NSB

We are in New Smyrna Beach at the City Marina.  We have one of the best slips as far as views go and feel very fortunate.  We arrived here last Tuesday after a very nice cruise South from Palm Coast.  We motored past the small fort and Marineland that I mentioned in an earlier post.   We passed by many Large boats heading south.  We even got to radio a bridge to “lift” so we could pass under.  That doesn’t happen as Bob even with antennas is only 15.5 feet high.  Joe exclaimed on more than one occasion how he loves this boat; she is so easy to drive!

Of course we saw beautiful homes and boats along the way.  We also saw storm damage.  Hurricane Irma’s effects are everywhere.  Even the annual flowers planted in our marina received a salt bath and died.  There are additional ruined boats littering the shores, blue tarps on roofs and lots of damaged docks.  The New Smyrna Yacht club’s eastern side docks were totally destroyed and their Tiki Bar is closed 😢Many boats looked totaled at the yacht club.  There is a totaled Tiara cruiser that was moved to our marina that has a big hole in its side.  Joe thinks he should buy it, fix it and flip it.  Ha!!!

Docks at NSB Yacht club

The boats left without slips are placed in nearby marinas making transient slips difficult to find in this area.  Of course, 25′ Bob seems to always find a slip.  We feel lucky to have a relationship with this marina–they remember us and got us in!  There are people on boats here that remember us too.  Or, maybe they remember Bob 😬  For sure they remember Coconut!

We have been doing all our normal stuff here.  Walking the beach, River and town, dinghy rides, outdoor restaurants and bars, cruising and just hanging.  Even with the huge influx of people here, we still love it.  Maybe it’s the feeling of my parents here but it truly is a beautiful place with lots of character.

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Sunrise from our slip.

Those of you who own boats know you constantly work on them but it’s not as hard in nice weather with Palm trees.  We got Bob’s new windscreen finished and are happy with the results.  The fact we saved about $900 didn’t hurt either but we were both very happy when that project finally got done.   See, it is “imagineered” –Canvas and strataglass snapped onto a Bimini frame.

We have about a week left in NSB before we pack up Bob’s “stuff” and put it in a U-Haul Trailer.  We will be dropping the boating equipment in a storage unit in Ohio on our way home.  This will be convenient for us to pick it up next May when we follow the shipment of our new boat, RJ, to the Cheseapeake.

Next Tuesday, we will leave Bob here in Florida with a boat broker.  That will be a bittersweet day!