December Daytona Beach

Thursday December 5, 2002 – Frozen in NC

We are writing this update from a motel room in Florence, South Carolina–in the middle of an ICE STORM!!!!!. Wouldn’t you know that the Day we chose to head north a big winter storm was heading south. We drove until the rain/sleet began and then tucked into a nice warm motel while it passes. From the sound of it we might be here in South Carolina for days. We are hauling the trailer to MD for storage and then are driving on to AZ to sell the truck, the last of our vehicles; then we can finally fly back to Florida and officially become an ocean-going Sailboat once again. At present Entr’acte is out of the water in Daytona Beach where we are making final preparations for our trip to the Bahamas and hopefully, Europe. Yes, we are finally warm. Several cold fronts have passed through but are not at all as cold as MD was in October. Fred and family arrived at this marina on Thanksgiving so we are together again. He had some amazing Freddie stories about their trip down the waterway – he finally had to buy tow insurance from Boats US since he seems to be spending more time aground than floating. There is an often used phrase for boaters “May you always have a hand’s width of water under your keel” and also, “A man that has never gone aground has never gone anywhere.” Well since Freddie has this insurance he has had enough water under his keel and he sure is going places!!! We had a pretty uneventful trip down here, 60 MPH to windward. We put the boat on the trailer in MD made a quick trip to PA and NY to visit family and pick up some forgotten items (sorry we didn’t see anyone as it was really quick) and then on down to Daytona Beach in two days. We are completing many of the boat jobs we should have done in NY; the wood, maintenance and paint the bottom as well as scores of others. Fred and family will soon visit Disney World and Cape Canaveral. Once we return from AZ we should be quickly off to the Bahamas. We have all the dry food on board. We need only fresh food before we leave. We will have been hauled out for one month For the boaters we are at the Seven Seas Marina – a do it yourself yard. They are very pleasant to cruisers and we are enjoying the neighborhood. The beach is only a block away and we walk it at sunrise and on breaks from our hectic preparations. This is the home of the Daytona Beach Speedway and also home to so many old vintage cars. There is a constant parade of vintage cars not only on the main street but on the beach as well.. We wish everyone wonderful holidays and the best for the New Year. We hope the next email is from the Bahamas. We won’t be able to check our email often in the Bahamas but will do so as often as possible.

So – Happy 2003 from Ellen and Ed