CODA : Winterizing the boat in a land without winter.
19 November 2024
Palm Coast Marina, Palm Coast, Florida
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This is our eastern hurricane barrier. It should slow the wind a bit anyways. The other secret is to have no nearby ocean inlets. This place also has very little tides.
Marc- I continued some more winter storage preparation including resetting all of the fenders and double checking all of our lines. Both air conditioning units are now working again (some of the duct work had come undone). I did some more work on the starboard teak gunwale that had been damaged by the previous owner and only quickly repaired by me before our departure on this trip. One of the local boaters brought me out to Home Depot to get some epoxy to install a new depth sounder transducer (on the inside of the hull).
Our biggest event of the day was biking about the miles and miles of Palm Coast trails. We did some 30 miles of trails and even a short stretch of the King's Highway (unfortunately it was not much wider than it was when built by some royalty: Spanish of English). The trails themselves are really nice with most being about 10 feet wide and with wide bridges. We did take a look at some mountain bike trails but thought twice about it ( yes even if Florida does not have mountains) after seeing the various jump ramps at the beginning of one trail. There is a bike trail that goes to the Post Office that we've used some.
No this is not the bikers highway to heaven, just a new elevated bridge over wetlands.
We are very content with the many wooden bike bridges in this area.
This is not just one trail. It is the conversion of the main east-west rail line
and the spur lines here on its eastern end. All are smooth and have the modern concrete bridges.
There are many sights to see. We have seen the first three animals and all of the tree types.
This place really is popular with monarch butterflies.
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Not quite sure what was scenic about the King's Highway. Maybe it just leads to somewhere scenic.
Lou- I was delighted to run into my favorite neighbor, a calico boat cat named Willow, on our post-dinner stroll tonight!
Her human claims she's normally very shy, but she's super friendly with us, so we feel special!
He also told us that alligators used to haunt this marina!! Like, they would stalk Willow around the docks!
She never came to any harm, but one of the boaters did.
Apparently there was a person who thought it was a good idea to feed the gators. She got caught at it several times and was told to stop, but she kept at it, just more sneakily. One night, she was giving the gators a snack and one decided it was hungry for more and took a bite at her!
17 stitches later, she was ok, but she hasn't been back to the marina since.
As for the gator, Willow's human concluded his story with a mournful, "A fed gator is a dead gator."
Apparently alligators don't come around this marina anymore.
That guy was a good storyteller! As we've stopped moving around, it's starting to sink in that this part of the adventure is ending, but talking to fascinating strangers keeps the spirit of exploration alive!
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