Day 3 on the ICW (Virginia Cut).

The early bird gets the worm ? Early to bed and early to rise ? Either way we were up at first light and raised our anchor, swatted away the flies and mosquitos and enjoyed our first cup of java on the run !



Why so early ? Well, I think Dave was seriously running from the vampiric blood-suckers !!

The Alligator River Bridgekeeper swung open the bridge on request



and off we went, swatting the bugs as we went by. I think he thought we were waving as he smiled and waved back. Or maybe he was swatting bugs in his little perch on the bridge ? Who knows...





Today has been an exercise in beauty (and patience) as we make our way down this meandering (and seemingly never-ending) waterway canal.



Once the fog (yes FOG !) burned off, it was gorgeously sunny and gloriously hot.



We've gone from busy naval shipyards to quiet, peaceful and remote waterways to god-knows-where we-'re going as we lift our head up every so often to check things, and well, it looks no different than one hour ago. Or two hours ago. And wait, one hour from now, it'll likely be the same. Of course, when life exists at a slow pace of 6 knots per hour, you can watch the same tree go by for quite some time !

We routinely scan the marshes and see a Great Blue Heron standing still waiting to hook his beak into some unsuspecting lunch. Clusters of predatory birds can be seen circling overhead off in the distance, hunting down their lunch. No alligators or turtles, however we've seen a few jumping fish.

Thankfully the waterways are quiet with traffic today and we've only been passed by 3 fast-paced yachts, all of them respectful of their wake. So this is our excitement...





So, was that a one whistle pass or a two whistle pass ?

No response, and they motored on by without so much as a wave.

We did cross paths with someone who waved enthusiastically at us, all the while yelling something, but being in the middle of a manoeuvre, and a non-responding, erratically driven boat, we didn't have the time to properly connect !

And then, life as we know it, on the river, went back to normal...



There are parts of the area here that might get confusing if you're not paying attention. For example, the "red right returning" (which basically means that if you're "returning" or going upstream you keep the red to your right.

However, just to make life interesting, here on the ICW, things can get a little screwey... so the trick is to watch for the little (and I do mean "little") yellow squares on the red or green marks... if it's a yellow triangle, it's to be kept to your right never mind the colour of marker it's on. Got that ? Right.

The Navigation Queen had to come out in full force today !!



And then once all that excitement died down, we were back to the greens of the "highway",



And if we're not dodging lobster pots or crab pots down here you have to watch out for these,



I imagine with the upcoming tropical storm, that the ICW will be a little trickier to navigate with lots of these being dislodged and floating about...



And the lushness of the vegetation,



Thanks to an anchorage book we picked up at the SSCA Gam, we were able to navigate our way into the unmarked channel that was Slade Creek, dropped our hook and enjoyed a BBQ supper of steak and ceasar salad.



And of course, sunset was once again, beyond spectacular.