Traveling South Again!

We are happy to announce that this post is not being made from Daytona! This week’s post includes a summary of our long stopover and highlights of our three-day passage south.

Hiatus in Daytona

Halifax Harbour Marina Overview

Upon arrival in November, we were greeted by helpful Dockmaster Coach. Utopia was assigned a fixed-dock slip in the North Basin with very short finger piers. Since there were not any cleats, we tied up to piles that were set in odd locations. This configuration made getting off and on the boat a little tricky, especially at low tide or certain wind directions. The water is a little bit shallow in spots; the man who cleaned the bottom of the boat was able to stand on the ground (maybe standing on his fins) and talk to us. He said there was only a few inches between the muck and the keel.

Amenities include bathhouses and laundry facilities about 0.2 miles away. Water is free and has good pressure. Each dock is gated. Free pump outs are available on a weekly basis. Packages can be sent to the marina office.

There is a little park located between the marina and the ICW that created a buffer from any wave action, so our boat rarely rocked.

There is a fair amount of noise from car traffic, the adjacent firehouse, and sometimes you can hear cars all the way from the speedway. On very quiet nights you might be able to hear the waves from the Atlantic. Most of the people on our dock were not cruisers and only visited on the weekends. They were still rather quiet and kept to themselves. There was once liveaboard Tom, who made our stay here much more enjoyable as he was cheerful, friendly and helpful.

Baxter checking out a turtle in the marina.

Daytona Thoughts

There is a cute little downtown area near the marina, where we found so many great restaurants (with wonderful, friendly service) and other little charms, like, an arthouse movie theater, a chocolatier and frequent events, like the First Friday Art Walk.

Recommended boat services we used include:

• Surplus Unlimited – A store that reminds us of Sailors Exchange in St. Augustine, and Sailorman in Ft. Lauderdale, complete with friendly service and a mix of used and new boating parts.

• Fox Mattress – They came out to the marina to measure our berth to create a custom mattress topper to lay on top of our 20-year-old boat cushion of a bed.

• Al’s Mobile service – Incredible service for our diesel engine and outboard motor!

• Draft Marine – Very nice and responsive guy who cleaned the bottom of Utopia.

Baxter inspecting Al's work.

ER Doctor patching Jimmy up.

Jimmy needed some medical services while here. First, there was a trip to urgent care, who said we need a hospital to deal with the tip of his finger meeting a fan blade. Both the urgent care and the hospital provided awesome, friendly service. He also visited an eye doctor here since that is not covered under our insurance plan.

Negatives include the large number of street people. They often wander the streets mumbling to themselves or spend time panhandling. However, we never felt unsafe during our excursions.

Friday Night Art Walk sunset, Esplanade Walk at night, Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, RV show at the Speedway.

Road Trip Summary

While Utopia sat in Daytona for 11 weeks, we made several road trips during this period.

1. Mini Trip 1 – Sondra attended the SSCA Gam in Melbourne

2. Tallahassee 1 – Doctor appointments, hanging with Sondra’s sister

3. Thanksgiving – Tallahassee with Sondra’s sister, Charolotte with Jimmy’s sister

4. Big Road Trip – Tallahassee for doctor, Shell Point & ABYC, Montgomery to visit Jimmy’s father & son, Diamondhead to visit Jimmy’s uncle, Tallahassee for more doctor appointments and visiting friends

5. Tallahassee 2 – Jimmy made a day trip for doctor appointment

6. Last Road Trip – Mississippi & Tallahassee for friends, family and more doctors

SSCA Gam, Family in NC, Voluntering at Tallahassee Turkey Trot, Visiting Mississippi

The Passage South

Daytona Beach, FL to Rodriguez Key, FL

325 Miles | 285 NM

54 hours

Daytona to Ponce Inlet

After saying goodbye to our dockmate Tom, who gave us a little bag of chocolates, we exited our slip and turned south on the ICW in chilly conditions. All was going well to reach the Ponce Inlet an hour before hightide for optimal conditions, until we heard a flapping noise coming from the engine room.

Two hours into our trip, the alternator belt had begun to shred apart.

Ponce Inet Jetty

Quickly we found a spot to drop anchor on the side of the ICW in New Smyrna Beach. When the adjacent homeowner came outside, I was afraid he was going to give us a hard time for anchoring very close to his dock, instead he kindly asked if we were okay. We were under a bit of stress here and his kindness help put us a little bit at ease.

Working together we changed the alternator belt within an hour, raised anchor and sprinted to the inlet. Fortunately, the tides had not adversely switched directions and the inlet was calm enough for a safe exit, reaching the end of the jetty 30 minutes past high tide on the Ponce Inlet, Halifax River gauge.

Three Days on the Atlantic

As we turned south Monday afternoon, the waves were pretty tall but widely spaced and no white caps due to light winds. Around sunset, north of Cape Canaveral and we saw a giant turtle with a bunch of barnacles on his back.

During one of my night shifts, the chartplotter froze up. I was able to navigate with my phone until we approached a busy inlet, where I decided to wake Jimmy up to help me get the system rebooted so that I could use the AIS to look for cargo ships exiting the inlet.

Tuesday morning the winds picked up just enough to allow us to shut off the engine for about two hours. This gave us a chance to take a closer look at the new alternator belt, which we had been frequently inspecting while in operation. With the engine off, everything was looking fine with the belt. As the day wore on, the winds dropped off and the water became glassy calm.

Miami at sunrise.

A few hours before sunrise rise Wednesday morning I saw a familiar name on the chartplotter: Hemlock. AIS data indicated it was a 36’ sailboat, so I took a chance and I hailed them. Sure enough they are a sailing couple that we met in Brunswick and are also friends with the crew of Quest II. We sailed in sight of each other for a few hours, occasionally chatting on the radio. It was really cool having friends sailing nearby.

Wedneday’s conditions were much like the day before: light winds and glass water surfaces, at least now the water was a shifting towards a beautiful teal blue.

Rodriguez Key Anchorage

We reached anchorage area on the north side of Rodriguez Key and had the anchor set before 4 PM. Although the wind had switched directions during the night, it was very light and the anchorage was incredibly calm. It was also very quiet, a welcome change after the city noise of Daytona.

Rodriguez was quite a lovely stop for our first anchorage in three months!

Next week: Heading to Marathon or Key West to hopefully fix our fridge…

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Post 26-07