Recommendations for sailing up the east coast of USA

tudorsailor

tudorsailor

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I am contemplating the ARC in 2017 and then wondered about going up the east coast of USA to New England

Has anyone on the forum done this who might give advice.

As my air draft is 20m, the intra coastal waterway is not an option.

Thanks in anticipation

TudorSailor
 
Chesapeake is good but not world class IMHO. But sailing in Maine can be really fantastic, especially if you like lobsters in September! Maine also has some wonderful boat-building traditions.
 
tudorsailor said:
I am contemplating the ARC in 2017 and then wondered about going up the east coast of USA to New England

Has anyone on the forum done this who might give advice.


As my air draft is 20m, the intra coastal waterway is not an option.

Thanks in anticipation

TudorSailor
Click to expand...


If you google "intercoastal waterway wiki" you will find all the information you need to get started. There are many guides, some free some not, available on the web. I live in southern New England and can recommend you consider the following; New York (Statue of Liberty et al), Mystic (the famous Mystic Seaport), Narragansett Bay (home of Newport renowned for the America's Cup and the "cottages" of the wealthy, also Bristol which is the home of the fascinating Herreshoff Museum), New Bedford (wonderful whaling museum), Martha's Vinyard, Nantucket, Salem Massachusetts (home of Mayflower 2) Boston, the entire coast of Maine is beautiful in September. These are just a few highlights of New England.
 
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If you clear in to the USA in Florida you'll be riding the Gulf Stream north which gives you a handy couple of knots boost but you'll want to be careful not to be in the GS if it's blowing anything over 15k with any northerly component. There are various sounds and inlets you can seek refuge in should the worst happen, and you may want to visit places such as Charleston anyway.
I've always gone in at Beaufort N.C. and traveled to Chesapeake Bay via the ICW to avoid going around Cape Hatteras but you don't have that option because there's a 64' clearance bridge en route. But you can go in at Beaufort to wait for weather if necessary before tackling Hatteras.
It would be a pity to miss Chesapeake Bay - go in at Hampton Roads and out again via the C&D Canal, round Cape May and on to New York, Newport and points north.
 
The eastern seaboard of North America is mine and SWMBO's favorite cruising ground. There is just so much to see and places to go to. Charleston SC, The Chesapeke in late summer/autumn. Don't miss a side trip up the Potomac to Washington. We anchored within a mile or so of the White House.

As you head north, stop at Atlantic Highlands and gather your wits for New York. The NY Parks Dept. have a mooring field at 79th Street boat basin. You're within 2 blocks of Broadway. The trip through the East River is a highlight. We fopund it easier to sail up and down the Long Island shore, more anchorages than the Connecticut side.

Another vote for Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay.

North of Cape Cod and the water gets decidely chillier. Maine beckons. Don't fret about the millions of lobster traps. The way they are usually rigged, the line goes straight down and your boat just pushes them out of the way. We only got hooked up once when we were drifting along in the Muscle Ridge Channel, If we'd be going a bit faster I doubt we would have got stuck.

Try and make the time to get to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

I can't wait to go back!
 
Blue Water Bookstore in Ft. Lauderdale is the prime source for guides, charts etc. We used a combination of the Embassy Guides, Skipper Bob and a rather old pilot guide to New England, what it lacked in up to date shore information, it made up with humour!

For paper charts, the Maptech series of chart packs are excellent value, though somtimes they are not as up to date as one would like. The Americans swear by Eldrich, a tidal almanac, though we never bought one and relied on the information gleaned from C-Map. We were given a full set of Canadian raster charts by one of their Coastguards.

Sadly, I'm on the east coast of England instead of sailing up Pamlico Sound :(

Looking at your avatar, you might like to know the guys at Oyster Yachts in Newport are very helpful. We had problems with our AIS antenna late on a Friday and they organised a local electronics company to leave a new one behind a bush outside their offices as we sailed up Naragansett Bay. When we questioned this, they said 'Oh, we do this all the time, nothing gets stolen!'

Do orgainise B1-B2 Visas before you go.

PM me if you'd like to know more.
 
We went to Maine from the BVI in two legs via Bermuda. There is then the potential for exploring further north or, as we did, work your way south through the summer and autumn.
Unplanned bonuses were finding a blues festival in Rockland and arriving in Newport the day before the Jazz Festival (if you like that sort of thing!).
 
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I think most of the good stuff is north of NYC. If I was doing it I'd head there via Bermuda and start cruising north. I've not explored much of the coast but I reckon there's three seasons worth easily.
 
Shame you can't do the ICW, its really great cruising. I guess if you have 20m mast you also have an unforgiving draft. The ICW is now really shallow in places, specially in Georgia and South Carolina.

Go in as many of the inlets as you can though. Unmissable are: Charleston, SC, Beaufort, NC, and Chesapeake, MD. You can go north through Chesapeake bay and then through the Delaware ship canal, taking in Annapolis and Oxford, very pretty spots.
 
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AndrewB said:
Shame you can't do the ICW, its really great cruising. I guess if you have 20m mast you also have an unforgiving draft. The ICW is now really shallow in places, specially in Georgia and South Carolina.
Click to expand...

My air draft is stated as 20m but I have not actually measured it. I suppose it would be worth seeing how close to the 65ft minimum that the bridges have on the ICW
My draft is 2.1m. Does that rule out George and South Carolina?

Thanks to all for the useful advice

TS
 
I've dragged 2.0m from the Florida Keys to Chesapeake Bay - you have to be careful, and it's advisable to have towing insurance with TowBoatUS, remarkable value.
Air draft would be the bigger problem. There's a Florida fixed bridge of 57' but that's avoidable, the one that prevents you cutting inside Hatteras is 64' and can be less in certain winds.
 
I forgot to mention TowBoatUs. If you get stuck the Coasties will rescue the people and leave the boat to her fate. A good friend wandered off the channel near Fernandina Beach on a falling tide. The haul off cost him $2,000. If he'd had TowBoatUs cover it would have been free.

I think the low bridge that Salty John refers to (the Gilmerton Bridge) can be avoided by going through Pamlico Sound rather than the Alligator River.

For up to date information on the ICW here are a couple of useful sites.

http://cruisersnet.net/

activecaptian.com

 
I mean the Wilkerson Hwy Bridge at mile 125, it's lower than charted. But all this information is available, you just need to aware of these occasional anomalies.

I wouldn't be trying the whole length of the ICW with the OP's mast height and draft but it's good to know which stretches of it you can do should you want to make progress inside while weather is too bad outside, or to visit specific areas of interest.
 
The practical maximum air draught is 62ft/19m and depth 7ft/2.1m, though with this don't expect to be able to do the full length.

If you want to try it, note that the shallow spots come and go, though some places have persistent problems. Bridge clearance is often reduced by repair work. I suggest that when you reach the US, you get the latest information on heights and depths in sections of the ICW (between navigable inlets) from the internet. The US forumwww.cruisersforum.com(Scuttlebutt section) usually has quite a bit of current information.

There is a foot or two of tide in most parts of the ICW, which if you are close to the limit you might need but could mean waiting around. Also there are places where there is just enough depth but it takes a lot of finding.
 
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We want through most of it with 63 foot air and 8 foot draft. Dredged a lot of the bit from Canaveral to ponce de Leon where we put to sea and came back in at Beaufort, through to Chesapeake. Carolinas were fantastic. All on Croix des Gardes blog.
 
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