We are on our first leg of our journey South through the ICW - week one, of four. We picked up our lovely charter guest couple /ASA students in Oriental, NC at River Dunes Marina. As we head south, we will be teaching basic and advanced sailing techniques along the way. We are very excited about this trip as it is the first time we will be doing it entirely together - we have each sailed portions of it, either solo or on a delivery team full of captains. We hope to start a trend of us doing advanced off shore / ICW trips two times a year as we bring our boat Barefoot back and forth between North Carolina and Miami.

S/V Barefoot almost ready for her adventure south!

S/V Barefoot Salon all Charter Ready

S/V Barefoot Galley View

S/V Barefoot Cockpit

Yesterday we left River Dunes around 1400 and made it to our anchorage just past 1630. With west winds guesting up past 20 knots all morning, we decided to take the time and wait for calmer winds (waves from the Neuse River) that were expected to switch by evening. For our first anchorage of the trip we found a cute anchorage just off of Adams Creek, at the start of Cedar Creek to spend the night. It had amazing views of the sunset as we grilled dinner topside.

Cedar Creek

The place had great holding in the stickiest of mud you could possibly imagine - it made for a great mess when we hauled it up this morning at 0630. Our goal each day on the first half our ICW trip is to get underway early at first light, have coffee and breakfast underway so we can reach our destinations in plenty of time to claim an anchorage spot. We also want  to make at least 50 nautical miles per day so we end up at our half way point in time - St. Augustine by the 23rd of October. If we have a day or two where we can't quite make our destination - whether because of weather, lack of available anchorages, or draw bridge time coordination - we can always make up the distance when we head off shore.  Once in St. Augustine we will pick up a new charter and work our way down to Miami doing more advanced ASA courses both on the ICW and offshore. As we head south we will be checking out quaint towns and exploring the beautiful sights that the ICW has to offer.

Motor Sailing down the ICW

Swansboro

We are anchored tonight just off of Swansboro, NC. We found this anchorage through a drill / practice problem we completed on board last night using Skipper Bob's Anchorages Cruising Guide, our ICW waterway Guide, and our navigational charts. Throughout this trip we will have our students work up to being able to trip plan and navigate successfully offshore. Our goal is to head off shore for the weekend to hopefully avoid the crowded anchorages and ICW traffic we expect to encounter.