We arrived to New Smyrna Beach in thanks to a dinner invitation from a YouTube fan. The marina had fabulous reviews, so we had booked a week at their very reasonable rates of $7.50/ft.
We figured a little downtime would be good for us after a span of chaos.
It didn’t take us long to realize we were in more dire need of down time than we thought – and – we kinda became smitten with New Smyrna Beach.
But first, the video version:
The New Smyrna City Marina is located right in the historic district on the mainland side of the ICW – a block away from Canal Street with ample dining, breweries and shopping options.
Every Saturday morning just across the street is a farmer’s market with food & produce vendors – which helps make up for the closest grocery store being about 2 miles away.
There’s multiple parks around for walking and exploring. And there’s even a 24-hour gym down the road which offers flexible short term membership passes (which we joined and thoroughly enjoyed and needed to counteract all the dining options!).
They only have 7 transient slips, which in season are booked out. One advantage to our style of travel is that we’re off-season – which means securing slips has been fairly easy last minute.
So when we went to inquire about extending our stay, we were offered an unpublished monthly rate – which didn’t take us long to jump on.
So thus, our one week stay turned to five.
And we frankly left feeling we could have extended another month and not been bored.
New Smyrna won our hearts that much.
It was a perfect place to plop down for a bit and just enjoy life.
We tackled some boat projects (because that IS life as a boat owner) – including our first solo oil change on the main engines.
We got the sound shield installed on the new generator.
We focused on work and got a lot of new guides to mobile internet published for our members.
We enjoyed downtime just wandering, exploring and dining out.
We celebrated 4th of July with a clear view of the fireworks from our deck.
We saw an amazing early morning Space-X launch from the space center lit up by a setting full moon.
My mom came up for a couple visits (after all, even though it took us 5 days to get here – we were only an hour driving distance from her place back in Melbourne).
And we made friends locally and enjoyed spending time with like minded folks for casual hanging out. And we met a number of passing through cruisers.
In other words… after nearly a year of running from one stressor to another since Hurricane Irma in the Keys, we finally achieved BALANCE!!!
It was a perfect stay, and really cemented in for us that a slower pace of travel is precisely what we crave. We bought a larger boat for a reason – to have a comfortable floating condo to explore cool coastal cities.
Great Loop Log (7/24/2018)
- Distance: 592.4 nm
- Stops: 41
- Marina Nights: 342
- Anchored Nights: 31
- Bridges : 107
- Locks: 0
Other Travel Posts in this Great Loop Travel Series:
- Florida ICW:
- Cruising the Space Coast — Melbourne to New Smyrna Beach
- Ft. Pierce to Melbourne with Mom Aboard!
- Two Months in Ft. Pierce, Florida — Causeway Cove Marina, Tackling Boat Projects & Enjoying City Life’
- Continuing North up the ICW — Boca Raton to Ft. Pierce & the MTOA Southern Rendezvous
- Leaving Miami in the Rear View — Heading North up the ICW!
- Leaving Miami and Resuming our Great Loop Cruising Season for 2018!
- Miami the Hard Way — Boat Haul Out, Repairs & Living On the Hard
- The Keys:
- South to the Keys:
- The Great Loop: South to the Keys (Part 1) — Ft. Myers to Naples
- The Great Loop: South to the Keys (Part 2) — Naples to Marco Island
- The Great Loop: South to the Keys (Part 3) — Cruising Ten Thousand Islands
- The Great Loop: South to the Keys (Part 4) — Everglades National Park — Little Shark River & Cape Sable
- Sometimes Nomads Need to Grow Some Barnacles (Two Months in Fort Myers)
- Starting the Great Loop — First Adventure: Punta Gorda, FL to Fort Myers, FL
View all our Great Loop Posts
on our Interactive Map!
Current Status
We are currently in Jacksonville after a couple of awesome stops along the way. One day we’ll get the blog caught up – but shorter stays mean more time exploring and less time to sit on our butts documenting.
We haven’t yet decided how long we’ll stay here before we continue south down the St Johns River.
We’re really looking forward to this inland side trip exploring parts of Florida that are often skipped over.
Our general goal is to find longer term storage for the boat in these parts for the winter while we return to RV life in the southwest.
And then we’ll resuming cruising north and picking back up on the Great Loop in spring time.
Chris & Cherie: John over here on the Tenn Tom in Mississippi. Always enjoy your blog. At the rate you are going and enjoying the Eastern Waterways it may be 2030 when you come thru Aberdeen, Ms.. Blow the horn and I will wave from my bed at the Nursing home. Happy travels and ventures.
FYI not nik picking but just want to inform you, that you will be going UP the St Johns River to its source if you go from Jacksonville to Sanford. It is one of the few rivers in the US that flows North. Enjoy your blog. Joe
Yes.. we know it flows north. But we’ll be heading south. So just depends by which measure you’re considering ‘up/down’. 🙂 Confusing.
Well let’s see, by my calculation you should’ve finished the great loopher at about age 70
Just in time for SSI to kick in ?
They say Jacksonville waterfront at Christmas look spectacular
But,, by all means enjoy the slow pace,,, it only goes by once .
Oh gosh.. if it takes us another 25 years to complete the Loop… hmmmm.
Looks like a perfect spot to catch up with yourselves. Looks like Florida has really grabbed hold of you guys and may never let go!
Florida has been in my heart for a long time… and with family rooted here, it’ll remain so.
Sitting still is an important part of traveling. I’m glad to see you remembering that.
Exactly… sometimes standing still is precisely the pace needed. The awesome then has time to find you 🙂
Love your videos!! I’ll never understand why someone would give them thumbs down!!
Don’t pay them any mind, you guys are awesome!
Thanks Heidi.. we guess some just like clicking down buttons. Must be their thing. Oh well, we don’t make content for them.. we make it for those who appreciate it (and for us). Thank you for taking the time to comment, means the world to us!
Hello Kids……Just really enjoy traveling with you….I’m an older (73) yr old woman who is still very active and I just love reading about your delightful and very interesting life style…..If I were a little younger…I might even consider jumping in an RV and heading south….you two are very inspiring!!
Nancy.
Aww.. thanks Nancy. We love having you virtually along for the ride! And my mom would disagree with you that 73 is older 🙂 We have so many dear friends in their 70s out there RVing.
Never a need to leave if you like where you are. And never a reason to stay if it is not to your liking. As a fellow nomad with nowhere to go and all day to get there I think you made a nice choice at New Smyrna. Looking at your great loop as well as knowing you have been on the move for 12 years, I believe that in 2030 you will complete the loop LOL
That’s what we love about being perpetual nomads. Hmmm.. maybe we need to start a betting pool on when we’ll complete the Loop 🙂
Crazy how when we started this adventure it was at first a year or two, then 3, then 5. And now a decade isn’t seeming like long enough.
Waiting for the river blogs.
I predict this will be a 7 year or more tour.
Great post this time. I do enjoy them.
Hahaha… crazy how we thought at one time we could do the Loop in a year or two. No way. Not for these slow pokes 🙂
You both seem so happy and have found your rhythm. Nice.
It feels good, for sure!
Enjoy the St John’s River. We hope to explore it on our boat someday. The last time we were in Orlando we spent our spare time visiting some spots along the river, rather than visiting the mouse.
Orlando has so much more to offer than the mouse for sure.. we’re looking forward to the trip and sharing about it.