Goodbye Florida! Until next time.
We start our long trip up the ICW from Miami, Fl to Oriental, NC next week. A lot has been going into the planning and preparation of our trip north.
During the course of our transit, we will break in down into three different legs going from Miami to St. Augustine, St Augustine to Wrightsville Beach, NC and Wrightsville Beach, NC to Oriental, NC all with different customers teaching ASA courses along the way. We are treating these trips as true cruising / live-aboard experiences where we anchor in a new place each night, explore local towns, and navigate both the ICW and ocean-side using cruising guides and all available local knowledge we can find.
In addition to all of the dry goods and laundry that we need on board for our 1.5 month / 3 charter adventure, we also had our engine serviced, bought new spares for our engine, generator, and dinghy motors, in addition to topping of our propane tanks. With new charts, cruising guides, and other materials, we are just about all set to take off!
Join us this next month as we keep you updated with photos and videos of our journey north. Youtube Videos to hopefully follow after each leg of our trip!
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| Doing enough laundry to last for 1.5 months of cruising / 3 charters |
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| Going through all of the food provisioning and making a list of what we have and need on board |
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| Cooper helping to find a spot for everything onboard |
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| Fresh produce and last minute extras before the start of our first leg of the ICW trip |
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| At the laundry mat getting ready to take over a ton of machines! |
Barefoot
It’s our 100th blog post!! And the conclusion of our ICW trip south to Miami.
Sunday, November 08, 2015
We had a great time working our way south this past week
from St. Augustine to Miami! Our student crew on board did excellent with
navigating through the ICW channel markers and working together on our time off
shore. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, giving us an easy
going broad to beam reach the entire sail offshore to Miami.
For us, this trip was a trip of lifetime (which we hope to continue!) There is so much to see and do along the ICW from quaint seaside stores, to lovely beaches, to dinner ashore overlooking the water with live music (and amazing conch fritters) that we are very excited for our return trip in the Spring to explore even more. Its also not just about the sights (which were amazing), but about the people. While cruising the ICW you start to become familiar with the other boaters, that pass or we pass, whom are also making the trek south. Its really neat meeting new cruisers at anchorages or marinas that have already made it to their destinations from 'up north' (they tend to know all of the 'local knowledge' on the best restaurants or who has the best catch of the day).
My favorite area to sail in the ICW were when we sailed through the Carolinas - there you feel as though you are the only one around where you can see the best that nature has to offer. The way the sunlight would reflect off the channel in the early mornings to the sunset shimmering through the pine trees - it was just beautiful. Florida is beautiful too! - don't get me wrong - but after living here and sailing here for the past few years it was just "Florida." Though nothing can compare to the clear bright blue waters of Miami and the Keys - we definitely felt a wave of excitement as we rounded the bend near Key Biscayne and starting sailing though "our territory". There we were able to put all the charts down / GPS on our phones and navigate from memory. The "8ft" on the GPS no longer would give me a mini heart attack when it would jump from 24ft to 8ft in the ICW, here in Miami and the Keys 6ft - 8ft was 'normal'.
Stay tuned for one last video of our ICW trip - hopefully I will have it up by the end of this week - as we started a charter to the keys with a lovely family from New York this morning!
Today we are in full ICW cruiser mode as we explore the quaint town of Titusville, Fl! We have a mooring ball for two nights at the Titusville Municipal Marina that will give everyone on board access to a free dinghy dock, land showers, laundry facilities, friendly staff and fellow boaters, and even a lounge with cable TV.. Downtown Titusville is just a short 7 minute walk away, which includes modern conveniences like CVS, but also has an historical district with shops, restaurants, and museums. The Northern Brevard Historical Museum was unfortunately closed, as it is every Monday, so we already have an item on our must see list for the return trip next spring.
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| Historical Downtown Titusville |
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| Walking around town |
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| Practicing knots for ASA 101 |
Yesterday we were able to sail for most of the day in the ICW getting up to a sustained 7.3 knots for the day’s record high - sailing close hauled near Mosquito Lagoon. It was a great learning experience for everyone as they tried to keep the sails trimmed properly, keeping to the “high-side” or windward side of the channel and learning how leeway and weather helm will affect your navigation and steerage. They also gained experience calling bridge operators for their next available openings and learning how to use the current to hold your boat in position as you wait for the bridge to open.
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| 7.45 knots!!!!! Under full sail in the ICW! |
The past few days have been excellent traveling the ICW including sailing under many bridges of the ICW, avoiding shoals in the center of marked channels, navigating using available charts and cruising guides, calling bridges and other vessels on the radio, using sound signals to pass other vessels, and even navigate a little by dark to find the perfect anchorage. This trip has it all for practicing and learning your ASA 104-106 skills!
We even sailed into South Carolina today with a nice breeze and current that helped us along at a steady 6 knots. Look at some of our pictures below to see some of the high water / flooding we encountered in South Carolina as we go farther south down the ICW. Tomorrow we will work our way towards Georgetown, SC where we will explore the town and prep for our first day-time offshore trip. This will help us teach in depth navigation, what to look for, shifts, procedures, etc before we embark on our overnight passage from Charleston to St. Augustine finishing up our 106 course work.
