Thanks for all the comments on the manatee / womanatee – we love the input and feedback.

A final trip to the best hardware store in the world, and then off south again. It has to be said that this part of the ICW is not that exciting. Whilst every mile is a mile pretty much due south (which is efficient), it is mostly in a dead straight line and you can see your course ahead for miles. Gone are the marshes and the twists and turns of Georgia, and the narrow canals edged cheek by jowl with waterside homes in North Carolina. The waterway here is very wide and very straight. We did have a possible alligator sighting in the water today as well as a few dolphins, but no more manatees.

We have ended the day in a very shallow area off the ICW with keel and rudder raised, tucked in behind tiny spoil islands and just skimming the mud. We are sure this will be a wonderful place for manatee sightings in the morning.

The game of “Find the Water Maker” reached level 6 today. We now know who will do the work and where it will happen, but no one – not the agents, the manufacturers or the yard - seems to know when, or with what; it’s a bit like marine Cluedo. We are in contact with ARC friends in St Lucia who are playing the same game with the same machine, who may have just reached level 7. The battle continues. We will not give in!

Some insights on heading south:
Scotland - latitude 56 degrees - sunset 15:49; temp – single digits C
Virginia - latitude 37 degrees - sunset 16:47; temp – variable, freezing to teens
Florida - latitude 27 degrees - sunset 17:26; temp – variable, teens & twenties
Worth a month of driving slowly south? – So far we think so.

ICW Mile 937– 39 statute miles progress.