Our normal anchoring spot at New Smyrna is right off the town dock, however, since Hurricane Ian a couple years ago the town dinghy dock was damaged and you can't land there. But there is an alternative dock just a bit further to the right that we use. Its only a 5 minute walk to downtown from there.
For a combination of reasons, we ended up staying at New Smyrna for two weeks. That's unusual for us but it was a great visit with our good friends and the weather, although cool, was a lot warmer than February in Yorktown.
Tied to a pole next to our anchorage spot is an abandoned Morgan 45 ocean racer. This is the same model boat that we owned in the 1990s before we bought Tides Inn. We learned lots of big boat lessons on our Morgan 45 which led us to choosing our Island Packet 380. Abandoned great sailboats are always a sad sight.
One of the nice things at New Smyrna is the 4 mile bridge walk that provides good exercise and a great view of the waterway. Here's Tides Inn at anchor viewing from the southern causeway bridge.
A very strong storm front came through with wind gusts up to 45kts, so we bailed from our tight anchorage spot and were able to get a slip in the town marina. We ended up staying 3 days waiting for the winds to die back down.
We did have one bit of storm damage from the strong winds. Our mast mounted deck light broke its 20yr old plastic mounting arms and was dangling by the wires. Sue had to go up to assess the situation and figure out a solution.
While the boat was protected in the marina slip, it was still fairly windy 45ft up the mast.
I hoist Sue up in a bosun's chair. The green halyard is tied to the chair with a bowline knot, then shackled to her safety harness. In addition, we run a second halyard (the blue and white line) to her safety harness as a backup safety line.
This is a safe operation when the boat is stable in a marina. If you have to go up the mast in the ocean the real danger is swinging around and banging against the mast and shrouds. but, its something sailors have to occasionally do.
The solution for this cruise was to change the broken light bulb (with an onboard spare) and tape the light to the right side support. That will work until we can find a replacement solution. They don't make this light any more so we will have to investigate new ideas. The new lights are LED so that will be a good upgrade that uses far less battery power than this halogen bulb. We'll have to drill out the rivets holding the old light and improvise a new mounting.
Sitting in the marina for 3 days gave us opportunities to visit with our friends Tara and Carol each night. A favorite spot is the New Smyrna Brewery .
While we waited for the weather to improve we realized that Super Bowl weekend was coming up. Why not stay in New Smyrna for the weekend and enjoy a Super Bowl party at Tara and Carol's.
Rivah thought that was a great idea and found a good spot to nap while we watched the exciting game. The beer and nachos and other snacks were great.
Now that we were in town through Super Bowl Sunday, Carol and Tara told us we had to stay to watch the Mardi Gras parade on Tuesday night.
It actually was a pretty impressive parade with all the LED lighting solutions that are now available. In addition to the "Scooter Ladies" shown in the photo, there were at least 20 Jeeps all decked out and several large floats.
All the participants were throwing out bead necklaces and you didn't have to flash them. Good thing as it was about 58 degrees and breezy.
