Adventure Yacht Harbor - Click for Chartview

Adventure Yacht Harbor is accessed to the east from the Waterway through a narrow channel marked with private markers beginning midway between ICW markers #58 and #60 south of Port Orange.

ADVENTURE YACHT HARBOR MILE 836 PROTECTED QUIET OLD FLORIDA RUN BY NICE FOLKS FUEL FOOD DRINK STAY OVERNITE OR MONTHS GREAT SPOT
Steve

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Marina Directory Listing For Adventure Yacht Harbor

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Adventure Yacht Harbor

Here’s a very quick look at SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET SPONSOR, New Smyrna Beach City Marina. Brief as they are, Captain Peter’s words are right on the mark!

New Smyrna Beach municipal marina is very reasonable. Great town to visit.
Peter

Click Here To View the Eastern Florida Cruisers’ Net Marina Directory Listing For New Smyrna Beach City Marina

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of New Smyrna Beach City Marina

Huge Halifax Harbor is certainly “the” place to coil your lines in Daytona Beach. Its two dockage basins are well sheltered, and the staff’s performance, in our experience, has always been exemplary.
If you want something a little quieter, with superb on-site dining, you might also consider SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET SPONSOR, Adventure Yacht Harbor, a touch farther to the south at Statute Mile 837.

Daytona Beach Municipal, Halifax Harbor, is a great place to stay. Fixed piers are more inexpensive, floating piers very nice. A well maintained facility it has 24 hr security, it is one block from Downtown with about 4 or 5 blocks of businesses, restaurants, city library, post office, 1 mi walk from the beach, easy access to the bus, and airport (2.5 mi). It’s a well protected harbor.
Roman Donald

Click Here To View the Eastern Florida Cruisers’ Net Marina Directory Listing For Halifax Harbor Marina

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Halifax Harbor Marina

Click Here To View the Eastern Florida Cruisers’ Net Marina Directory Listing For Adventure Yacht Harbor

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Adventure Yacht Harbor

AICW/Ponce de Leon Inlet Intersection - Click for Chartview

This grounding and resultant sinking occurred in the Waterway between the Inlet and New Smyrna Beach. The article does not give an exact location, but Cruisers’ Net has received reports of shoaling at Marker #18, as well as a Local Notice to Mariners warning of a shoal extending into the channel. See link below for the Navigation Alert posted in January. Note that the sinking is reported to be in the AICW, not the Inlet itself.

Cruising News:
The attached article says it all – Ponce Inlet and I might add Saint Augustine Inlet are DANGEROUS and should be approached with EXTREME CAUTION.
Perry McDonald

http://www.wesh.com/news/central-florida/volusia-county/Sailboat-runs-aground-sinks-near-New-Smyrna-Beach/-/12983450/19042972/-/axqdvyz/-/index.html

Click Here To View A Recent Local Notice to Mariners Posted for this Area

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To A “Navigation Alert” Position at AICW/Ponce Intersection

Ponce Inlet (as it is know to all the locals) intersects the AICW north of SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET SPONSOR, New Smyrna Beach Marina, near Statute Mile 839.5, with a second, southerly intersection near St. M. 843. I have sounded this passage for years, and I would personally vote for Captain Jay’s comment about this not being “the most friendly inlet,” but, as you will see, others have a different opinion.
This string was copied from the Cruisers’ Forum.

Is Ponce Inlet good? We’re heading north. We could duck in at Canaveral and up the ICW and back out at Ponce Inlet. Looks too far to daysail out of Canaveral and back in at Ponce. We draw 5′ 6″.
Thnx

Ponce isn’t the most friendly inlet. Current can run 4-plus knots. I’d only chance it at high tide, with fair weather and with local knowledge.
Dennis Jay

Well I live in New Smyrna and go out of Ponce all the time. Its a safe inlet although will get rough on an outgoing tide with E to SE winds but not normally unsafe. Hug the jettys on the north side of the inlet and follow the channel markers in/out and you will be fine.
C Skip R

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Ponce De Leon Inlet

Seven Seas Marina & Boatyard lies east-northeast of unlighted daybeacon #56, and just north of the Port Orange high-rise bridge. And 90 cents per foot is almost unheard of these days!

A nice friendly marina which is inexpensive in an expensive area. The bathrooms are nothing to write home about, the laundry works, and above average ship store, but 90 cents a foot. A good compromise.
John Pholeric

We stayed at Seven Seas Marina several times. We got stuck there a couple of years ago in bad weather and had a great time. Very nice people. We made some good friends. The beach is within easy walking distance. Publix is a bit of a haul to walk to, but if you don’t mind to walk you can do it.
Claudia Young

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Marina Directory Listing For Seven Seas Marina

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Seven Seas Marina

More food for thought on the subject of boardings. This all goes back to the story of a very unsettling boarding which took place during November of 2010 in Volusia County, Florida (see http://cruisersnet.net/?p=45038). This incident caused an uproar here on the Cruisers’ Net, and elsewhere. Captain Greer’s note below is in response to this incident.

While I agree that boarding cruising sail boats the way these law enforcement personal have done is unsettling at the least. we must remember that it is Florida, the drug running capital of the world and this is why it happens. The smugglers are skilled and trying to look like ordinary recreational vessels. Therefore, while sailing in these waters the best thing to do is always be prepared to cooperate with the authorities that are trying to make the area safe and keep illegal drugs out of our country. just food for thought. If we were boarding a boat that might be a front for drugs. knowing that these people will shoot first if possible. would we give them any warning? or would we want to secure all personal on the boat as quickly as possible? I know I know. It feels like a violation of our basic rights. but it’s their job.
Mickey Geer

And, appropriately, LOTS of other points of view from the cruising community:

If the drugs were legal, the drugs could be regulated then taxed to pay the regulators to tyrannize the drug dealers. Instead the boaters are legal and taxed to pay the regulators who tyrannize the boaters in the War On Drugs. In the immortal words of Earl Pitts…”WAKE UP AMERICA”
David Burnham

It doesn’t only ‘feel’ like a violation it IS a violation. Yet another apologist for jack booted thugs. I’m very happy I don’t live there.
Bosunj

It is not their job to violate anyone’s rights. I do not know the particulars of this situation but I am just saying that it is not their job to violate anyone’s rights. Their job is to enforce the law within the limits of the constitution. In the USA we draw lines and fences. They cannot cross the basic rights fences. It is for very good reason that we do this. I am curious, is a search warrant required to enter somone’s boat without their permission?
Edward Trzebiatowski

Click Here To View the 2010 Report That Prompted Mickey’s Comments

The South Channel departs the Ponce de Leon Inlet and intersects the Waterway at green/red marker east of red marker#18 at Statute Mile 843 near New Smyrna Beach, FL. This anchorage lies just north of the South Channel – AICW intersection. We rate it as having poor foul weather protection weather rating.
I suspect the shallow depths encountered by Captain Mason are part and parcel of the shoaling that has been taking place here for some time at the South Channel/AICW intersection. Deeper water would probably have been found a bit farther to the north, BUT you still have to bypass the unmarked shoals, and the tidal currents Captain Jason notes below are very much for real!

Tide moves too fast and there is bad shoaling. Boats go through sideways during a flow. Hit bottom 2 times with 5.8 keel, then finally got through with local help. You would be safer crossing the gulf stream with a north wind.
Skipper Jason

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Anchorage Directory Listing For South Channel Anchorage

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of South Channel Anchorage

Seven Seas Marina and Boatyard is located east-northeast of unlighted marker #56, just north of the Port Orange high-rise bridge.

Nice small operation. VERY helpfull staff! Nice and quiet. Easy access from ICW and great breakfast restaurant on site. No glitz (a good thing !!), and the price is unbeatable for around here.
Off Our Rocker

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Marina Directory Listing For Seven Seas Marina

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Seven Seas Marina

Rockhouse Creek is just north of New Smyrna Beach and northeast of Marker #12. This anchorage is not listed in our anchorage directory, but we have received other favorable reports.

Just past this point [marker #19] we enjoyed a very nice anchorage in Rockhouse Creek in 10-12 feet of water, plenty of swing room if there are not too many sailboats there.
Skipper Doug Cordello

Click Here To View An Earlier Posting on Rockhouse Creek

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Rockhouse Creek

As described in Captain Ted’s log, Adventure Yacht Harbor is accessed to the east from the Waterway through a narrow channel marked with private markers beginning midway between ICW markers #58 and #60 south of Port Orange.

It was an easy run from New Smyrna Beach to Adventure Yacht Harbor. I called Ben, Assistant Harbormaster, and told him we’d need fuel and a slip for the night. We were there soon after noon. Coming in to the fuel dock in the very narrow channel, we were met by a small runabout coming out who insisted on his right to the middle of the channel. We ran aground, again. Twice in two days. However, we backed off again as soon as the runabout had vacated the channel and continued on to the fuel dock, where Ben was waiting, but the new owner’s wife was waving frantically from the shore to warn us off. We’d been in before, and knew where the shallow water was, so we ignored her. After we refueled and registered, we took the long dock (use to be the fuel dock, apparently) where it was an easy in and out, and we were a short dock-walk away from Boondocks, where we planned to celebrate Malla’s birthday.

We had to wait for seating, but it was a pleasant evening. When they were ready for us our little beeper sounded. We were shown to a waterside table overlooking the fish-feeding area ($.25 in a coin machine for fish food for the kids) where the catfish and the seabirds hang out for their free lunch. The catfish don’t seem to be intimidated by the pelicans, and fish and bird challenge each other for what is thrown to them. We learned that pelican’s reject french fries, but the fish gobble them up. It wasn’t our french fries, BTW, but those from the next table.
Captain Ted Jones

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Marina Directory Listing For Adventure Yacht Harbor

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Adventure Yacht Harbor

Those of you who have been following the Cruisers’ Net, know there was an uproar in November of 2010, involving a boarding of a pleasure craft in Volusia County by sheriff’s deputies. Claims were made that the one of the law enforcement officers in question approached the captain below decks with a drawn weapon. That story is linked below, and we will not further comment on it here.
The incident described below is certainly less disturbing than the above referred happening, but it is troublesome nevertheless. All we can do is suggest that all cruisers proceed through Volusia County waters, ready for a boarding anytime, even when your vessel is about to pass under a bridge.

I was boarded by the Volusia County deputies on 10/27 as we were staged with several other boats waiting to go under the New Smyrna bascule bridge. We were dealing with wind and some current, and the deputies boarded us just as the bridge was about to open, so that I had to turn the helm over to my wife who took the boat under the bridge, while I escorted the officers below. I was surprised that they were not considerate enough to wait until we cleared the bridge before they approaced us, and that certainly added to the tenseness of the situation.
I showed the officer my diverter valve which was correctly valved to the holding tank, but cannot be secured because of extremely poor access. The officer agreed that it would be almost impossible to secure the valve with a lock or wire tie, but said that was not his problem. I explained that I had records of having pumped out the previous day and 4 times in the previous four weeks. He issued me a $250 citation.
The officer stated ” I spend three months in the spring and three months if the fall doing nothing but stopping boats going north or south”. I concluded that Volusia County is operating a “toilet trap” that is just like a speed trap, and that their primary interest is to raise revenue rather than to insure the cleanliness of the waters. It seems that this law has given them the perfect tool to generate funds for their raises and toys, while getting to spend their days boating, rather than doing the unpleasant work of serious crime prevention.
My take on the requirement for permission to board is that a boat is just like ones home on land. Boarding the deck is not an invasion of privacy, and if all crew members are on deck, it is not unreasonable to require all to stay on deck until the officer is escourted below.
However, a crew member below could be sleeping, undressed, showering, or adding to the holding tank contents. That person must be allowed to prepare for visitors and then grant permission for entry. If an officer violates this, he is guilty of invasion of privacy and should be subject to disciplinary action or worse.
A written policy should be published for dealing with this, so that all can understand their rights and limitations.
I was able to petition the judge with my pump out records and photos of my diverter valve compartment showing the access problem and the fine was lowered from $250 to $100. I am installing a lock on the compartment door to hopefully achieve compliance with the securing requirement. I must say that this requirement does little to prevent overboard discharge, since the captain and unlock and operate the valve at will (but then logic has never been a requirement for government regulations).
William Lackey
SV Jezabel

And, comments from fellow cruisers on the above incident:

As some folks are FINALLY beginning to realize….
THE LAND OF THE FREE….ISN’T.
William

I hate to sound unsympathetic here because I am not.
The premises and policies behind these laws are often flawed and contain a considerable animus toward toward boaters, especially those who do not vote in Florida and who have a long history of abusing Florida’s welcome both with public nuisance, sewage discharge and attempted tax evasion.
In many cases these local laws are the current cruising community reaping what decades of abuse by the prior community has sewn. These laws (if they should be changed) will not be changed soon. They are constitutional (not talking about anchoring here), they are tested, and they are proportional to the offense. I doubt if they are money raisers given what it costs to police and adjudicate them.
Before we cruise, we spend as much time on the relevant laws of the jurisdictions we are going to transit as we do the charts [well almost].
I would ask, had one been stopped by a highway trooper for improperly towing a dangerous load*, would difficulty in attaching legally required safety chains have been a sufficient defense. I think not.
We have a responsibility to fully honor the spirit, intent, and letter of the laws of those whose commons we share. If we, as a class, continue to seek special dispensation, we may well get it, but it won’t be the kind we were hoping for.
*having been seriously sickened by sewage during a pump out incident, I certainly consider it dangerous
Chris

Click Here To View the Article About An Earlier Volusia County Boarding

This bascule bridge crosses the AICW in Haulover Canal at statute mile 869.

Just a note to say that on Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend we could not raise the bridge tender on Ch 09, but (s)he opened for us on the one long/one short signal in perfect time to our speed. A little nerve racking for a moment, but just a tip in case you can’t make voice contact.
Captain Leigh Hough

Click Here To View the Cruisers’ Net’s Eastern Florida Bridge Directory Listing For Allenhurst Haulover Bridge

Click Here To Open A Chart View Window, Zoomed To the Location of Allenhurst Haulover Bridge