Well, southwest-bound on the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW), anyway.  We'd planned to leave around midday yesterday - it was too cold to get excited about an early departure - in company with Greg and Maria-Luisa on Wings, the other boat that was splashed on Monday.  But Wings was having engine overheating problems, so Britt went over to see what he could do to help, and they ended up working on the engine together much of the afternoon.  (This is the way cruising is: you help others, and others help
you.  Besides, they had driven down from Maryland, where they live, and so had a car, and Maria-Luisa took me shopping twice.  So it was only fair that we help them out.)

But after they'd solved the overheating problem and started the engine up again, something else started giving them trouble, and they decided they'd better stay at the marina another day and figure things out, so we headed out alone at about a quarter to four in the afternoon.  Britt set up the lines for a quick exit, Maria-Luisa gave us a hand from the dock, and I smoothly backed out and then pulled out into the waterway.

Where I, um, promptly hit a tree.

Okay, you can stop laughing now.

What happened was: Britt had handed the autopilot control up to the cockpit through the small port behind the nav station.  I left the wheel to step forward to grab it, and honest, I figured it would be just for a few seconds, no problem, except that we were already close to the right bank of the waterway, and the wheel and rudder turned freely...right toward the bank, which in this part of the ICW is not actually a dirt bank but a cypress swamp.  I looked up to see a tree approaching at six knots,
which, okay, that's not quite seven mph, I can run faster than that, but still, when a tree is ten feet from the bow of your boat, six knots seems pretty darn fast!  I eeped and ran for the wheel just as Britt came up the companionway in order to pick the autopilot control up from the floor and hand it to me. A hard reverse to kill the speed and a yank on the wheel kept us from actually ramming anything, but I might have left a little bottom paint on an underwater root, and a couple of branches got
caught in the rigging and rained twigs all over the deck. Smirking, Britt cleaned them up, and he didn't stop making fun of me until I promised to write it up for the website, so everybody knows that I drove our boat into a tree.

We anchored relatively early in a quiet, dark creek.  This morning was clear and the sun made it feel deceptively warm, so we got moving shortly after nine.  The coastal forecast is for winds from the wrong direction for sailing, so our plan is to stay in the ICW until Charleston, at least - that's another 40 miles down the ICW from where we anchored after a long, chilly day.  After that, there are lots of inlets where we may head out to test the sails and make some miles toward warmer weather. 
I'm looking forward to taking off my down jacket and ski hat!
- posted by S/V Windom @ 3/19/2007 [link]