Trip Reflections

Withdrawal
After six weeks of scrutinizing the weather forecast, checking tides and currents, calculating travel distances based on speed, contacting marinas for reservations, watching fuel consumption and attending to boat maintenance, I am going through a bit of withdrawal not having to think ahead about those details. Not to mention the constant checking of facebook posts regarding inlet conditions, shoaling problems and the latest reports on the ICW conditions. Even though we kept a moderate pace versus a speed run, there is a certain amount of anxiety associated with the trek. My mind will have to adapt and go back to the regular day-to-day concerns. It may take a couple of days to get back to normal.

The Boat
Along this trip, we saw every manner of boat, large, small, sail, power, fast, slow, new, old, well-maintained, not-so-well-maintained, etc. It showed us that a trip on the ICW does not absolutely require a certain type of boat and there are definitely many types of boaters out on the water. Encore did her job and handled the trip very well. I am a bit amazed that she is showing so little wear and tear after so many miles and weeks of continuous use. The anchor windlass broke our first night out, we had to trade out the starboard props at one point and we had the port engine fuel leak in Fort Lauderdale, but other than those issues there were no huge problems. These were all repaired and caused no great delays, just some changes in itinerary.

Other than the spare set of props, the many spare pumps, sensors, solenoids, repair and safety items went unused. We didn't even need the first aid kit except for very minor things. I'm glad we had these items and not need them rather than the other way around. I didn't have the spare part that was needed for the windlass. I ordered that at the end of October and finally received the part at the end of December. Apparently there were numerous parts issues due to the pandemic.

All of the other boat systems, electronics and appliances are continuing to work well.

People and Places
The pandemic changed everyone's way of doing things while cruising, but the negative impacts were not severe. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people along the way. Not only other boaters, but marina staff as well. Most everyone kept their distance and respected social distancing guidelines.

Dockhands and marina management were always accommodating and focused on making your stay enjoyable. There were a few places that we stopped multiple times and we got to know the dockhands and staff. At the Fort Pierce City Marina, Kenny knew that we liked a floating dock. When we stopped to get fuel before going to the slip, he would call the office and locate a floating dock for us...........without us asking. At Cocoa Village Marina, Ken the manager saw us coming from a distance, recognized the boat and hailed us on the radio before we could hail him. Ro at Palm Coast knew we like the floating dock next to the office and put us there when we returned. All the folks at Palm Cove in Jacksonville took care of us for our extended stay there. It was a busy marina with many regulars, but they never made us feel like we were a bother. We really like the fact that many if not most marinas offered free pump out service. I wish more of the marinas in the Chesapeake Bay would offer this.

I was concerned about getting the boat serviced in Florida, especially the unique servicing required on the IPS pods. This turned out to be a non-issue as the local authorized service provider was outstanding. Nelson Fordham of Fordham Marine Services in Jacksonville was immediately responsive and stopped by the boat to take a look at the pre-existing problem with the starboard pod. He diagnosed this issue that had not been resolved by other techs over a two year period and took care of it when he completed the oil change service. He also set up a time with the Isle of Palms service guys attached to Palm Cove Marina to haul the boat for the pod service. He completed that in late January after our two-week cruise and also replaced the damaged props with the spares. He sent the damaged props out to be repaired and returned them back to us when completed. I was very relieved that there was such a competent service technician in the Jacksonville area. If we go south again, I will plan a stop in Jacksonville and arrange for Nelson to handle the service while we are there.

Long distance cruisers are a great group of people. We enjoyed getting to know so many of them and trading various "war stories" and experiences. It was also good to share weather updates, travel plans and local knowledge. On our trip south, we joined a caravan out of Jekyll Island to take an alternate route since Saint Andrew Sound had a tricky route and the water conditions were going to be a little rough. We were very grateful to be allowed to join them and appreciated the path they had planned out. They showed up at Palm Cove a few days later and we were able to thank them in person. Meeting up with familiar boats was a constant theme along the trip. There were a few occasions where we were with the same boat(s) in different towns for multiple nights in a row. Many of the boaters, including us, have boat cards. It is a great way to keep track of the cruising boaters that you meet along the way. I keep them in alphabetical order by boat name in case we come across them in the future. Everyone was very eager to help you cast off the dock in the morning if necessary and boaters tend to wave at each other as they pass on the water. I think it is a sort of kindred spirit relationship where boaters acknowledge the chills and thrills of the activity with each other. One particular hardy group of cruisers are the "loopers." These are the boaters that are on a long-term trek to travel "The Great Loop." The trip will take them up the ICW to the Hudson River, through the Erie Canal, into the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico and back around Florida. Many live aboard their boat and don't have a "dirt home." I admire their spirit and attitude about the trip. Some were on their second or third time around. They were definitely the "old salts" that had a wealth of information about the waterway. We learned a lot about the waterway from these regular ICW cruisers

Finally - The ICW Itself
The ICW is a bit of conundrum. There are absolutely naturally beautiful and tranquil spots along the waterway, but there are also some scary spots. There are areas, especially the sounds, that may be wonderful on one day and completely treacherous on the next. This is the main reason to constantly watch the weather and the tides. There are places you can make great time if you have a fast both (like ours), and then there are many congested sections where you cannot go any faster than no-wake speed. This could be due to traffic, houses and docks on the shores, marinas, small fishing boats, working dredges, shallow depths and shoaling. These areas were frustrating and usually not enjoyable. There were some beautiful homes along the way, but how many multi-million dollar homes do you really need to see? There were times that the local boaters were a bit obnoxious and did not conform to good boating (safe) etiquette. Despite the lack of scenery, our ocean passages were generally more enjoyable and time efficient. We didn't have to worry about depths or traffic. We set the speed and auto pilot, and away we went. Our Saturday trip outside from Lake Worth Inlet to Fort Pierce was pretty rough with waves coming over the top of the boat. It was not predicted in all of the sources I checked. It was a tough passage, but on the positive side, we avoided the ICW through Jupiter that had been utter chaos with local boaters and spring breakers when we went through just a few days before. We still haven't decided if was worse to put up with the foul ocean conditions or the ICW chaos.

We had hoped to anchor out more often on the trip, but didn't have confidence in our ground tackle (anchor, chain and rode) to handle the strong currents and big tide swings. Our marina stays were pretty much worry-free and we had access to all the services and amenities. We caught a mooring ball twice, once in Titusville and the other in Carolina Beach. Both of those experiences worked out just fine and we felt very secure.

There are many nice towns and marinas along the ICW. Some large, like Charleston and Fort Lauderdale, and other small like Marineland and Belhaven. Each had it's own personality, charm and attractions. There are a few that are our favorites, and we would definitely stop in on a return trip.

We are doing a lot of evaluating regarding the future. This includes both the type of boat that would work best and what our cruising goals are. We definitely want to get to the Bahamas and the Keys at some point in the future, but we don't really want to do slow trips down the ICW to get to the departure locations in Florida. The scenery was very nice, but we are not the type of people that do the same things repetitively. Once is enough in most cases. We like doing the ocean runs in nice conditions. A fast boat makes that very convenient, but we also need fuel, water and black water capacities, as well as good ground tackle for longer periods away from marinas. We have seen why regular ICW travelers gravitate toward trawlers. Many are very seaworthy, have redundant and safe systems, and are good for distance, but much slower than our boat. We like having the option to go faster. All boats are a compromise of some sort, including cost, and finding the perfect boat for us will be the challenge. Martha would like to make trips north including the Hudson River and perhaps Long Island, Cape Cod and Newport. We have no familiarity with those areas and need to investigate what boat might be best for those conditions.

This trip was a great learning experience and gives us baseline data for our future boat plans. We'll have to see what opportunities come along. For now, we are excited to start "boating season" on the Chesapeake Bay...................... as if the last six weeks on the boat wasn't enough.