An Asshole Boater and Arrival in Daytona

St. Augustine to Daytona  –  48 nautical miles sailed, 4 miles by dinghy, 4 kilometres walked

By 8 am we had filled the diesel and water tanks, discarded garbage and recycling, donated a bunch of books to the city marina library, and were back on the ICW headed south for Daytona. This part of the ICW was nice – deserted beaches with palm trees, cranes stabbing at minnows in the shallows, pelicans flying overhead, dolphins curving up and out of the water in pursuit of breakfast, but it demanded constant attention as many of the channels where narrow and shallow and there were many twists and turns. Ana took over the helm so I could have a shower, and shortly after I returned to the cockpit she pointed ahead at some commotion on the water. A big powerboat had done a 180 degree turn in the middle of the channel and drove back to a boat he had just passed. There looked to be some shouting back and forth and finger pointing, then the guy in the big boat suddenly powered up his four huge outboards and created a giant wake, trying to swamp the smaller boat. He succeeded in driving a wave of water over them and into their boat, then took off speeding northward past us and up the ICW. It wasn’t just the one asshole in the boat either, there were three or four other passengers, probably cheering him on.

 

That’s the first time we’ve seen anything like this on the water. It was brutal and extremely dangerous and it’s hard to imagine anybody being that careless and stupid. I hope we don’t see any more of that.

 

A bit later a power boater came up behind us, lurking slowly, suspiciously. We realized it was our friends Adrian and Sara, from the tequila episodes back in Charleston. They were moving their boat down the ICW to warmer climates just like us. We chatted back and forth on the radio a bit then they passed by and roared ahead.

 

The channel turned into the wide Halifax River and suddenly we were in Daytona. The anchorage location was poor – in a wide open are just past one of the many bridges in the city, but our anchor stuck on the first try and held fast. I launched the dinghy and we went in search of a place to dock it. We first tried a dinghy dock on the west side of the river that had been reviewed favourably on the Noforeignland app just in April. Well, it was mostly destroyed, we assumed from hurricane Milton in the summer, as was a large boardwalk we could see from there. So we moved further down the river to the next one, at Halifax Marina, and found it completely vacant but in decent shape so we locked the dinghy to the dock and started walking north as that direction seemed more promising, but you just never know what you’ll find.

 

Well, we found a cute commercial area with a bunch of shops, and sitting on a bench in front of one of the shops was Adrian. We chatted for a while, then Sara appeared, with a bag of product from the tea shop next door. There was brief consideration of a drink at the pub next door but I bailed. Very strange for me to bail on a drinking opportunity, but I did it for two reasons. First, I was feeling a little bit tired, and it looked to me like Adrian was perhaps a wee tired himself as he’s had a couple of friends come down to help him move the boat and I’m guessing there may have been some late nights. Second, and more importantly, Ana had some awful insomnia last night and hadn’t fallen asleep until after 3am so I knew she was tired. So we said goodbye, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before we ran into them again.

 

What did we find in Daytona? There were a lot of muscle cars and hot rods driving around, and the roar of engines was coming from all directions, not entirely unexpected for the city that hosts the NASCAR headquarters. Saturday night cruising maybe? Or perhaps a classic car rally? We also strolled through a lovely waterfront garden, called the Riverfront Esplanade. An elaborately laid stone and tile pathway meandered through tastefully lit palm trees, ponds and other water features, and swinging garden chairs looking over the river. It was very nice, but it was getting damn chilly from the cold front that had blown in a couple of days ago, so we returned to the boat, made a nice dinner, and retired for the evening.