Back out on the Water, Still in the Cold
11 January 2011 | Daytona Beach
Jill
We finally got going today. We asked a guy from the marina to help us with the lines, Bud was still a bit worried about prop walk and hitting the very nice boat next to us. We had no trouble backing out of the slip and at 7:30 AM were on our way. It was misty enough that you could feel the droplets in the air, and it was only in the upper 30's. I was in four layers with full foul weather gear and gloves.
The first thing I did was test my inflatable PFD. It wasn't on my list of things to do today, but when I was coiling the stern line I managed to get it caught on the manual pull-tab on my inflatable life vest and WHOOSH! It scared me, but it was nice to see that it worked. Bud thought it was hilarious and took my picture. Of course, now I need to rearm it or it is useless.
We are staying in the ICW because the inlets that are navigable are so far apart that we can't easily get from one to the other. Besides, today there was no wind (one extreme to the other - I thought we'd left those fluky winds behind at Lake Ontario). It stayed cold all day long. Finally, about 1 PM, the sun came out. I took my gloves and foul weather pants off and as long as I stayed behind the dodger and out of the wind I was almost warm.
We are at another marina. I needed to get the carbon dioxide cylinder to rearm my life vest and since it's supposed to get down to 34 with a wind chill of 26 I voted for a marina again. We could run the generator to heat the boat, but we'd still have a cold dinghy ride to take Fuzzy ashore and go shopping. So we are at Halifax Harbor Marina, the municipal marina for Daytona, and I went to the West Marine that is right at the marina. Happily, we needed a few other things besides the rearming kit, because I just tried to fix my PFD and I have the wrong kit. (I also didn't figure that out until step 6 of 7 and when I tried to put the little pieces back in the box I broke a tiny plastic spindle, so I guess I own this rearming kit.)
Tomorrow we are getting up early and again pushing south. It doesn't look like we can get far enough to escape the cold. We may get a reprieve by Friday, when we hope to arrive in Stuart. By then this cold snap will be lessening and we will be far enough south that it may actually start to feel like Florida.