Happy New Year

 12/31- Daytona Beach -

We have had a couple of pleasant if cooler days here. Yesterday we walked over to the “Worlds Most Famous Beach”. The walk over Memorial Bridge was interesting as we walked right over where we had just sailed. They also had little plaques all along the way to commemorate the soldiers who fought in different wars. They had plaques for wars I barely knew about. 

    The beach itself was not that impressive. For one thing it was close to high tide so there wasn’t a lot of beach. Apparently a lot of the beach has been washed away in various storms over the last several years. By afternoon when the tide had gone out a bit they started letting cars on the beach. They even have designated traffic lanes on the beach. Other than that it looks like any other beach. 

    When we got back to the boat the couple next door invited us to go to Happy Hour with them so off we went. They were from NJ on a big Catalina I think. Drinks were cheap and the company was good. 

     Today we just did more boat chores. Alayne sanded and painted the toe rail and I finally got the gypsy on the windlass freed up. We are on the first slip on the dock and everyone has to walk by us so we have been meeting lots of folks. I’ll never be able to remember any of the names. There is a little community on the dock and they have all been stopping by to chat. Some of these people have been here for thirty years. I have been worried about how we would get out of this slip as there is not a lot of room. One of the group suggested turning the boat around by hand. So tomorrow hopefully the group will come together and we will try to spin the boat around to make it easier for us to leave. 

   It’s getting late in 2023 now and fireworks have going off fairly constantly since it got dark. The guy down the dock has a canon he sets off at midnight. Well I wish everyone a safe and happy 2024 and we hope to see you all next year. 

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