December 7th- Fort Matanzas, FL to Daytona, FL

Today’s run was to Daytona Beach. A friend and I drove down there for spring break (many years ago) from New England. It looks us about 24 hours. We just did it in 2 1/2 months on a boat.

Colorful dredge operation.

So far most of the Florida ICW has been long straight runs. Some parts run by houses others are bordered by mangroves. We’ve seen a lot of manatee signs but haven’t seen any manatees yet.

We did see some very festive looking boats today.

Eventually we approached the high rises of Daytona.

Our stop here was brief. I ran Ollie in to a park for a pit stop and some frisbee action. Being Daytona (and Saturday night), things got a little wild in the evening. There was a big procession of decorated boats. I’m not really a big fan of Christmas music ( The Kinks – Father Christmas was a good one). I hope I don’t hear Feliz Navidad for a long time. We were gone at dawn.

December 8th and 9th – Daytona, FL to Titusville, FL

We headed south to Titusville today. We were expecting some rain but it never materialized.

The lighthouse at Ponce de Leon inlet.

Eventually we made it down to Mosquito Lagoon. It is a large shallow bay with little tropical looking islands here and there. Easy to have your own private beach for a day. I suppose the mosquitoes might be a problem but the wind kept them at bay today. Off in the distance we could see the rocket launch towers of NASA and the large shuttle hanger.

We picked up a mooring at the Titusville Municipal Marina for two nights. We were low on everything so we stocked up on diesel, water, and ice. The grocery store isn’t great so we only grabbed a few food items. We’ll take care of that in Vero Beach.

Catalpa moored in the Indian River, Titusville.