While, we are now in Conway, SC, mile 377.3 on the ICW, at the Bucksport Plantation Marina (definitely not as nice as it sounds, but it is cheap) and getting ready to leave the boat for a week while we go home for the wedding. We have rented a car and will leave on Sunday bright and early to drive for over 3 1/2 hours to Raleigh, NC to fly home, so this will be the last blog before we return again at the end of November.

We have been travelling everyday as we wanted to get as far South as possible before leaving again. Travelling down the ICW has probably been the most interesting (for lack of a better word) part of this trip. For my none boating friends, the ICW is basically a dredged channel that runs down the eastern coast of the United States that gives boaters the option of staying in calmer waters, or going out into the Atlantic Ocean. This part of the ICW runs from Norfolk, Virginia (mile one) to Key West Florida (mile 1243. ) We are planning on going to Marathon, mile 1195, so we still have a way to go! It is very shallow in parts, especially where there are inlets from the Atlantic, due to shoaling. It also has a ton of bridges to go under, some that we can pass under, and some that have to be opened in order for us to pass. Everyday we must plan our trip around the opening schedules of the bridges that need to be opened. Some only open once an hour, some twice an hour, and some will not open in strong winds. There can also be current in the ICW and we never really know how fast we will be going as sometimes we will have a current with us and be doing 8 knots and sometimes it will be against us and we will only be doing 5 to 6 knots. There are also buoys that have to be spotted, keeping the greens to port and the reds to starboard and then there are the buoys that are subject to shoaling that you must read about in our Skipper Bob book and follow his advice as to how to get safely around them in the deepest water. Everyday, we spot boats that have gone aground and must call a tow service to get them off the bottom. So far we have been lucky enough not to have used their services, yet! We have been on bottom twice but have managed to get off on our own and have touched bottom a couple of times too. We have met one couple that have a deeper draft boat who seem to be grounded at least once a day. It is getting to be quite comical. The scenery has also been a lot different. The houses along the ICW are beautiful with amazing landscaping and huge docks. There are always large power boats calling you on the radio asking you if they can give you a slow pass to you port or starboard. With all of this activity, each day passes quite quickly. We have been trying to start out each day between 0630 and 0700 so that we can get to an anchorage by about 1500 as they become quite crowded if you wait too long and you don't want to be having to find another anchorage too late in the day as it gets dark not long after 5 p.m. Bruce and I have been going to bed earlier and earlier each night. We can now hardly make it to 9 p.m. (are we getting old or what!)

To keep things short and sweet (for my brother-in-law John), we left Beauford, NC and our friends on the Mary T, and went and anchored in Hammock Bay, Wrightsville Beach, then onto Little River and once again anchored, in what was probably one of our tightest anchorages since we left home, and then onto Bucksport, SC. Looking forward to a few days off at home in Mississauga. We just received a call from the Mary T and they will be here tomorrow and also from Northern Reach, At Last and Steve and Shirley and all three Canadian boats will also be here by tomorrow. Looks like our car will be busy taking people to the grocery store!!