June 16, 2014 ICW routine

This morning as Dave brought up the anchor, he found 2 starfish and 2 crabs on the anchor.  They were all about 3 inches in diameter.  But the crabs were poised and ready to defend themselves.  Of course, he didn't have a camera on him. 

We are establishing a good routine when we are ready to leave an anchorage.  We fill liter bottles with water, and now I have been adding some lime juice, since we have them on board.  We replenish a snack bag with nuts, dried fruit, cheese and crackers. (That's more critical when you are in rough waters and don't want to be below deck for very long.  On nicer days, I usually make a lunch of sandwiches, raw veggies and chips. ) Dave goes to the bow to bring up the anchor.  I remove our bug screens and close the hatches.  I also close the through hulls and turn off the fresh water.  If there was a water leak while we were underway, the water pump would run.  And once the water tank was drained, the pump could burn out.  We probably wouldn't hear the pump running while the boat engine was running.  So as a precaution, we turn it the fresh water.  And actually, we should get in the habit of doing that if we are going to leave the boat for several hours. 

We take the water, snacks, binoculars, and now we take fly swatters all to the cockpit.  We also turn on the instruments, VHF, and sometimes the autopilot.  Some days I load up the CD player and we have music through out the day.  Seems to make the day go faster. 

All this takes about 10 minutes.  Then when I am at the helm, we bring up the anchor and I get us back on the route.  Then Dave usually takes the helm for the first watch.  I text Jackie and Brian, our float planners, to let them know we are leaving and where we are headed and when we expect to be there.  Then I text them when we arrive.  So far, so good.  They haven't had to call the Coast Guard to find us yet.  Over the past week, we added applying insect repellent to our ankles and feet.  We get huge horse flies that want to bite our ankles.  Why is that anyway?

Today was an uneventful day on the ICW.  We did use an alternate route in one spot to avoid a shallow stretch because it was about an hour before low tide.  Again, the Active Captain app gave us the suggestion of using the alternate route. 

We anchored west of Watts Cut which we would go through in the morning at high tide.  We went past it tonight at low tide and it looked pretty shallow.  Officially we were at Edisto Island, SC

the view of Watts cut at low tide. not sure we'd make it through