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Bahamas, Mon!

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Leaving Miami Moo Moo pointed towards Bimini, the furthest point west of the Bahamas for a twelve hour passage. The water was calm and we arrived at 1 AM in a nearby anchorage. When arriving in a new country via pleasure watercraft, it is practice to hoist a yellow flag indicating the vessel is waiting to check in. At 1:30 we hoisted a yellow pillowcase and fell asleep.   We woke up the next morning with our hull floating in clear water. They really aren’t kidding when they say the Bahamas is the clearest water you’ll ever see. Extenuated by the shallow water, the views into the ocean are remarkable. After all, the Bahamas is said to be named the Bahamas after the Spanish words “Baja mar” meaning shallow ocean. Checking in was an easy process. Nobody boarded us, and only one was required to show up to immigration — requiring a mile walk down the street. Dan brought both of our passports to the immigration office, bought us a three month cruising permit ($150), and we were good to g...
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On the Intracoastal Waterway

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We began the intracoastal waterway in Norfolk, Virginia. The harbor in Norfolk is primarily known for its naval base, being the largest in the world. As we entered the channel we saw massive aircraft carriers and other huge ships. Many of these vessels are built in Bath, Maine.  We watched the USCG helicopters fly overhead to find a boat hailing for help on channel 16 because they were sinking. This first night we anchored in a small inlet because the bridge ahead didn’t open until the next morning at 8:30AM.  We were officially on the intracoastal waterway. The intracoastal waterway is labeled with green and red channel markers. The inland side of the waterway is marked with red triangles, and the Atlantic side is marked with green squares either hosted on pilings or buoys. They look about identical to your typical markers, but they also have little yellow stickers indicating that they are indeed navigational aids for the ICW.  The rule “red right return” commonly utili...
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Adventure in Virginia: Part 2

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On Wednesday with fair weather Rachael and I navigated seven miles to the marina. We managed to get around the sandy peninsula of the Grandview nature preserve within a narrow channel marked by red and green visual aids.  The markers we were following are connected to the bottom of the ocean by either pilings or poles. Because we were going into the bay, we kept the red buoys to our right and the green to our left.  In this specific area, it was critical to stay in between the dredged channel. The water outside the channel is denoted as a “caution” area on the charts due to the water being a depth of less than one foot.  Although the water looks deep, when we accidentally went around a red pole, rather than staying contained in the channel, our depth sounder read 2.4 feet – indeed a caution area.  Dredging is essentially the process of removing silt and debris that accumulate over time due to sedimentation-the natural process of sediments washing downstream.  Co...
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