One of those days...

Some days you are not meant to get out of bed. From the time you do things go wrong. This was one of those days.

The bad luck started when Andy pulled the lines off of the free dock in New Smyrna. He was having trouble, and when they finally gave way he rammed splinters up under his finger nails all the way to the cuticle! Ouch!! After much painful digging and pulling he has been unable to remove the splinters from one of his nails, and is enduring a throbbing pain hoping his body will expel them. Poor Andy!

The next bit of luck, none of it good, was that even after we called ahead to the bridge to be sure it was up and running, we still had to wait, and wait, and wait. After another hour in front of George Musson Memorial Bridge, it finally lifted and we were on our way.

Well, things usually happen in threes, so we were a little apprehensive waiting for the third bit of luck. We didn't have to wait too long. Andy accidentally turned off the "accessories" switch at the nav station while searching for his cell phone. He had engaged me in conversation while I was at the helm, so I didn't notice that the power to the auto pilot had been turned off! By the time I noticed we were firmly off course and headed for shore. I recovered fairly quickly, but on the way back on course we ran aground in 4 feet of water. Luckily we didn't hit too hard and were able to break free.

That was that. We have always said that if we had bad omens at the beginning of the day we should not proceed. We looked at "Skipper Bob" and decided to stop at Daytona Beach after only three and a half hours on the water.

We treated ourselves to a dock for the night. Break out the airconditioner Baby! Woohoo!! We got the airconditioner going, filled the water tanks, bought some ice, cleaned the decks, and went for lunch at the riverside cafe at the end of the dock.

Later in the evening Henry and I walked to the Publix and picked up a few groceries. We packed them into the bottom of his stroller and headed back just in time to meet up with Andy and grab some icecream bars. Our day definitely improved.

The moral of this story? Always call it quits when things aren't going your way. There's always tomorrow.