Sailing the Intracoastal Waterway

Breizh

Breizh

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I just happened upon the following YouTube video of a 70 year young sailor from the UK whom sailed the Intracoastal Waterway on the East coast of America. Its in 2 halfs, interesting watching, see what you think:

Part 1:


Enjoy...:cool:

Breizh.
 
dylanwinter said:
wonderful

goodonim

D
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Indeed!

I'd never even heard of the ICW before those video's! Certainly different sailing on the East coast of the US! A lot of shallows around he Key's too, makes for very interesting navigation! Maybe a good area for a Keep Turning Right expedition?!

Breizh.
 
...A lot of shallows around he Key's too...

Tell me about it! Especially just outside buoy Green-27 when entering Key West

After running up the top half of the USA's east coast to Maine this summer, then back down the whole thing over the last three months, I've settled upon a couple of stock responses to the 'Wow, so you've sailed across the Atlantic in your boat, that's amazing, wasn't it scary?' question we've had from virtually every American yachty that we've met:

"No, the Atlantic's not scary, but we've been in the ICW too now and that IS scary!"
or
"Yes, we've come across the Atlantic, but we've sailed up to Maine and back, so we've done some serious sailing as well."

Getting a yacht from Europe to the Caribbean is a whole lot easier than getting one there from the NE USA, despite (or perhaps because of?) having the ICW option.

Actually, I would've thought English east coast sailors would feel right at home, as there's no water here either. Just a few weeks ago we sailed (offshore) from North Carolina to Northern Florida, punching a foul current and short head-seas pretty much the whole way as we skirted around the west side of the Gulfstream, perhaps 250 - 300 miles in total getting to a maximum of about 40-50 miles offshore; the deepest water we encountered and only time I saw the echo-sounder register over 30m was in the mouth of the St Mary's River as we were entering Fernandina Beach.
 
BobnLesley said:
...A lot of shallows around he Key's too...

Tell me about it! Especially just outside buoy Green-27 when entering Key West

After running up the top half of the USA's east coast to Maine this summer, then back down the whole thing over the last three months, I've settled upon a couple of stock responses to the 'Wow, so you've sailed across the Atlantic in your boat, that's amazing, wasn't it scary?' question we've had from virtually every American yachty that we've met:

"No, the Atlantic's not scary, but we've been in the ICW too now and that IS scary!"
or
"Yes, we've come across the Atlantic, but we've sailed up to Maine and back, so we've done some serious sailing as well."

Getting a yacht from Europe to the Caribbean is a whole lot easier than getting one there from the NE USA, despite (or perhaps because of?) having the ICW option.

Actually, I would've thought English east coast sailors would feel right at home, as there's no water here either. Just a few weeks ago we sailed (offshore) from North Carolina to Northern Florida, punching a foul current and short head-seas pretty much the whole way as we skirted around the west side of the Gulfstream, perhaps 250 - 300 miles in total getting to a maximum of about 40-50 miles offshore; the deepest water we encountered and only time I saw the echo-sounder register over 30m was in the mouth of the St Mary's River as we were entering Fernandina Beach.
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coming from the South coast and more used to deep water albeit with rocks in places, skinny waters are certainly more of a concern to us too. We have often wished we had sailed our beloved Sun Legende 41 over from the UK instead of selling her to a very nice Frog and buying again over here, but with close on 7ft of water draught and over 60ft air draught she would go nowhere fast round here. Our current one has a 5.5ft draught wing keel and around 50ft air draught so is more ICW friendly although the wing keel profile looks like a flattened Rocna bolted on, should we decide to 'set' it accidentally.

Will we get to wave to you as you pass Seabreeze bridge between Daytona Beach an Ormond Beach? Halifax harbor Marina http://www.halifaxharbormarina.com/ In Daytona Beach is a good stoppover just ten minutes from our dirt home and there are anchorages nearby too, including in front of where we live, just north of the Seabreeze Bridge. let me know if you are nearby and we can probably even help with provisioning by offering a lift to the stores or the new West Marine superstore .
 
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I've done the 1500 mile trip between Chesapeake Bay and the Florida Keys seven times, once entirely in the ICW and others times a combination of inside and outside. You can make better progress outside, of course, because you can sail at night but there are only a few inlets that are appropriate and the trip up and down them to gain access to the sea adds a lot to the journey, so not as clear cut as it seems, sometimes.

Most people go south in October and back up in spring. In this case he did the first part the 'right' way and the second part the 'wrong' way, heading to Florida for the summer. Hence the thunderstorms most evenings and the waterspouts. You really need to have the hook down in a safe anchorage by 3:00 pm in the height of summer.

There isn't much sailing done in the ICW - you can usually do a bit across the sounds but rarely anywhere else on the route, so the engine gets a good work out. A TowBoatUS insurance policy is the best piece of safety equipment you can invest in - you willrun aground!

I've always dragged 5' to 6' of draught with me, and a mast - I'd like to do the trip one more time in a motor boat, it must be a real treat in a fly bridge trawler-type.

There is also a Gulf ICW between Florida and Texas, which I've partly done, but it's a nightmare of commercial traffic, unlike the east coast ICW which I've always found a pleasurable trip.
 
We did the ICW from Canaveral north to Chesapeake with 8 foot draft and 63 foot air draft. We did go offshore once to dodge shallow bits (after we had been aground a few times). Never needed to call TowBoat etc, but they were always happy to chat on the radio to guide us around shifting shoals, but we did lot of dregding at the southern end.

North and South Carolinas were fantastic, relaxed and friendly. We did it in April so it was very quiet.
 
pyrojames said:
We did the ICW from Canaveral north to Chesapeake with 8 foot draft and 63 foot air draft. We did go offshore once to dodge shallow bits (after we had been aground a few times). Never needed to call TowBoat etc, but they were always happy to chat on the radio to guide us around shifting shoals, but we did lot of dregding at the southern end.

North and South Carolinas were fantastic, relaxed and friendly. We did it in April so it was very quiet.
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I'm surprised you managed it with an 8ft draft. We did it in 2012 with 64ft something air draft (which made for some interesting moments) but only 4ft draft and even then we came to a halt on two occasions.
 
"Will we get to wave to you as you pass Seabreeze bridge..."

Not this year sadly, we're already in Key West, though the current 'plan' says that we're heading back to the US again next summer and we'll drop you a pm if we're in the area. As Salty John noted - off-shore's faster - and with the freezing cold weather the US enjoyed in November, we only ICWed from Norfolk to Beaufort, plus an afternoon from Wrightsville to the Cape Fear River; from there it was direct to Fernandina and another offshore hop down to Fort Lauderdale; we passed Daytona late on a cold, dark and squally night - what joy!
 
The trawler style mobo we bought to live/cruise on came with 4.5ft draught and two spare props which sorta said it all. We didn't cruise it far because I had a stroke and got my wings clipped, but down by Ponce Inlet near LW we couldn't find a clear passage out to go fishing with much depth and turned back one day when the depth alarms were going non-stop for under 5ft of water, they finally shut up when we got back up by our home marina. They have since spent over a month dredging that bit and I believe it is now reasonably OK again. Small wonder catamarans are very popular options. it doesn't help when our local tidal range is circa 1ft as there is no 'take it at HW and it it is OK' option Dredging is the job of the army engineers but funding money is short as I guess they need it all for bullets and missiles overseas. Surprisingly lots do still cruise the ICW in the tropical storm/hurricane season and lots of ourlocal boatyand marina friends consider it too chilly until around May although personally I find a little chilly wind very welcome. it was 83F yesterday but will only just nudge 80F today they say, but humidity makes it feel hotter. THE southbound migration has now slowed down a little past our condo and we've had nobody anchored off overnight since Christmas except the local that keeps his floaty cardboard box residence there for free year round in between sojourns to another anchorage a mile away to prove to the Law he is a cruiser not just a derelict.
 
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" Narrow Dog To Indian River " by Terry Darlington has a lot of info, though certainly not intended as a pilot book; after the success of ' Narrow Dog To Carcassone ' the Darlingtons and their Whippet Jim ( the narrow dog ) shipped their British narrow boat across the Atlantic and travelled the ICW.

The thing about the book which impressed me was the amount of wildlife that's out to get you, from ' No See 'Em ' biting flys to alligators...
 
Breizh said:
I just happened upon the following YouTube video of a 70 year young sailor from the UK whom sailed the Intracoastal Waterway on the East coast of America. Its in 2 halfs, interesting watching, see what you think:

Part 1:


Enjoy...:cool:

Breizh.
Click to expand...

Thanks watch it tonight, our yacht did the passage with previous owner's in the 90's.

Brian
 
BobnLesley said:
"Will we get to wave to you as you pass Seabreeze bridge..."

Not this year sadly, we're already in Key West, though the current 'plan' says that we're heading back to the US again next summer and we'll drop you a pm if we're in the area. As Salty John noted - off-shore's faster - and with the freezing cold weather the US enjoyed in November, we only ICWed from Norfolk to Beaufort, plus an afternoon from Wrightsville to the Cape Fear River; from there it was direct to Fernandina and another offshore hop down to Fort Lauderdale; we passed Daytona late on a cold, dark and squally night - what joy!
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Shame, Fort Lauderdale is somewhere I cannot stand, we bought our current sailiing boat there, the owner had it moored at the end of someone's garden in a maze of streets all with waterside (strictly canalside) homes. I had to drive to F ort Lauderdale 3 times in the buying process and got comprehensively lost each time in both directions. It seems like they have flattened 80% of the city to rebuild and threw away all street names and signs. we had two GPSs running in the car plus two smartphones with GPS apps, none agreed. They should have bulldozed the entire city not jus 805 and started again fresh, come to think of it they can do it now if they want, otherwise I'm not going near it ever again by car. WE had a local two man delivery crew bring the boat to Daytona rather than face another double trip in the car to do it ourselves then collect the car to get it home as well. the delivery crew went 'outside and took just 36 hours, inside would have involved way too many bridges, especially in the first bit from Lauderdale to Palm Beach. Our boat has done it all from Toronto and Niagara even in Canada down to the Florda Keys ( the original owner lived in upstate New York) but only did the long ditch trip return twice before remaining moored darn sarf as a floating condo.
 
Great find - thanks for sharing. Just goes to show what adventures can be had on a small budget

Looks like a Southerly with seriously variable draft and protected prop of the older none twin rudder models would be ideal.

You can see why there are many centreboard sailing boats on the east coast.

Would love to do this one day.....
 
The previous owner of our boat, a 14 ton steel ketch, sailed up the Intracoastal and ran aground in a tidal part. He was waiting for the tide to rise and a big motor yacht asked if he wanted to be pulled off and he said ''No thanks we will wait for the tide''. The MOBO owner persisted and eventually he agreed. He was pulled off and a MOBO nearly stops dead when the power taken off, 15 tons steel carries it's way. His boat punched a big hole in the MOBO's transom, he apologised but the MOBO owner didn't seem concerned and went off.
 
Jeannius said:
I'm surprised you managed it with an 8ft draft. We did it in 2012 with 64ft something air draft (which made for some interesting moments) but only 4ft draft and even then we came to a halt on two occasions.
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We ran aground repeated just before Ponce de Leon, and while we did manage to get past with the help of Sea Tow advice, we decided to go out at the inlet and stay offshore to Beaufort. We stayed inside for the rest, but the Alligator river was interesting!
 
Thanks for sharing. Can't help but wonder if it would have been more fun going the other way, he seemed to spend a lot of time beating and motoring into the wind.
Hurricane Sandy must have been character building!
ICW is on the bucket list, our boat being a centreboarder would feel right at home.
 
Kelpie said:
Thanks for sharing. Can't help but wonder if it would have been more fun going the other way, he seemed to spend a lot of time beating and motoring into the wind.
Hurricane Sandy must have been character building!
ICW is on the bucket list, our boat being a centreboarder would feel right at home.
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ICW runs pretty much N-S and winds are usually northerly OR southerly, so whichever way you go you would be like most peeps in the ditch a mobo under most conditions regardless of being a motor vessel or a sailboat. Most boats you see sailing in the ditch have the engine running and use the sails to increase speed or reduce fuel consumption. We had a mobo intitially to live on and shifted back to the light side after my stroke. Our now sailing boat has pull string genoa and mainsails to take instant advantage of a free wind but the ditch is narrow in many parts ( at least the navigable channels are) and realistically the engine is going to get more use than it would in the open ocean. Sandy passed us by whilst I was in rehab having just escaped from hospital and I pulled a shoulder muscle adding extra lines in the wee small hours, but we saw nothing much in Florida it was farther north where it wreaked some havoc, in the zone preferred by insurers ironically. One problemm too with the ditch is that it is practically impossible to get information on the current flow rates/directions which can switch round willy nilly as you approach or pass an inlet, there is no way yet I have found to calculate an overall 'optimum departure time' to make best advantage of the currents or avoid the foul bits for a day's passage. Most folks just up and go when ready and watch the GPS speed over the ground, many not even having boatspeed through the water data to see if the flow is with or against anyway. Same goes with crossing streams like the Gulf Stream, they tweak their pilots to give the required COG to destination rather than do the kind of nav planning known to most on here. The pilot guides give some rough CTS advice for different speeds from the usual crossing points out to the Bahamas so as to offset the sideways drift from the stream. Simple folks simple minds!
 
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