The ICW to St. Augustine

5-14-07 Monday
Here we are in St. Augustine, in a marina where we can stay a month if we want. The trip up the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) was a trip! Travelling in a narrow channel of water that is from 10 - 14' deep keeps you on your toes. Our keel goes down 6 feet, so if we get careless and wander out of the channel for an instant, oops! Stuck in the mud. There are markers (colored signs on posts) sticking out of the mud on either side of the channel, so all we need to do is stay between the posts, except that they can be more than a mile apart. Fortunately, we have electronic navigation and can see the channel on the electronic chart. There are two dashed lines that show the edges of the channel and a single dashed line down the middle. So, I put the little electronic boat on the centerline and keep it there. Mostly, we have to temper that with a little judgement by looking out at the real world, but the second morning of the journey, we had just pulled up the anchor in New Smyrna Beach and started through some winding channels. Suddenly, a dense fog descended and we couldn't see the markers at all. So, going very slowly, we just put the electonic boat in the middle of the electronic channel and kept it there. Finally the sun came out and we were able to speed up. But there is no time to not pay attention. I steer with the autopilot and electronic charts down below and Andi stays on deck to watch all around us. Fortunately, we didn't go aground.
But the bridges! There are two kinds of bridge over the ICW, fixed bridges with 65' of vertical clearance (the top of our mast is 60') and opening bridges. The fixed bridges are nerveracking at first because it never looks like the mast will fit under them and you are sure that there is going to be a horrible crunch. But it fits. The other kind of bridge requires that you call the bridge tender on the radio and request an opening. Mostly they do that just as you arrive and you hardly loose any time at all. But some of the bridges are restricted so as to not cause traffic jams. Those bridges mean that you have to drift or go in circles until the next scheduled opening. We are in a marina next to the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine and it only opens on the hour and half-hour.
Here is one of our first bridges, a bascule (lift) bridge.
And here is a swing bridge, the roadway revolves around a pedestal. These are rare.



Do you think it will touch? We finally got used to it.
In the fog in New Smyrna Beach, this egret stood out. (Double-click to enlarge)
There are many beautiful estuaries that can be explored by dinghy, but not by the big boat.



It was an adventure. It's good to be here. Our cellphone works again because we are in the US, so you can call us any time you want. We're going to find some flamenco gigs in the next few days and start on some boat projects. I'll put up some more St. Augustine pixs soon.