Underway

Writing this now while underway...
started the ICW trip just yesterday.
Using our aircard for online connection and an inverter to get juice to my laptop....boy, this tech life is a hoot.

Your boating the "Icey double-u"? What's that?

Here goes...Lesson 1

The ICW, aka The Intracoastal Waterway, is a protected inland waterway, built so that vessels don't have to travel on more exposed bodies of water (like the Atlantic Ocean). Although officially routed from MA at the Annisquam River snaking all the way down the east coast and across the Gulf to Texas -- THE PIECE THAT MOST PEOPLE REFER TO IS THE SECTION FROM NORFOLK, VIRGINIA TO MIAMI, FLORIDA.

News update -- Right now, via VHF radio, Alan is calling the North Fort Pierce Highway Bridge tender to request that he open the double bascule bridge to let us pass through. Our boat height is approx. 35 feet and the bridge's vertical clearance is 26 feet.

By starting our trip in Hobe Sound we bypassed a gaggle of low bridges but there will be some along the way. Here, the bridge tender was able to let us pass within five minutes but many bridges are on a restricted schedule -- and will only open every half hour or hour upon request and occasionally less so in rush hour traffic above, on the bridge's roadway.

So, back to the basics...we are boating north from FL towards Virginia. We have allotted four weeks for the trip, with plans to pick up our (beloved) van and boat trailer from storage by the end of April.
We could make it all the way to Norfolk if we kept on a strict schedule...but that's not the point. Let's see what the route offers...where we may stay based on choice or necessity; our moods and the weather are also important determinants.

An end note for Lesson 1...
Alan and I both like the line, "If I had an outfit, I'd be a cowboy too."
Most vocations and avocations are identified by their "outfits' -- the accoutrement, the clothes, and the language.
So...ahoy, matey... grab your boating cap and join us for this part of the journey.