NSB

Business as usual!  We are in the City Marina of New Smyrna Beach.  We are doing all the things we normally do here.  Beach, walking, hanging, shopping, eating, boat rides…..maybe a few cocktails…. and just sitting.

NSB is always changing so we try new restaurants on every trip.  So far, a diner named Ruthy’s has been one new spot.  My brother Terry was right.  Fabulous breakfast.  We have a few more new ones on our list.  A favorite closed–the Cork & Bottle on Canal street but already an opening soon sign is in the window — a Louisiana style restaurant will be taking its place

We hear the news and have seen some plans for new development around this Marina. A riverside restaurant and more slips are in the future development.  We are pleased about this. It is not easy to get a slip.  There is a lot of boat traffic here with boats moving north and south on the ICW.   I am not so pleased about the traffic problems and addition of another huge hotel on the beachside but so far we are not affected too much.

We drove to the South end of the island watching the huge waves and took a hike on the Castle Windy trail over to the river.

This was a pretty  walk but the excitement occurred just as we were exiting from the jungle.  A five foot snake was crossing the path!  Our brave beast Coconut sprung into action surely saving us from being devoured.  Rather than killing the serpent, she chased it back into the jungle.  Brave girl.  Later, Joe talked to a ranger and was told it was a rare sighting of a copper colored, non-poisonness snake. The ranger could not come up with the name of it.   We were just glad to be alive.  Sorry, no picture of the snake 😁

Another day we were at the North end of the island, walking the Dunes park.  This is Coconut’s favorite spot as you hike through the dunes and end up at the beach.  It is the whole end of the island so there is a great beach walk as well.   The wind has been quite high the last few days so the surf was thrashing.  Especially at the Ponce Inlet where there are tides and currents.  We watched in awe as a large sailboat came out of the ICW. This boat was a traditionally designed double ender and it motored out through the inlet with no sails up. As they neared the end of the north jetty that was protecting them from the waves from the north, they were riding a nice tidal current that was taking them out to sea. They started hitting the waves coming in against the current and the boat seemingly stood straight up and down for an instant before cresting the wave and crashing down into the trough on the far side. This happened on 8 – 10 waves in a row. I can only imagine being on board this boat. I don’t think Momma was any too happy at this point. They made the end of the jetty and turned directly into the northerly wave pattern and finally set sail. We noticed that they headed off to the northeast to who knows where. Not our cup of tea.

Here is a picture of the fisherman on the sea wall at the Ponce Inlet. We are always amazed by this.  How can they possible all be fishing without a chaotic mess of lines.

Check out the waves!

You all know New Smyrna Beach is the shark attack capital of the World don’t you?

We took a nice ride on Bob all the way to Daytona Beach.  Daytona beach is also on an island.  This picture is from the ICW.  Beautiful day, enjoying the view and the dolphins.   We couldn’t stop for lunch any place as the two restaurants along the waterway are still closed from Hurricane Matthew and another, DJ’s deck, didn’t have room for a boat as large as Bob–I know, hard to believe.   We went back to disappearing island and anchored in the channel.  The island itself was packed full of Sunday afternoon boaters.   A very odd anchoring phenomenon occurred here. We were anchored in a east wind, about 15 – 20 knots, but in a tidal current flow toward the east. We dropped the anchor and expected to be pushed west by the wind. But the current pushed us east. However, the two forces canceled each other out and we just sat there with the anchor rode hanging straight down. a very uncomfortable feeling to say the least. the best description is: We were Hove To in a power boat! Go figure.

So we sat back watched the traffic go by and had a sammich! A very entrepreneurial  gentleman had rigged a pontoon boat to be an ice cream truck.  Complete with the music!  Never seen that before.

We  are down to five days before we head home.  A few of those days will be spent cleaning the boat and loading the truck.  Then we  haul Bob out of the water and bring her to her summer storage spot.  Not the fun part!  Very hard to believe we have been living on a tiny boat for 2 months.  We have been watching the bigger boats and for now have determined bigger boat = lots more work!!!