Derelicts & Jumpers

February 16, 2022

This was a day of derelict boats. I've taken pics of those kinds of boats all along our travels but never have I seen so many sunken and abandoned boats in any one day. Some boats were nice, some not so much but they were all sitting on the bottom. We had a nice peaceful cruise and an exciting docking. We came around a corner and oops, there was the marina. I had to quickly rig lines and fenders while David drove, fighting the 23mph winds and the 1-2knots of current pushing us around. It was like a "------ Fire Drill". But as usual, Capt. Dave managed the docking smoothly and we got it done with only a little bit of drama. It seems we are back in the land of outdoor restaurant seating which means usually a low budget band that you anxiously await for them to take a break, a long break! They quit at 8pm which is a little earlier than usual and we are grateful for that! Since I got a nice fishing pole from Santa, we needed some hooks, weights, lines and other fishing junk that I don't even know I need. There is a fishing store across the street from the marina so we wandered over there to see what they had. Then the fun started! The very nice saleslady was eager to show me the live bait tanks when I asked about them. She put on her heavy rubber glove and proceeded to dip her net into the tank and bring up a few live shrimp. These were not the sized, cooked, peeled, deveined and covered with cocktail sauce kind. They were the jumpy, jiggly and darting around the tank so fast kind. I've never seen a live shrimp, they look quite different than what is served as Shrimp Cocktail. They were all different sizes and they had heads that looked like they were from a sci-fi movie. She picked one up out of the net, which make the shrimp mad and he put out his 'biters'. They look like miniature hedge trimmers which can bite you really hard. It hurts and bleeds too, she said. A fisherman came into the store and wanted a bucket of the shrimp for bait so the saleslady very bravely got the net and started scooping them up and dumping them into a Home Depot bucket. One of the little suckers jumped out of the net onto the floor, I squealed like a little girl, making the fisherman belly laugh. Those things gave me the eegy-beegees. I will never look at shrimp cocktail quite the same again. Eewwwwww! Today we went from Palm Coast Florida to New Smyrna Florida, 37 miles, 6.5 hours. The water temp is finally over 50 degrees, we averaged about 6.5 knots as we had to fight the current head on, it was blowing 20knots most of the day but the water was so shallow, mostly 12' that the wind didn't seem to create big problems. And did you see the full moon? Priceless.

Shrimp tank

Saleslady putting in more shrimp from another tank

Courtyard at the marina. It was very well landscaped

Funny Pelicans on the dock. They waddled like Yoda

This (expletive) pontoon boat crossed in front of us so close, way too close. Damn Wednesday drivers

The bridge closing behind us

Painkiller with our awesome, ha, name boards