Another Newbie with LOTS of question s

[finefurn]

Been lurking here for quite some time, not so sure I knew enough to ask an intelligent question. I'm relatively new to sailing, been sailing a 17' Oday on inland lakes about 4 yrs now and I spent the last 3 years restoring a CRI E20. Well the E20 is finally ready to splash, actually we splash her last Aug for a quick shake down, and to identify any problem areas I may have overlooked. Got her back in the shop and up on stands to redo the bottom, and discovered a whole set of new nightmares. But now she's all good and ready to splash again.
So now the plan is, or should I say the DREAM is to spend the summer sailing and gunkholing the Maine coast. I really have NO experience in coastal cruising or even operating VHF radio. A 20' is probably just enough to get my feet wet in coastal cruising, so as I'm gaining some experience in coastal cruising I'm thinking of picking up something in the 27' - 30' range. When that happens the plan is to sail south in the fall. Do the ICW, around the Keys, up to Pensacola and back again. In my lurking around here it looks like this is just place that can help me do that.

[Celestialsailor]

Welcome to the forum