Watch for commercial traffic. Try to avoid darkness.

"Where's the marker? It is very shallow here in the channel! Get out the chart and use the binoculars and find me the marker!"

This was my first trip on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (commonly referred to as the ICW). Frustrated by his poor eyesight, the captain had slipped into panic mode.

The world would be a better place with more boats like the Bayliner 325Cruiser around. If you have a chance to spend a day or two aboard one, I'm sure you'll agree. Fact is, sharing time on the water with family and friends should be easy and fun and-in a perfect world-affordable. That's not to say Bayliner's new flagship is affordable for every aquafile, but at $121,051 base, you definitely get a lot of bang for the buck.