ICW Florida to NC

[kingofcary]

Hi All ... looks like I will be making a West Palm to Oriental, NC ICW run in early February in a 4.5' draft and 46' air draft sailboat. Has anyone made this trip recently or have any other insights/pointers for me. Thanks and any feedback greatly appreciated ...

[Captain Bill]

I don't see any special problems with your drafts, but you should be prepared to take the alternate ICW route at St Andrew Sound if the wind is blowing strong from the east to Northeast. The mouth of the sound is open to the ocean and can get extremely rough.

[svHyLyte]

You might take a look at the "Blog" of the yacht Fleetwind for the Spring of 2018 (see--click on-- Fleetwind). The author--Bob Sherer, an editor for the Waterway Guide--has a day-by-day post of their travel from Key West to New York describing their findings. He also posts suggest routes in GPX format and details of the various passes through the more hazardous/shallow areas that might be useful.


FWIW...

[Suijin]

The most important consideration doing this trip in February is planning 2-3 days ahead as you go to ensure that you get to a viable overnight spot before dark. That will mean some short mean some short mileage days at some points, or getting an early start some days to stretch out your daily progress.

This is particularly important in stretches that are narrow, obviously, because you can’t just anchor in the channel. And you don’t want to b running the ICW in the dark unless you’re familiar with the stretch you’re on.