Two to One

Since I left off, we have been traveling south in the Intracoastal Waterway. We have averaged about 60 miles per day, stopping to anchor about mid afternoon. Our days have been spent navigating the markers and bridges and trying to keep our keel off the bottom. Actually the score is now two for Lynn and one for me…that’s times we have run aground. Lynn did “kiss” the bottom one other time so I guess he should get 2.5. Lucky for us our trusty boat and always-calm captain triumphantly managed to push our way off each time, with the help of the 135 horses in the engine. But these are definitely moments of rather high stress that I really don’t enjoy. We have also passed the time playing cribbage and 20 Questions (which never ceases to amaze me!) We are usually pretty exhausted when we reach our daily destination and eat an early dinner then hit the sack after an unsuccessful attempt at watching a movie…it took three nights to get through Pirates of the Caribbean because we kept dozing off!

The weather has been absolutely perfect after the horrendous night in the Bay. It has become steadily warmer and we have been slowly shedding our winter duds. I was even in a sleeveless shirt for a short time today. The scenery is very serene and if not for the stress of avoiding running aground, we would be totally relaxed. We have had a number of exciting wildlife sightings, most outstanding of which are the dolphins (porpoises? I never know the difference) that have been playing and racing with our boat. Something I have heard they will do but have never experienced. It was really exhilarating to see…the picture don’t do it justice. Other sightings, in order of excitement caused, are a bald eagle, pelicans, herons, egrets, cormorants, anahingas (sp?), an american coot and several other unidentified water fowl (sorry Dad!)

Today was another uneventful day until we decided to follow a barge out an inlet to the ocean to try to buy back some time lost waiting for a broken swing bridge to be fixed. The barge drew 7 feet (which means it needs more the 7 feet of water below it) so we figured it would be safe to follow since we draw 5.5 feet. Wrong!! As we followed the Evelyn Doris, she hit the ground hard and got severely stuck just as they were making the turn to head out to open water. Lynn had time to quickly back off and we opted to follow Chuck and Dale out instead. They did a masterful job and we made our way easily out to the ocean. It was very exciting to venture out to open water and it definitely felt great to stop worrying about 7 foot water depths.

It’s now about 8 PM and darkness has fallen. I must admit it is a little unnerving travelling in the dark. Like Dale says, it feels like driving with a blindfold on. The GPS says we have 15 hours of cruising at this speed to reach our next destination of Charleston, where we will pick up David (Lynn’s brother) and his wife Gini. We will then head back out to the ocean for another hour leg to Florida. But the conditions are perfect for being out here so we are making the best of it. It will be nice to have extra hands at the helm to spell us off duty. But, for now I am on watch as Lynn alternately dozes and munches on pretzels. I have an eagle eye on the radar while I type this blog. I love my life, I love my husband and I love my boat.