DAYTONA BOAT WORKS

Mar 26/29- We are still at Daytona Boat Works and are still not sure how long we will be here. The fellow who is repairing our rail was here Monday looking at things again. We had the fellow doing the fiberglass work and paint here today taking a look. Everyday is the same as the next, get up and do our chores, take Koby for walks, watch television and go to bed. Dave and I biked over to the Walmart which is about 2 miles away to get a few things. Today we decided to rent a car for a couple of days, so hopefully we can do some sightseeing now. Apparently a few of Looper friends have passed by us on their way up the coast. We are hoping to go over to Jacksonville to visit Charlie and Bonnie and see how things are progressing there.

Welcome to Daytona Boat Works

This is where we will be having our rail repaired

This is the club house for the Halifax Marina next door

Manana waiting for her repairs

This is the "Chart House" Restaurant next to us

Halifax Marina 

These are pictures of Halifax Marina next door

Another pretty sunset

NEW SMYRNA TO DAYTONA BEACH

Mar 24- We left New Smyrna marina at 10 :15 am heading for Daytona Boat Works probably for the next two weeks, as we are scheduled to have our boat repaired there. When we arrived at about 12:00 noon we pulled into the pump-out are a of the dock. The dock-hand helped us with that and when we finished the wind was very stiff so he said we were fine to stay right where we were for the night and tomorrow we could move around inside the dock. We are close to the washrooms and showers which is very convenient. We battened down the hatches as they were calling for thunderstorms, but fortunately they passed around us although we did get the rain. We have met some nice people here already, one gentleman has already offered his vehicle to us for picking up groceries.

Leaving New Smyrna Beach Marina

Some condos in New Smyrna 

Heading up the ICW 

A couple of homes along the ICW

Lighthouse off in the distance

Some homes along the ICW

Lots of condos here

Coming into the Daytona Beach area

Lots of mangroves along the ICW

Captain in deep concentration

This is Seven Seas Marina where Loose Change was lifted

Heading into Daytona Boat Works

A pretty sky tonight

Mar 25- We were up at 8:00 am and prepared to move around to the inside of the dock. I am doing laundry and Dave has been doing some odd jobs about the boat. We went to take Koby for a walk and as I dropped the garbage into the bin at the front of the dock I heard something, a dolphin swimming just inside the bay of the marina. Koby has a new friend, a cat named "Cutty" who likes to wander on and off all the boats here. He is not bothered by Koby at all, goes right up to him and lies down in front of him. This marina is where we bought our last boat "Loose Change" back in 1988, but the boat house where we saw her has been torn down since then. It has been 28 years since then and some of the area by the marina has changed since then. We took Koby for a long walk after dinner over past Halifax Harbor Marina which looks quite nice. When we got back we watched a movie and called it a night.

This is Cutty the resident cat

Dave with Cutty's owner

This is our view from the back of our boat

Someone decided we needed to have our picture taken

TITUSVILLE TO NEW SMYRNA

Mar 17- Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! We left Titusville at 8:30 am and are heading for New Smyrna. It is slightly overcast right now but I'm sure it will clear out soon. It is an easy day as we are only going 20 miles today. We arrived at the New Smyrna Municipal Marina at 12:00 noon. As we approached a couple of dolphins played in front of us as if they were welcoming us into the marina. It is not an overly large marina but quite nice with a very nice dockmaster named Pam. We shall be here for a week as we are waiting for the insurance adjuster to come assess the damage to Manana so we can get things going. Unfortunately as soon as we docked Charlie was taken to the hospital as he is having heart issues. They kept Charlie overnight as they are trying to reduce the fluids in his body and he is there until they do.

Arriving in the New Smyrna area

This sailboat is from British Columbia

I think he's hoping for high tide

Park area

A little hidden gem

A different looking home

An anchorage but it is quite shallow

Just under this bridge and to the left

We're here at New Smyrna 

Mar 18- We were up early to wash down Manana and the dingy. We have met a couple down the dock from us with an old Sheltie (12 yrs old) and another dog 14 yrs old. Dave had a part for the air conditioner arrive here and is installing it today. He needed another part so he got on his bike to ride over to Napa a couple of blocks away to get one. Apparently it was the wrong part so off he went again to Napa. I was busy cleaning the salt off the plexiglass as it makes quite a mess of it. It took me most of the day to do it all. There is a large park across the street from the marina so we had been taking Koby over there to let him run. Judy and Ted (Bonnie's sister and brother-in-law) came by and asked if we wanted to go out to dinner with them. They came back about 6:00 pm to get us and took us to see their condo and then to dinner. They have a beautiful 2400 sq ft condo that overlooks the ocean from almost every room. There are only three condos per floor and the people on either side of them are rarely there so they practically have the whole floor to themselves. They took us to a quaint restaurant on the ocean that is known for it's burgers, (right up Dave's alley). They live up to their reputation the burgers were great! They took us back to the boat and we said our goodbyes. 

A restaurant just as you head into the marina

Condos close to the marina

Sonata two slips down

Looking up the dock

Manana minus her bow rail on starboard side

Better side of Manana right now

Dave walking Koby in the park

The large park Koby runs in

A foundation from a house over a 100 yrs old

It is quite a pretty park

Mar 19- Bonnie called me this morning saying they were doing a procedure on Charlie and so she had some free time to go shopping if I wanted to. We went over to Beall's as they had coupons off on several things. I needed some new shorts and managed to get three pairs with 20% off. We headed back as Bonnie had to get to the hospital. When I got back to our boat Dave was talking to a fellow about repairing our bow rail and he left us his estimate. This guy has been recommended to us by the dockmaster, he did some work for her that she was quite happy with. He can't do it for another two weeks so in the meantime we will move up to Daytona Boat Works as that is where the work is to be done and wait for him. About 7:00 pm we noticed Bonnie and Charlie were back at their boat. They will be leaving in the morning heading for Jacksonville as that is where Charlie is to have his heart surgery asap.

An interesting sailboat passing by the marina

We are having a barbeque with these two boats

Koby and Dave heading for shore

Mar 20- We said our goodbyes to Charlie and Bonnie this morning as they are heading up to Jacksonville. We wish them the very best with all they have ahead of them, our prayers are with you. We decided to clean up the dingy and flush out the engine with fresh water. We have Dave's uncle and aunt (John and Pat) coming over for a visit so I am preparing for them. I have cleaned from top to bottom of Manana and have made up the front bunks. We have had Koby over to the park and we walked down some of the side streets for some exercise. I have prepared a meat loaf for dinner when they are here, as I had some time. We got a message from Bonnie that they traveled right through to Jacksonville (about 100 miles) and arrived at the marina at 9:00 pm, tired but glad they were there. 

Mar 21- Dave has been on the phone with the insurance company and it seems they are not sending an adjuster now, he just has to submit a couple of estimates. He has called a few people and he is just waiting for them to get back to us. Dave's aunt and uncle arrived about 4:00 pm and we jumped in the car and got some more provisions. They wanted to go out for dinner so we took them to the same restaurant we had been taken to by Judy and Ted. It was packed with people and it was loud because of the kids off for March break, but I think they enjoyed it. We headed back to the boat and watched some television and went to bed.

Mar 22- We are heading over to St. Augustine today to meet with Pat's sister Roseanne and her husband Dalton. It is a cool day and I have jeans and a jacket on but it is sunny. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there and we were right in time to meet with her sister. It is a wonderful place but really busy with people down on March break so John had a difficult time finding a parking spot. We walked up to the downtown section as the restaurant they wanted to go to had closed for renovations. We found a little place that could seat 8 of us as Roseanne and Dalton were there with two friends from home. We had our lunch then split up as we were going to do the tour of the shops and they had already done that. Dave and John went off to the marina to scope that out and Pat and I cruised the shops and promised to meet the guys at 3:00 pm, which we did. We then headed back to New Smyrna, had dinner and relaxed talking out in the back of the boat for awhile. We were all tired from the day so we turned in, all but Dave who saw on the news that there was going to be a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral last night so he stayed up to watch it, and he did see it!

St. Augustine marina

This is the restaurant closed for renovations

Looking out at the mooring field

Dalton and Roseanne

Main intersection

Funny little buggy's you could rent

Streets are very narrow

Quaint restaurant

You can see how narrow the streets are here

A hundred old building

A beautiful garden in the midst of the retail section

Oldest school house in America

Mar 23- We were all up at 8:00 am, had breakfast and John asked if we needed anything before they had to leave us. I wanted to get Koby's nails clipped again and there is a groomer a couple of blocks away so we went there first and had that done. Then Dave needed a couple of things at a marina store so we went there and got those items. Then Pat and I wanted to go to Beall's and look around so we did and the guys went and sat on a bench outside and waited for us. Then we went back to the marina and said our last goodbyes to John and Pat as they will be heading home in the next couple of weeks. Thanks again, you guys have been wonderful to us since we've been down here, you have gone above and beyond for us and we are very grateful! After John and Pat left we took Koby to the park again for a run, then wandered back to the boat. Dave laid down and had a nap and I have been trying to catch up the blog all afternoon. We just had a call from Bonnie that they don't plan on doing anything to Charlie until possibly Monday. We will be leaving here tomorrow to head to Daytona Boat Works which is about 18 miles from here.