And we're off!

3.6.10

We left bright and early this morning amid the fog and the frost, bundled up to the nines since it was only 40 degrees. We had decided to motor down the ICW until we got to Melbourne, hoping that we would be able to spot any issues with our boat and learn to navigate before hitting the open ocean. It was smooth "sailing" until St. Augustine where my trusty navigator (brad!) lead me straight into a shoal (sandbar)! It was our first encounter with being stuck, but we successfully maneuvered out within a few minutes and got back on course. No worries, a few miles down the ICW, I also directed Brad into a shoal which we had to maneuver off. Obviously we were off to a great start with our expert navigation skills....!!
After traveling for 7 hours, we decided we should attempt to anchor for the evening - leaving plenty of daylight in case we couldn't anchor successfully. After 3 tries and 1 hour, we were anchored in a somewhat precarious spot. We had a delicious dinner of steak and potatoes, cooked our new grill (compliments of my wonderful parents!) but decided that since we were unsure about how well our anchor was in, one of us should get up every few hours to check and make sure we were in the right spot. Well, I drew the short straw....
Everything was going well until about 10pm. I took Koa out for his evening pee and noticed a large ferry heading our way. I wasn't too concerned since we were outside the channel, but as I watched I realized he was on a straight collision course with our boat and showing no sign of stopping!! I glanced up at the top of our mast to make sure our anchor light was on so that he could see us - and it had gone out!! I started furiously flashing my flashlight towards him and he swerved at the last minute, barely missing our stern. He turned his floodlight on us for a full minute (probably a boater's way of saying screw you!!).
I figured out that our batteries had died a bit before that, so I had to jerry-rig a flashlight to shine up our mast so that other boaters would know we were there.
Thank goodness the rest of the evening was uneventful, except for my lack of sleep as I imagined other boats on a similar collision course with our little boat!