The ICW, The Intracoastal Waterway

The ICW is interesting to say the least.

It is very much different from the OWW, central Florida, even some other parts that we've seen so far, with its multi million dollar mansions, one bigger and better than their neighbors.

And I've got to mention the yachts. Not only super yachts, but mega yachts. Wow!

Sooo many. And HUGE!

The ICW is a busy "canal", very busy indeed.

Speeding boats, and yachts with no regard for wake, made it sometimes pretty interesting and challenging for us, getting water over our bow at times, and over our sides quite often.

And then there were bridges!

34 to be exact, that had to be opened or lifted for most boats, including us, as they were too low.

Every bridge has a schedule, and they were also just spaced far enough apart, that we were having a heck of a time making the times.

Once again our dear friend Mick was here for us. He wrote ALL the movable bridges' names, times and distances between them out for us, to make things easier navigating on this oh so very busy stretch of waterway. (Here just one picture of four)

The current, boat traffic and just the distance between them made it for interesting motoring days. (We are not very fast going against the current 🙄)

It was either hurry up and wait, in a very busy channel, or go super slow to just time the openings right. In addition, anchorages here weren't available as often as they had been on the OWW, there however were very expensive marinas instead.

All in all, the whole trip from West to East on these waterways was awesome!

We got to see manatees, dolphins and even a jumping ray on this part of the "crossing".

We even got the chance to take family for a days ride. Nick's cousin Lisa and her hubby Ed came and joined us for a "cruise" down the ICW while vacationing in the area! How awesome was that!

We ended the day with a wonderful dinner....

Our last morning on the ICW was a very early morning one, to make it to a safe anchorage before the approaching storm.

We very much enjoyed the beautiful calm.

Passing Miami on the water was pretty spectacular, with its impressive skyline and 9! cruise ships docked in it's harbor!

So, here, just off of Miami we wait at anchor, for this huge storm to pass, before we continue our journey south.

This huge storm brought us much, much rain, thunder and lightning, and gusts up to 45kn! (83km!)