Pushing on from Great Bridge

As planed the night before, we get up early to shove off to make the first opening of the next bridge that only opens on the half hour. We wipe the dew from the windows, start the engine, untie us from the dock and push the boat straight out so we have room to maneuver from our tight spot at the dock. The sun is peaking through the trees and a fog is over the canal. We travel at idle speed with the radar on and the fog clears a short way down...luck is with us, the bridge is open and will be all day; we are ahead of schedule. Further down our timing is perfect for the next bridge opening as we move along the canal and river with other boats.

This is the season for cruisers going south. There

The line of boats heading south

are about 8-10 power boats passing us each day. No one seems to be going North...why would they? The free docks are full and we are anchoring with 20 other boats each night...some new, some the same boats we saw the night before. We move in packs playing follow the leader. The red arrows on the image of our chart plotter shows only the boats that are equipped with AIS. We are the black arrow near the bottom of the image. Most boats do not have AIS so they don't show on the chart plotter. This image is of an 11 mile stretch of water.

AIS equipped ships on the chartplotter

Along the ICW, we will sometimes cross great expanses of water following the red and green marks for 10's of miles. We are motoring, not sailing, although once in a while we get to pull out our sail to help push us along. We must concentrate on many things (our chartplotter, paper charts, our speed, the water depth, upcoming bridges, obstructions identified on the charts, the buoys, the wind and weather, where to stop for the night, fuel level, engine temperature, floating debris). The ICW is typically dredged to 100' wide and 11' deep. When crossing the larger bodies of water, there is only 3' of water on either side. By the end of a 7 hour day of driving the boat, you're ready for a glass of water and early to bed.

Today was good so we kept pushing on passing possible anchorages for the night...we are 50 miles warmer after today! We anchored in amongst the crab pots just outside Broad Creek.