/chart plotter.

Heading out on a beautiful morning

We were untying the lines and shoving off at a few minutes after 7am. It was again a cool and comfortable morning for the ride. The forecast was calling for a 40-50% chance of storms in the afternoon for both Titusville and Daytona Beach (where we were headed) so we wanted to get this early start to get the ~50 mile trip done early. We also were excited to see Renee's Uncle Jerry, Aunt Abby and Cousin Leigh who live in the area.

Within less than a half hour of shoving off there appeared a small but very dark cloud on the horizon that obviously had rain coming out of it in the direction that we were headed. As we moved forward it stayed put and we retreated to the indoor salon helm for what turned out to be only about a 15 minute rain shower. The boat needed a good rinse and what morning is complete without a rainbow?

Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly.....

About 20 miles into out trip we pulled in at New Smyrna marina where fuel prices were the lowest in the area and topped off the tanks.

The area we were now cruising through was called 'Mosquito Lagoon'. Fortunately it did NOT live up to its name :-) Rather, it was a very tranquil cruise through areas of varying homes, campsites and fishing camps. Being Sunday, fishermen were out in force all over the place. We saw quite a few dolphins and Renee was even able to get a couple brief sightings on video for a change. There was a fairly long stretch that was 'slow speed/minimum wake' at which time Renee took the helm while Erik rigged up and put a fishing line in the water to drag behind the boat for a bit. That lasted only about 20 minutes until a small fishing boat that was traveling at a slow speed behind (but beside) us for some time decided to cut directly behind our boat and over his fishing line :-( Bone Head!

Renee finally catches some brief video of dolphins swimming near us

When that minimum wake zone ended the waters and speed opened back up and we were able to continue on our path quickly. There was another nice lighthouse (Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse) which we considered briefly stopping at to see if we could go up in it. We ultimately decided not to in order to keep moving and miss potential afternoon storms.

Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse

Shortly after noon we arrived at Daytona Beach Marina and Boat Works. Our slip for the next two nights turned out to be right next to another boat and couple who are starting their Great Loop. Tony and Colleen from Chicago IL are aboard 'Lady Kadey', a 42' Kadey Krogen, which they just purchased in Stuart Fla one month ago. They are headed up the east coast with their new vessel to the Chesapeake Bay area where they will have it stored while they go back to their jobs and finish their last year before retiring. They will continue their loop through the Great lakes from there. Nice folks!

Fellow Looper boat we met at Daytona Marina

Late in the afternoon Renee's Uncle Jerry, Cousin Leigh and Cousin once removed Kaylen came to the marina to pick us up. We showed them our boat and then we left with them to go to Jerry's house where we had a wonderful evening of Pizza, rest and most importantly fun and laughter with kin! It is always fun and exciting to share our adventures with others and particularly so when it is with relatives that we have been able to hook up with along the route. For some reason the conversations of the evening kept returning to alligators, snakes or spiders....lol. So, when Jerry brought us back to the marina we were all smiles from catching up and having a great visit but afraid we might soon be having nightmares of all the Florida wildlife that would SURELY be our demise before the trip is through! We neglected 😩 to take any picture this evening...ugh. We’ll have to be sure to get some tomorrow.

Monday 6/15/2020 - Chillin in Daytona Beach

Back to early rising this morning, we were both up and about by a little after 5am. We had a good nights rest with no nightmares of creatures from Mosquito Lagoon overtaking the vessel. It was another extremely comfortable morning with a good breeze blowing so we spent 30 minutes or so on the aft deck with our coffee deciding what we would be doing today. We decided that we would ride our bikes ~1.5 miles to the Almous Club where there was an early 7:30am AA meeting. It was a very good and much needed literature meeting where we read one of the personal stories out of the back of the book and then discussed it. The meeting was small (10-12 people) but had what appeared to be a good mixture of new sobriety and long term sobriety. Many of the comments were very good and pertinent to both of us. As with meeting biological family along our journeys it is also always great to connect with AA family.

We got a kick out of some of the slogans and other signs in the AA clubhouse
'Easy Does It' is our home boat
We'd never seen 'But Do It' as part of this slogan
TRUTH

Outside of Almous Club
Love all of the moss hanging form the trees in this area

We rode back to the marina a different way that brought us along a couple of roads with an eclectic mix shops and restaurants, most not yet open for the day, including an interesting looking magic/pranks store; may have to check that out a bit later today. Back at the boat Erik caught up on some blogging (this one!) and washed down the outside of the boat while Renee dove into the beginning of this week's math videos and homework assignment. At around 2pm we were both ready to head out to “The Worlds Most Famous Beach”....Daytona Beach. The marina is actually in the Halifax River which is just a long bridge and couples blocks off of the Atlantic. We were right down the street from the bridge that crosses over. The bridge slope going up proved to be too much for pedaling but the walk up the last few hundred feet was nice because of some very cool tile inlay artwork that adorned the cement railing sections that formed the sidewalk portion. We’d never see a bridge quite like this one....very nice!

Series of tile murals adorning the bridge walkway
hard to tell form the pics but they are very well done and pretty

We only took pics of several but there were many more

Daytona Beach beaches scored an A+ rating in our book! A combination of things made this our favorite beach of Florida this far. We have been to quite a few beaches along both coasts and in the keys but this one had the most authentic true beach feel to us. Nice sand, a very active boardwalk, a large pier with a huge restaurant on it, food vendors right on the beach, awesome surf while we were there AND salt water taffy! It was quintessential beach weather with air temps of about 82, water temp of 78 and a nice breeze. One area of the beach was set up to allow people to drive their vehicles out onto the sand and set up their spot. The other direction was just for walk on people. Many people were out and about enjoying the wonderful day which made for good people watching. We ventured into a couple of the shops and came out with a new larger beach bag, an anklet for Renee and salt water taffy. After walking a mile or so we decided it was time to get into the waters. This was challenging since the surf was large and there was a strong 'rip tide' pulling us down the beach, fun nonetheless.

Dippin Dots anyone? One of several vendors directly on the beach

more vendors and notice the high surf

And real lifeguards! We haven't seen lifeguards on other beaches recently

Do you think she will make it to the top of the bridge?
NOPE!

Part of a very large amphitheater complex right of the beach that was very nice but hard to get a good pic of

Nice pier in the distance that had a large Joes Crab Shack

We would have rode this but the line was too long.....

psych....we are not in to these kinds of puke machines anymore..lol

Renee's Uncle Jerry and Aunt Abby were planning to come down to the marina at around 7pm so we returned home from the beach and grilled up a delicious pork loin along with red potatoes with garlic and parmesan cheese. Soon after eating Jerry, Abby, Leigh and Kayden arrived and we again had a very pleasant visit full of stories and laughter. Unfortunately, the time spent with them was again NOT filled with photographs :-( errrrrr. Oh well, we were obviously enjoying the company too much to worry about pulling out a phone...this is not a bad thing.

After our guests left we walked up to the restaurant on site at the marina (Chart House) to get some desserts to go to enjoy while sitting on the aft deck for another marvelous sunset. The desserts definitely hit the mark; Key lime pie and Mud Pie with coffee ice cream!