Our first day heading south

The time has come for us to start moving again. As usual, it has taken us longer than we thought to get ready.

Ever since we got back from Argentina we've been working on the boat. There were a few changes that we had planned on making to the boat and some others that we had no option because things stopped working. Also, as we prepare to leave the USA, we usually get in a sad money-spending mindset. Not because we want to spend our precious money but because we want to be prepared for everything. And so, on top of filling up our boat with water, fuel and lots of food, we also buy lots of spares: things that we know we'll have to change along the way (like oil and oil filters) and things that we think we might need if something breaks and we're in the middle of nowhere.

Paul and Ernie, heads down in the engine room, working.

It wasn't all just work... Matias celebrated his 6th birthday!

Farewell dinner with friends.

Monday was the chosen day for us to leave. We were anxious yet sad. For all intents and purposes, Jacksonville has become our home in the United States. It's not the city itself, but the great people we met there. It was great to spend all this time with you guys and we will miss you terribly.

Our first day on the ICW was uneventful. We lucked out with all the bridges coming out of Jacksonville and didn't have to wait for them to open for us. Yay! We even made it to The Three Sisters Anchorage we had planned on anchoring just barely after sunset.

Just before getting to the anchorage, I said to Ernesto, “Well, at least, anchoring is going to be easy, it's all mud here so the anchor will set on the first try. We won't have to worry about finding those sandy patches like in the Bahamas.” I like it easy!

Well, for those of you that believe that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, we're proof of that. There was a lot of current in that spot and, surprisingly for the ICW, lots of water. So we had to let out a lot of chain and try twice until the anchor was set properly. Not too bad, right?

The surprise came the next morning when we tried to lift the anchor up and it wouldn't come off. We tried a lot of times but it was well stuck in there and the windlass just gave up. How I wished I was back in the Bahamas and could see the anchor from Taia! All we could see here was brown water, but we suspected the chain was stuck on something. In the end we decided to call our friend Paul, who dives for a living, so he could come and have a look at what was going on down there. (He didn't actually have a look, since the water is so muddy, he had a "feel"). It turns out the anchor chain was hockled with a big metal piece and lots of other people's rope (from other anchors maybe?).

Paul and the Captain getting ready to work on getting the anchor untangled.

Paul suited up and ready to go get our chain unhockled

It was pretty bad luck for us to anchor just there but we got lucky because we were still pretty close to Jacksonville and already knew someone that could help us. As usual, there's always a bright side!

For those of you who know Paul and call him Diver Paul or Auto Paul, we've come up with a new nickname for him: Super Paul! He saved our bacon today and we can't thank him enough.