On the Water
Today we are spending the day with Frank and Barbara at their recently purchased home in Daytona Beach Shores. It has been explained to me that the Gulf Stream that hugs the Eastern Coast of Southern Florida, departs and heads out to the deep blue Atlantic somewhere around Jupiter, where I was a day ago. That means that the weather up here in Daytona is supposedly markedly cooler than it is down in the Palm Beach area. From eyeballing the weather app, it looks to be about a 5-6 degree difference, so not so very major right now, but enough to be noticeable. Every home I have visited in Florida this week has its own unique characteristics. There are sort of a base of similarities among one another and then they each have some sort of signature differentiator that presumably reflects the specific needs or interests of the owners. Usually, retired folks (100% of those I have visited) have only minimal familial needs for their residences, but there are those that lean towards big guest accommodations (usually for hopes of large family gatherings) and those who stick to a simple single guest room and prefer to keep guests at bay. So, the distinguishing characteristic of Frank and Barbara’s place here in Daytona Beach Shores is that it is oriented towards the water (the Intercostal) for boating and a large layout to support and prompt visitation by their three kids and extended family and friends. The northerly location 2/3 of the way up the peninsula is also driven by one son and his family who live nearby. It remains to be seen if this will become the family gathering place particularly Barbara hopes it will be.
My inventory of Florida friends goes something like this when it comes to water access:
Terry & Paula – PB Gardens – pool (being built) – non-swimming marsh (alligators?).
Kevin & Karen – Wellington – pool – pond w/o access.
Roger & Edwina – Jupiter – pool – Boat dock, kayaks, paddle boards, power hydrofoil surfboard on order – full Intercostal Waterway access but must watch out for Tiger Woods on the water nearby.
Arthur – Stuart – croquet only (please wear whites).
Andy & Betsy – Vero Beach – pool – Mangrove canal but no boat.
Frank & Barbara – Daytona Beach Shores – pool – pontoon boat – speedboat – full access on the Intercostal Waterway with only Frank’s boat-driving and abandoned boat wrecks to be cautious about.
So, the water sport trophy gets shared between Roger & Edwina and Frank & Barbara, with both having boats and water toys, but the setting of the two for purposes of expansive water views favors Frank and Barbara by the nature of their positioning on the western side of the coastal sandbar with the Intercostal off in the direction of the setting sun. Roger & Edwina are on the mainland side of the Waterway with a pleasant view and all, but a less expansive view that only goes so far as seeing Tiger’s multimillion dollar place across the Waterway. The width of the Intercostal up here in Daytona is also about five times as wide, adding to the expansive water view.
Today, Frank & Barbara wanted to take us out on the water and it was a sunny and pleasant day so all systems were go. There was a crew of boat-detailers (who knew?) working on the speedboat, so we took the pontoon boat, which is on a lift under a canopy on the end of the dock. Getting on and off boats is always a matter of care as far as I’m concerned. The boat lift has sideboards and there is a knotted rope to help with the onboarding, but it still requires a strategy for getting on without risking knee ligaments and other connective tissues. Once onboard and lowered into the water, we just backed out into the channel, which was very calm today. We headed south in the designated lane in the channel and I must say, this is not your grandmother’s pontoon boat, this baby has a 300hp engine and can move down-water quite briskly. All that and its built for comfort and picnicking. As we headed south, Barbara got a call about one of her rental houses in Vermont (she is the AirBNB Queen of the Green Mountain State). It seems it is below zero up there, making us feel very smart to be anywhere at all in Florida, and the well and sewage system of one of her houses have seized. Her local well guy is in Aruba and her property manager has said that hauling water to the house’s reservoir is unadvisable due to freezing of the lines while filling the tank. Once Barbara gets a bead on the dimension of the problem (she has guests arriving for a weekend rental tomorrow) she instructs Frank to turn back and drop her off.
I’ve known Frank for thirty years and the one thing I know about this cool cucumber of a man is that he does less well under extreme scrutiny and emergency conditions. That proved the case when we tried several times to dock the boat to the point of enabling an off-boarding by Barbara. The more Barbara signaled to go left, the more Frank drifted right. But we finally got the job done and as Barbara scurried off to play diligent landlord, we headed out with just Frank to see the northerly parts of the Daytona channel. If you are wondering if I was a tad curious if Frank was up to the task without Barbara (especially docking when we returned), you would be correct. My fears were unfounded as Frank pulled the boat into the dock on onto the lift cradle on the first try like he did it every day. That made me believe that Frank is competent at this boat captaining thing so long as Barbara is nowhere around. The most totable thing about our ride up and down the channel today was that we saw perhaps a dozen scuttled derelict boats here and there. This is not the Sargaso Sea, where old ships go to die, so I didn’t understand what they were doing on this sandbar. It seems there is a hole in the local ordinances that allows people the freedom to abandon their boats up here with no consequences.
That strikes me as funny. Barbara & Frank are politically aligned pretty much like Kim and me whereas Roger & Edwina are clearly on the side that government regulation of any kind are an abomination against individual liberty and nature in any form. And yet, up here its all do as you please about boat abandonment and down by Roger & Edwina there are strict laws that forbid such maritime littering. Up here its international salvage right rules. Down there its strong property ownerships rights. I guess when you are on the water in Florida, it matters whether you favor individual liberty or the common good. It’s good to see Roger & Edwina respect the common good.