Some Observations
There are a few things that you learn while doing this adventure.
These are things that are normally left out of seminars or talks at
the club. One is that it is pretty common for first timers down the
ICW route to be pretty tired (read exhausted) by the time they make
Florida. We have talked to several couples that have had the same
observation and it is common for boats to hang out for a month or two
in Vero (read Velcro) Beach or the Miami area. It is also common to
say they will not do the ICW again. However, people also say they
really enjoy their second trip (and subsequent trips) along the ditch
as a lot of the anxiety and worry experienced by the first timers are
replaced by the anticipation of getting to favourite anchorage's and
meeting friends along the way. So I guess it is like childbirth as the
bad parts are soon forgotten (or else why would anyone have a second
child) and the good parts remain. So the observation is, relax and
enjoy it, and plan to take and enjoy a good break in Florida at the
end. You have earned it and besides it is warm.
The second observation involves salt. The ocean is salty. In fact it
is very salty. It is much, much saltier than the Great Lakes. After
adventuring out for all you Great Lake sailors, expect your boat to be
covered in salt crystals. We are talking about actual crystals that
you can see - even without my reading glasses - and feel and have an
interesting gritty texture underfoot. Now the salt crystals have some
interesting properties. One is that they attach onto your stainless
and promptly stain it - stainless steel is not, in fact, stainless to
these little crystals. It does not matter if you have 304 or 316
stainless (we have both), as both seem to succumb to the onslaught of
these crystals. Soon your stainless will take on a mosaic pattern of
little brown splotches. You will then be in search of some magic
elixir that will remove the stain and protect the stainless from the
next onslaught. These proprietary solutions promise to solve the
staining problem as well as bring on world peace. Good luck. Soon you
will be spending interesting hours applying this solution and admiring
your beautiful polished stainless. After awhile, you do develop a
blind eye to the return of the brown smudges and put of the polish
operation until you are suitably bored with snorkeling and hiking -
perhaps next hurricane season.
The other interesting property that these little guys exhibit is they
can absorb moisture from the air when the sun goes down for a sleep
and the dew descends. The reality of this property is that any
clothing or body parts or places that salty body parts have touched
during daylight adventures will become and remain damp. So it is
critical to try to prevent these crystal from making forages into the
boat interior - a difficult task as people are natural salt trackers
and you are forever getting salty, swimming or on the dinghy, during
your daily activities. After all this, we do not have the magical
solution to this problem. Some things that we do to try to contain the
problem include: taking cockpit showers to rinse salt off after
swimming, using a wet face cloth (fresh water) to wipe salty feet
before entering the boat, and using a salty clothes bag where we store
clothes that have been saltified during our travels. We also change
between "salty dinghy clothes" and "on the boat below" clothes. So
far, these have helped contain the problem. Still every once in awhile
it is nice to get to a marina to thoroughly wash the boat (inside and
out), our clothes and ourselves.
One further trick we were told was how to take saltwater showers. You
first take a shower with salt water. The procedure is the same as a
fresh water shower only you use salt water. Now comes the tricky bit.
You have to remove the salt residue from your body. To do this, first
add a small amount of Downy fabric softener to a bucket of salt water.
Then have your partner pour this bucket over you as you scrub away.
This can be the fun part if the water is cool and you are doing the
pouring. Sounds simple and it is. Downy fabric softener acts to remove
the salt from your body. You now take on an April fresh, soft fuzzy
feeling and smell far better than when you started. We have actually
tried this and it appears to work. I am sure some chemists can explain
how.
The third item for today is garbage. It does collect, as disposal
facilities ashore are rare. Once you see the islands, you will
understand why. After a few weeks, it is amazing how much garbage you
accumulate. What we have found helps the problem is to first get rid
of as much packaging as possible when provisioning the boat. Put
things in reusable bins and, of course, do not bring any cardboard
aboard (cockroaches like the glue). This practice still leaves a lot
of packaging left. The next step is to separate, separate, and
separate. Think recycling at home. We separate and cut up all
vegetable matter (this is the smelly stuff after awhile) for disposal
overboard at an appropriate location. If the pretty fish do not eat
it, then the land crabs will be delighted. This, we believe, is more
responsible recycling then putting it is a succession of plastic bags
for ultimate burning ashore. Cans and bottles can be rinsed in
seawater (no smellage factor) for storage and later disposal at a
shore side facility. We store cans and bottles in our bilge that has
been emptied of the same. Offshore (over 4 miles out and in
deep-water) people punch holes in the cans and break the bottles
(sledgehammer and a bucket) for burial at sea. Paper and anything
plastic, we keep for landside disposal. Again these do not smell,
just occupy space. Of course, never throw anything plastic overboard.
Plastic is eaten and can kill the magnificent sea creatures that you
have come to see so save it for the land. Hope this helps.