For only the second time in our years of cruising, we hooked something with the anchor. The first time was anchoring on top of a power cable in St. Augustine, 35 years ago. I had to free dive to clear that one.

This time we brought up a huge ancient steel flywheel or some such. Must have weighed 500 – 750 lbs. There were several minutes to head scratching before we developed a successful plan to send it back to Davey Jones’ locker. Our Ideal windlass was huffing and puffing but brought it to the surface where we dealt with it. Wonderful to know it and the bow roller were up to such a Herculean task. While I am prepared with diving gear now, it would have been an ugly task to suit up and dive into the nutrient rich but zero visibility water of the ICW.

Georgia is behind us. For all the hand wringing in the boating forums about the shallow ICW in Georgia, it went by quickly for us. It is only 100 nautical miles as a crow flies after all. Add a third for the twisting and turning of the waterway and you could do the whole state in a couple days if motivated. We transited one known shallow stretch at low tide and bumped a couple times but that was it.

Otherwise, it was quiet views of marshes, lots of birdlife, the constant companionship of dolphins. The dolphins delight in riding our bow wave, a foot or so below the surface. Effortlessly keeping up with us at 7 or 8 knots, they come to the surface a few times a minute to take breath. Maybe I’ll come back in my next life as a dolphin.