Editor's Note:
This series of blog entries details the April 2010 cruise down the ICW made by WaterViewHome Network Publisher David Lott. The purpose of the trip is twofold: to accompany Captain Steve Weisbrod who is delivering a Lagoon PowerCat 43 from Lewis, DE, to Key West, FL, where it will become part of a charter fleet, and to visit golf and waterview communities and report on them. You can read all other posts by clicking on the headlines on the list of entries at the end of this installment.
DAY ONE, ICW CRUISE ABOARD LAGOON POWER CATAMARAN 43
Havre de Grace to Liberty Marina, MD
Lagoon PowerCat 43 loaded and ready to go.
The day has finally arrived for the start of my trip down the Intracoastal Waterway. I had been saying Intercoastal Waterway for years, but was quickly corrected by Captain Steve as we loaded on previsions.
The trip has several purposes and a special meaning. I came up with the idea of the cruise last November as a carrot to pursue prior to undergoing treatment for Lyme disease. I had been battling this persistent and increasingly debilitating infection for two years.
Several regimens of oral antibiotics had failed to work and a specialist in Boston recommended a month-long treatment of antibiotics (Rocephin) delivered via IV. I was to have a port in my arm for 28 days and hook up every day for 20 minutes. I promised myself once the treatment was done and I was feeling better, I would a take cruise down the ICW. Happily, the treatment worked, I immediately started to feel better and four months later, a dream come true.
The second reason is to visit golf and waterfront communities along the ICW and report my travels to you. Previous trips have been to the western North Carolina mountain communities and by sailboat to The Bay Club, Mattapoisett, MA. The trip to The Bay Club, which was a blast and just two days, was the clincher to try another trip, this time to more communities and over a longer distance.
We start to move out from Tidewater Marina into the Bay.
Now it is Thursday morning April 15 and we have fueled up and are ready to go. However, a nagging problem with the portside outer fuel tank is not allowing the engine to switch from tank to tank and we will have to either get the fuel polished or replaced before going much farther.
We say good bye to Tidewater Marina in Havre de Grace.
Once we are underway, we get a text message from the dockmaster at Liberty Marina in Edgewater on the South River just below Annapolis that we can meet Bob Allen and the boys from Petro-Scrub there. This beginning was strangely similar to the start of my cruise to Martha's Vineyard on my recently purchased Cape Dory 270 Avanti in 2008 which also began with fuel polishing and a lost day. Bob is to scrub the fuel or simply take it out of the tank and we'll refuel.
Capt'n Steve eases the Lagoon43 into the Chesapeake.
Coming up the Annapolis Bay Bridge.
Thomas Point Light, one of the most photographed lighthouses in the Bay. (Here's another one.)
Arriving at Liberty Marina to meet Petro-Scrub.
Kevin of Petro-Scrub, left, with his tools of the trade.
Elise drove down from Baltimore to deliver our official WaterviewHome burgee, sent from California by BurgeeMaker.com.
A resident boat at the marina.
By now it's late in the day and we decide to stay put. We'll see how the engine performs tomorrow morning. Miles traveled: 65 miles. See next blog entry here!
Follow the Complete Trip Down the ICW by clicking on the headlines below.
ICW Trip Announcement
DAY 1 - Havre de Grace, MD - Engine Trouble
DAY 2 - Alligator River Marina, NC - River Forest, NC
DAY 2: A Visit to River Dunes, Oriental NC
DAY 3 - The Oriental Boat Show Is a Town-Wide Celebration
DAY 4 - Tiptoeing Past Firing Lines to North River Club & Brunswick Forest
DAY 5 - St. James Plantation Marina - New Home Construction
DAY 6: Charleston's Mega Dock Is a Showcase for the World's Most Beautiful Yachts
Day 6: Daniel Island's Mitchell Wharf Offers Deepwater Docks, River Views
Day 6: Harbour Town Yacht Club with All the Trimmings on Hilton Head Island
Day 7: Discovering Windmill Harbour's Elegance and Privacy on HHI, SC
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