Lessons Learned in Atlantic ICW

On Monday, March 27 we started our official trip up the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) As we were quickly in the middle of all sorts of boat traffic, we learned many new things about bridge etiquette. Around Miami, there are varying heights of bridges and most need to be opened for us (we are 19.5' with the mast down.) Our first birdge, we sat patiently waitng for about 20 minutes, knowing that it opened on the half hour, well it didn't, so David called. The scarcastic operator said, "You didn't ask so I didn't assume you wanted to go thru." That was lesson #1. Lesson #2 Bridges are not well marked so double check the name because some have East/ West names added like the Venetian. Lesson #3 Unless you get the timing right, like on the half hours or quarter hour, you will have to wait for the bridge opening. Lesson #4 Treat the Bridge operator with courtesy when communicating, they can be real sassy and everyone hears what they are saying on channel 9.

Despite the bridges, we saw some amazing homes and David enjoyed the trip for the most part till docking at Bahai Mar, Ft. Lauderdale. While attempting to dock stern in, with wind, he tried a few times. On his forward thrust, he yelled that his transmission failed and he lost contol of both engines. We were in the last pier (the low rent district) and the only thing that stopped us was the dock sea wall that our bow came up on. The wooden mooring poles also took a few hits, and the harbormaster was quick on the scene to help secure our boat. Good ole Towboat USA came and put Voyager into her slip. David was so calm during the event, I was pretty shaken up so I left with Rugby. When I came back, David was working on the lines on the dock when I heard him yelling. "Oh SHIT!" (He doesn't curse like that usually!) I came out and he had just been sprayed by the nasty sailboat neighbor whose toliet pumped out onto the dock ~ and David's leg which had some deeps scrapes! I think this upset him way more than the docking incident! Luckily, it came to David what went wrong with the transmission, the cables had come loose on the gears. He repaired the damaged gear and tightened and oil the rest of the throttles. The Bahia Mar Hilton has a wonderful pool so it was in order after Monday's fun day, to stay and enjoy it.