A group of factors have
come together at the same time that led us to the decision to return home for
this year. In part we have already done
several months on the boat and realized that we wanted to have some time to
accomplish some other things during this next six to twelve months. Another factor has been the weather patterns
this fall which have made it challenging to find a sufficiently long period of
advantageous weather to go around the shoals and shallow water of the ICW in
South Carolina and Georga by going out on the open ocean. Strong winds out of the north week after
week without sufficient time for the larger seas to calm down between systems
made it clear that we could spend many days or even weeks waiting to find a
weather window to comfortably sail down the coast “outside”. Our 6.5’ draft is about a foot and a half
deeper than is optimal for the ICW shoaling depths between North Carolina and the
Florida border. This 18” difference in
how much water we need under our keel can literally be the difference between
getting a desired number of progress miles per day as we would constantly have
to time our passage past a shallow place while having to wait for high tide to
make the next few miles.
Another factor that came up
after we arrived in South Carolina was the unexpected news that our insurance
carrier made a recent (as in the past two or three weeks) decision to refuse to
provide any insurance for the Bahamas for any vessel over thirty years of age. Alternate insurance providers that we
investigated were very (!) expensive and would require us to pull the boat out
of the water and have a professional survey conducted (expensive) which would
still not necessarily guarantee coverage for Justice. There were other factors as well but ultimately,
we decided together that we had done enough cruising on Justice for this year
and that we wanted to accomplish some other things this winter as well.
We are really happy with
having made it this far and have a far more in-depth understanding what is
involved with “doing the ditch”. It really involves a lot of patience, weather forecasting
and good seamanship. We enjoyed each day. This trip has given us many stories
along with sympathy and excitement for hundreds of ICW snowbirds.
It seems easy to retrace
our steps but the same care will be taken as on the way north at 5 – 7 knots.
The weather is colder but we are cozy in our cockpit enclosure. We are surprised
to see so many boaters without one, surviving fine all bundled up for the rain
and wind. There is still a steady stream of boaters coming down, picking their
days to hop between stops.
Today we are back at
Coinjock (Mile Marker 50). Next stop Norfolk, then a few more days to get up
the Chesapeake Bay.
Morning coffee in hand, I watched a splendid ketch approaching Delaware City Marina. I called Linda to watch the skipper so deftly turn the boat in the narrow canal. The boat and handling were so impressive that I had to look them up--and found this Justice blog! Welcome home from the Ditch and North Atlantic, Skipper and Mate! There's a lot going on here in Delaware City. You won't be bored this winter.
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