Day 18: Barber Shop
07 November 2011 | Daytona Beach, FL
Shorts, T-Shirts and Flip-Flops - Horray! (75 degrees and Sunny)

Nautical Miles Travelled: 43
Total Trip Miles:1064
After a gray day between JAX and St. Augustine, we rose from the gentle rocking on our mooring (it reminded us of home at Pirate Cove) to warm, sunny skies. There were a few clouds in the distance but they quickly cleared and next thing we knew we changed from sweatshirts and pants into flops, shorts and t-shirts! It was a welcomed change from the gray gloomy skies we've seen so far; today marked day 4 of sunshine out of 18!
So we took the standard southward turn onto the ICW and meandered through numerous manatee zones down the Florida coast with our eyes set on Daytona Beach. I've yet to see a manatee, but I'm hopeful that I can add one to the evergrowing "cool animal list" from this trip...it at least gives us something to do while we motor / sail down the ICW. Our other past time is looking at the houses, including crazy mansions, on the ICW...we'll post some photos so you can see what we mean. There are some rediculous homes in FL - definitely the most extravagent we've seen on this trip so far. The other thing that keeps us busy are the bridges. It feels like every 20 minutes your headed under another one. There are a lot at 65' which we breeze right under, but there are just as many that require opening. Luckily in FL most of the bridges open on request so they haven't really slowed the trip at all.
So one of the real highlights of today was the title of our blog... we stopped just before our marina and anchored off the ICW near one of the bridges. It was warm, sunny and we had a slight breeze. Derek decided to change the transmission oil on the starboard engine and then my hairy husband (see photos) received a "professional" haircut on the stern of our port hull... the beauty of an inverter and long extension cord is that we can hook up the clippers and I turn into a self trained hairdresser. His hair has been out of control, sideburns especially, but he's once again cleaned up (except for the beard).
After the cut and a quick rinse off to get rid of the mounds of hair, we pulled up the hook and headed to the marina. We were low on water and dont want to use our watermaker in the ICW, so we opted to stay overnight on dock rather than at anchor in order to fill the tanks and also to get some good food onshore. We hit up the Chart House, which we'd been to before for work, and we were not disappointed. Actually our plan was to get some app's and drinks, but we ended up with app's, drinks, one entree and desert! Hahaha. We could barely move on the way out, but that's the benefit of having no car...you have to walk home. It wasn't very far at all, but the stroll was nice due to the warm weather and our full stomachs! Derek pulled a "Rachel" and passed out on the couch when we got home - it was a long day of sunshine, haircuts and good food, so we needed the sleep to prepare for another early morning headed down the Floridian coast.
BTW- the weather's getting worse on the "outside", another tropical storm has developed and wave heights are growing to 10 to 14 feet within 20 nautical miles of shore, so it sounds like we'll be on the "inside" all the way to Port St. Lucie!