Our trip here, with an overnight stop in Daytona Beach was delightful. Beautiful scenery, beautiful weather. One hiccup, we reached a lift bridge not too far before Daytona Beach, which was open but blocked by barges with cranes busy doing something. The bridge tender told us they were supposed to move every 2 hours. So we waited, in gradually increasing company, for the barges to move. While waiting we turned off the engine and anchored. Eventually, 40 min late, the barges started to move out of the way. So we started the engine and lifted anchor. The engine died, we restarted, it died, restarted and died, and now the high temperature alarm was going off. I dropped the anchor again and Tom opened the engine compartment to find that the fan belt was gone, snapped through. So then, knowing that if we missed this opening, we were not going anywhere overnight, just anchoring right there, Tom replaced the fan belt in 5 minutes or less. Impressive, I thought, but he is still insisting he can’t fix things.
Yesterday we motored into New Smyrna beach around noon, had lunch and called Roz and Jim. Roz is down here helping out in the pottery shop and continuing to learn potting skills and Jim is visiting. They came over and Tom and Jim worked on boat things for the afternoon. Dinner out at The Garlic. A little loud, we could not speak to Roz and Jim’s friends who joined us, Lynn and Ralph. Jim’s meal was so bad he did not eat it! Very upsetting, Tom and I both enjoyed our seafood linguine.
Today, Tom got in a golf game at the New Smyrna golf club. He enjoyed the game and played well, meeting some interesting people along the way. I spent the morning cleaning the boat and reading. Have finished my fourth book. So far, I have read Ian Rankin’s “Standing in Another Man’s Grave”, Anita Shreve’s “A Wedding in December”, Daniel Silva “Kill Artist” and John Grisham’s “The Racketeer”. Not exactly great literature, but I am really enjoying just diving into a book and not coming out until I have finished it. Every one of these is a diverting story, well written.
This afternoon we visited the barrier island. Mile after mile of snowbird condo city followed by a nature conservation area. The worst and the best of Florida, side by side. Finally got some exercise, felt good to ride the bikes. Visited the beach, quite a different ocean from the Bahamian waters.
Tonight, dinner with Roz and Jim, Lynn and Ralph. Interesting conversation, great food, followed by kiln moving, a project which was not anywhere near as complex as it might seem. Lynn had us all organized and the shelves in the way were moved, and the kiln was in her car in a few short minutes. We are possibly leaving tomorrow. We’ll decide in the morning.