The ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) from Norfolk, Virginia to South Florida is a very beautiful part of the USA. There is so much to see and so much history to discover. Diesel Duck went down the ICW all the way to Charleston, South Carolina and anchored just off the famous Fort Sumter. click for link to Fort Sumter On Saturday, Oct. 22, in the early morning, we ventured out to sea into the Atlantic Ocean to run with the very light wind and small waves south for 29 hours to St. Augustine, Florida before going back inside into to the ICW.





While being out at sea, there is really not much to do except keeping watch for other vessels. Our autopilot steers the boat and we keep an eye on the instruments and change or plot a course if needed. So while I read my e book on a Sony reader sitting in the wheelhouse, I noticed a couple of little birds flying around our boat. These were not the type of birds that live off the sea. They looked windblown and disheveled. After trying to sit on the ropes, the dinghy and various other places, these little things started to fly up to every window and port light, looking in. I thought that was funny and kept reading my book. But to my surprise, all of a sudden we had two fluttering, chirping birdies inspecting the inside of Diesel Duck. They had managed to squeeze through the front starboard window unnoticed. I opened the door and the overhead hatches to give them a chance to fly back out. Benno shooed one of them out of the aft cabin and I went below to start preparing a couple of cordon bleu for supper. After eating our delicious meal we both made a thorough inspection to make sure the birds were gone and then we closed up the boat. I guess there are more little hiding spots onboard than we know of, because the next morning we discovered two happy, well rested, blind passengers that wanted to fly out toward shore. Later on we discovered another bird of the same variety which had crawled up underneath one of our outside propane storage tanks and the night was a very cold one. It was dead. Oh, we felt so sorry!





Dolphins love to play in the bow wave of traveling boats. They are fast swimmers and we never grow tired of watching them. There are dolphins also fishing in the ICW, but these guys were out in the Atlantic on Sunday morning.



Look at this dual dwelling. A beautiful house on the ICW's Adam Creek Canal. One owner has a John Deere tractor to do his small lawn and the other owner got himself a bigger Kubota Diesel tractor to do his side of the lawn. Or is this his and hers?



Now is this not a beautifully painted hot pink house? Bet you it belongs to an award winning Mary Kay saleslady and there is probably a pink Cadillac parked out front.



This little red boat's name was called "Toot Toot" and I thought it was cute.



A nice young couple in this little trawler waved to us while we passed them and we think they probably built her. A very nice looking boat.



A boathouse on the ICW advertising services, restaurants, B&B and displaying a big fish head.






Many bridges span the ICW. The newer high-rise fixed constructed ones, like this one are a relief, because we just pass underneath. Usually, they are 65 feet high in the middle.



However, there are still very many of the old type bascule bridges that have not enough clearance for us. We have to call the bridge tender on VHF channel 9 and request an opening. But if these bridges are on major highways or well traveled streets, they are restricted, which means they only open at certain times and we have to time our arrival and pass accordingly, or have to wait in front, announcing our intend to pass at the next opening. (Sometimes there is a stickler up there and if you arrive a couple minutes after the set time, he makes you wait another 30 minutes or a whole hour!)