We are on the way!

 On Saturday, Feb. 25, we left our marina in Merritt Island, Fl and headed for the Bahamas.  We were lucky enough to find two other boats who were going, one of which has gone 7 times before so we asked to tag along hoping to benefit from their knowledge.

The first day we sailed on the ICW or Intercoastal Waterway (also known as the Ditch).  Many people travel on this because it doesn't have the chop of the ocean and there are multiple anchorages.  The downside of traveling on it is the depth constantly changes and it is often very busy with motorized boats and there are lots of bridges to pass under.

 Some of the bridges are fixed and some are draw bridges which you must hail on the VHF radio and ask for the bridge to be raised.  Each bridge has different schedules, which you can find on an app, but some only open once every hour or half hour

Our mast is 63' above the water line and the fixed bridges on the ICW are supposed to be 65 ft. but if the water level is up there may be less clearance than that so you approach the bridges very slowly.  As a result of all these obstacles we motored our boat all day because sailing doesn't give you enough control of the boat.  Haha!  No brakes on boats.

Cindy at the helm!

  

There are some amazing homes along the ICW.  Probably pretty spendy.

Our buddy boat going under the bridge.  His mast is 11' shorter than ours.

This is the gauge that we watched constantly for 10 hours to make sure it was deep enough.  Our keel is 5 ft. deep so we have to be in water at least 6 ft.  The SOG is speed over ground and is calculated in knots which are close to miles per hour.  So we traveled 55 miles the first day.

David taking a little break. 

On Sunday we are heading out into the ocean.  We will sail from Vero Beach, FL to West Palm Beach and then anchor overnight.  Stay tuned for more on the Sunday sail.