Down 'the Ditch'

Brand new morning. Full of so many possibilities. 

This was back in November, a few days before we spun the prop. We were so optimistic and excited and not worn out from travel. 

We've done the ICW and survived. I will never do that again. Neither will Hubs. We have both decided that if that is the only option we sell the boat and rent a car to drive home. 

It was nutzo! There were beautiful moments, cutting through to mosquito lagoon for example. 

The water was like glass, not a cloud in the sky, and dolphin (plus a few manatee) frolicking in the water. But, for the most part the ICW was just plain stressful. 

After we got past the prop debacle we had a couple of smoothish days. Up early, sail/motor for 8-9 hours, finally anchor for the night.  Then we opened 17 bridges in one day. Just a piece of advice~ don't do that. It's too much. Plus we have the slowest boat EVER. I'm sure there are lots of contributing factors- but the fact remains, Airabess is soooo slow. Like 7 knots max on a REALLY good day. So we would finally  get through one bridge which we had to idle in front of for 27 minutes because we missed the half hour opening... Because we were slow. Viscous cycle that was. We would gun it only to miss it by like 2 minutes. Or, we would take it at a steady pace and miss it by 5. 

After the last bridge (the only be we actually made) on the first 17 bridge day (we had another 17 the next), we had what Hubs thought was a 'transmission' issue. A lot of things happened simultaneously right before we went under the bridge- a weird kind of big sideways wake while going full speed (trying of course to make the opening) and then the out leg cavitated.  Though we didn't know that's what happened at the time. We thought it was the transmission. We thought we were going to have to be hauled out. I was going to get in a car and drive my butt home. 

That was probably the lowest point for me. The winds were howling, our anchorage sucked, the anchor wasn't doing what it was supposed to, I was exhausted, and tomorrow we were going to have to be hauled out. I went to sleep with my kid comforting me. Like I said, my low point. 

But finally a respite.  We woke up and everything was running the way it was supposed too. 

17 more bridges to go- oh and and we crashed the Ft. Lauderdale boat parade...