Upon leaving St. Augustine we landed in Palm Coast. In the Palm Coast Marina we had to do a four point tie (you tie your boat to pilings) in a slip that was much too large for our boat - so an older gentleman came down to the slip to help us in and began yelling at us that we needed to get lines over the pilings off of the stern of the boat which our boat past between. We eventually were able to do this by using boat hooks, lines, yelling, and pushing the boat back and forth. The gentlemen who helped us was courteous but nevertheless left with the impression that he was dealing with novice sailors, complete idiots or some combination of both. He was right!

The marina was lovely. However, the big attraction in Palm Coast is the "European Village", consisting of 4 story condo buildings of typical Florida construction that sit in a circle around a fountain with shops on the lowest level. The buildings have certain detailing meant to suggest "European Row Houses". Most of the shops and restaurants were closed, either as a result of foreclosure or because it was Monday. One of the resident boaters told Wiley that a condo in the European Village which originally sold for $100,000. was recently sold for $16,000.

The marina has a "happy hour" - at 4:30 and Wiley joined the group while I took some family phone calls. Wiley got into his first political argument of the trip which was set off when one of the locals made the statement that there would be no federal deficit if we just cut all the blacks off from their welfare checks. Of course, Wiley could not resist pointing out that 75% of all people on welfare are white, and that southern whites are disproportionally represented on the welfare roles. From there it was "off to the races", and Wiley fled back to our boat and eagerly planned our departure for the next morning.


We skipped by Daytona Beach landed in New Smyrna Beach and were thrilled that we did so. We stayed at the New Smyrna Beach Marina and the stern of our boat faced out on the ICW where we watched dolphins swim by and listened to the call of a variety of birds (mostly pelicans, cranes, and ibis) on a nearby island -a mere 50 yards from the boat.

We were excited when we had the opportunity to watch a dolphin swim right near the boat into the harbor hunting for some lunch. This has been a great place to walk/run to the beach and a town with lots of little shops. There is a restaurant (Breakwaters) right on the beach where you sit and watch the ocean roll in through huge open sliding glass windows while dining on one of 17 different burgers - all while sipping on a (or a couple) of drinks of choice.

We have been eager to have more beach time now that we are in Florida. Wiley could not resist swimming in the ocean and donned his triathlon wet suit twice - while I preferred to just relax on the beach and read. (The water was 65 degrees and a too chilly to tempt me in.) They are very accommodating in New Smyrna and have a free electric car that will transport you from place to place upon calling for free (you are expected to tip). We took advantage of this service when shopping at Publix the local grocery store.

We past the location of the New Smyrna Shuffle board club which has a club house and dozens of shuffle board courts with benches for the players and audiences to sit during the games. Almost every court had teams of seniors at each end engaged in lively competition while wearing their shuffle board team T-shirts. Most of them seemed to be in their 70's or 80's. Wiley said these are "active seniors" and that because we run and swim we are also "active seniors". This might sound slightly funny the first time you hear it but now Wiley talks endlessly (over and over again!) about us being "active seniors". One grows weary - it is hard enough admitting that you are in fact a senior and constantly being told that you are in fact an "active" senior is just a tad too much reality and more like a pitiful commercial for a supplement that keeps your systems moving! Being surrounded by so many old people is scary - recognizing that you are one of them is even scarier! I would truly like to find a way to "skip by" this reality as I observe that comfort trumps fashion (dark socks with sandals, plaids shorts and plaid tops - whatever is clean?, hats that look like they have also lived a long life...etc.), bodily functions are willingly shared (loud coughing to clear the morning, afternoon, and evening throat, and other bodily noises that need not be mentioned), as well as a constant need to repeat, remind, and reference ones own experiences over and over and over.... Hmmm - Florida is providing a reality check that I am finding difficult to embrace.

The next morning we decided to try to get to Cocoa and skip by Titusville in order to get further south and to take advantage of a highly recommended marina - the Cocoa Village Marina. As we have moved south from St. Augustine, the weather is warm and humid and water temperatures are rising. We have encountered an increasing number of bridges that we have to get through and there are many more boats on the waterway. On the way to Cocoa a power boat was on a collision course with us, it looked like we were playing "boat chicken", so we were actually forced out of the channel: as it went by we observed that the Captain was a woman talking on her cell phone! For weeks it has seemed like we almost had the ICW to ourselves, so this is a big change.

A more happy development is that we now see dolphins multiple times during the day; we are hopeful that we will soon see our first manatee. Driving the boat from New Smyrna to Cocoa was marked also by our passage of Mosquito Lagoon which is a massive body of very shallow water with a narrow channel that you must navigate. It goes right past Cape Kennedy and for hours we could see the huge vehicle assembly building. As we got closer we could also see the launch tower used by the space shuttle. After 9 hours under way we arrived at the Cocoa Village Marina, and although the very shallow water on the channel into the marina (5 feet or less) made it a little bit tense the marina is gorgeous! The town is filled with lots of little shops and restaurants. However, town is too small to have its own post cards- so we cannot send them out. Wiley became bored with the place within a few minutes - lots of shops - but no access to beach. We joined fellow boaters to watch the super bowl on the huge flat screen TV in the comfy and professionally decorated captain's lounge. Most of the boaters were Patriot fans - so it was fun watching it and cheering for the Giants. It was a great game - yeah Giants! Our plan is to leave for Melbourne ( a short skip down the ICW - about 20 miles) in the morning and hopefully reach Vero Beach the following day.