New Smyrna City Marina - at a dock

Just hanging out, doesn't look too pleased...

Time to move on. We headed out for New Smyrna Beach after refueling and the trip north was smooth. We had wanted to anchor out at Rockhouse Creek but that was on the other side of the Ponce de Leon inlet by the ICW where the shallowest spot on the ICW exists. We would have hit the spot at a drain tide, not a smart thing to do. So we took a slip at the New Smyrna Beach city marina. At only $1.25/ft, it's a good value. Plus, they have floating, concrete docks - a rarity in this area.

The free city dock - a little raw

I called SeaTow for advice on transiting the trouble spot and they advised going outside the ICW markers! I now have a route in the GPS that takes me north of the markers and actually passes the green buoy to port when the normal course of action going north would be to pass all green markers to starboard. This is the same SeaTow operator that pulls many boats off the shoal that happens to be right in the middle of the ICW, between the red and green buoys that you're supposed to pass through! This is the route he takes to pull boats off the shoal. So it will be very interesting on Thursday to see how all this plays out. I do plan on following his advice and recording the depth readings as I proceed. Further north he also advised passing two of the red buoys on the "wrong side" (to starboard going north). With all of that, it ought to be interesting on Thursday morning, tune in to see how I did.

This tree has seen some tough times - from the ocean direction!

The city here, like many in Florida, is trying to reinvent itself. Their downtown area is fixed up very well with many restaurants and local shopping. However, there is no convenient grocery store nearby nor a marine store. Still, they are trying. They built two docks that boats can stay at overnight at no charge. There are no facilities there but the dockage is free nevertheless.

On Thursday we're off to Ft Matanzas for an anchorage and then on to Jacksonville.