Our Most Recent Trip North…Day #2

Early on during day #2 we encountered this fellow…Victor Mooney…he recently rowed ACROSS THE ATLANTIC..in an effort to promote AIDS awareness….. Unfortunately, we didn’t know who he was when we saw him and I later saw a story about him online…Apparently, he had spent the night before near where we were anchored and endured the same storm line we had encountered in this small boat!

Some cool bridge piling paintings in New Smyrna Beach….

We later passed through Daytona Beach. I had a read a lot of bad reviews about the anchorage in Daytona Beach across from Loggerhead Marina. While I do love Loggerhead marina, it has a great pool, hot tub and restaurant/bar, I also enjoy the chance to anchor, dinghy in and save our money for things other than dockage. Many reviews made it sound as if the anchorage was filled with “liveaboards” of the criminal variety, living on derelict hulls, that would board your boat in your absence and steal anything that wasn’t nailed down. As we passed by, I looked for any suspiciously run down vessels. I only saw one boat that wasn’t in good, serviceable condition so I can only hope that the bad elements have been removed or gone elsewhere.

Day #2 was pretty uneventful aside from our encounter with Mr. Mooney and we wish him all the best in his trek Northward……..we arrived in Hammock Beach around 5PM where Neil Kaczmarek, the Harbormaster for the Marina at Hammock Beach (386-597-5030 or VHF 16/10 ) welcomed us and took great care of us, getting us a nice quiet slip near the entrance to the basin for an easy getaway in the morning.. our stay included use of the pool, hot tub, TV area, ice machine, showers and restrooms. The facilities were all very nice. They also supplied pool and bath towels, shampoo and liquid soap….cutting down on the items to be carried back and forth…always a nice touch.

We got a great deep dish pizza delivered from Mezzaluna Pizzeria (based on Neil’s recommendation) at 101 Palm Harbor Parkway, Palm Coat, FL (386)445-1004…I highly recommend it….I’ve never had a deep dish that lived up to the name as completely as the pizza from this restaurant….This will be a nice place to rent a condo for a few days and get to enjoy the other half of the resort and the surrounding area next time!!!