Tales of the Intracoastal Waterway

We christened our catboat IBIS. Pronounced ahy-bis, an ibis is a breathtakingly lovely, snow-white wading bird with black wing tips and a long down curved bill. Related to herons and storks, it is found in tropical regions. The ibis is the mascot chosen by the University of Miami because of its legendary bravery during hurricanes. You see, ibis are the last wildlife to take shelter before a hurricane and the first to reappear once the storm has passed.

Because we frequently find ourselves out before, during and after storms on Florida Bay, we felt this lovely bird should be our mascot as well.

We soon discovered just how much fun these little catboats are to sail and how able they are in shoal waters. And I continue to discover just how special are those who sail them. Before long, I discovered THE BOY, ME AND THE CAT, a charming account written by Henry Plummer of his 1912 voyage along the coast from Cape Cod to Miami…and back.

Like most catboaters who revel in this remarkable story, I began to fantasize about making the trip myself. Hey, if Henry Plummer could do it when there WAS no Intracoastal Waterway, surely I could do it in a well-marked, dredged channel with a modern engine, plentiful marinas, a GPS…and SEA TOW. Surely.

The fantasy continued to haunt and provoke me until, one day, pondering the impending turn of my odometer to 70 years of age, I decided to convince myself that I still had a pulse and some nautical miles left under my keel. I would quietly “take to the ship.”

An “adventure” has been defined as “an experience the outcome of which you do not know in advance.” I decided to give myself as a birthday present an adventure of many weeks and about 2200 miles sailing IBIS from the Florida Keys back to her birthplace in Wareham, Buzzards Bay, on Cape Cod. And, not incidentally, sailing myself from Florida back in time to my own place of birth seven decades before in nearby Boston.

What follows is an account of the planning and preparation for, conduct of and reflection upon this adventure. These words are drawn from my electronic correspondence with family and friends during the passage. I hope that, just as Henry Plummer's passage got me thinking and sailing, my own story will invite you, dear reader, to participate in this adventure up the coast from a chair beside the fire. Or better, that it will provoke YOU to take to the ship!

Finally, let me add that most of what you are about to read is true…. at least to the extent my ageing, porous mind can accurately recall and recapture what happened. All photographs are taken by the skipper unless otherwise indicated.

To embellish and enrich the account…and to keep me honest…I have invited the crewmembers that shared in this adventure to add a few words of their own as proceed up the coast.

Enjoy the voyage!

Fair winds and fond wishes,

Roland S. Barth

Key Largo, Florida, 2010