While talking with Paul, the dockmaster of Ortega Yacht Club Maria (OYCM) and one really cool guy, he shared with us the boating possibility of going further inland towards Sanford, Florida .... a place not too far from Orlando (practically a suburb of Orlando). The crystal clear water, manatees, sand, and more sure sounded good and perfect for us. As we looked at the route, we saw one problem.... a fixed bridge. This particular fixed bridge is at 45 feet.... exactly the height we are from the water line. We spent a whole week discussing the options and talked with Richard and Debbie (others in the OYCM whom lived very close to the bridge at one point) to get their take. We could wait for an extremely low tide, and sneak through. We could always try to go through/under tipping the boat (in a catamaran, you really don't gain much doing this). We could hope that the bridge is actually just a bit taller than listed. We could have the mast taken down (not a trivial or cheap proposition). In the end, we simply decided that we didn't want to take the risk of hitting our mast on the bridge. That is one consequence of going with the sailboat that has a fixed mast. The "free" wind energy has been traded off with the freedom to go where we want by boat. Given that we've spent 98% of our time motoring thus far, it makes us wonder about the choice of sail. We suspect that once we are traversing larger crossings, the sail choice will really make sense. Also, it is hard to share the thrill of the sails being up, engine off, and being propelled silently.
Off to our next destination!
