Crew Wanted: ICW from Annapolis to Florida and Bahamas

[Nicholson58]

I would say you can run at night if you are well prepared and operate very slowly. It would probably make more sense to run outside since you will make 3 to 4 X the distance. 8 hours at 1 knot or 8 hours at 3 or 4? Oh - you will be ready to fall over by morning.

For running at night: Slow; spot lights; good charts; electronic aids such as FLIR. Broadband radar works well at these close ranges. The important simple tool is a GOOD set of binocs with 50 mm big light gathering lenses. Put your bimini down. bow spotter. well calibrated depth transducer. Do all of the bride operators work all night?

[jeanathon]

Would love to make the trip, but other responsibilitys....
Free bump anyway.

[bill352]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

I would say you can run at night if you are well prepared and operate very slowly. It would probably make more sense to run outside since you will make 3 to 4 X the distance. 8 hours at 1 knot or 8 hours at 3 or 4? Oh - you will be ready to fall over by morning.

For running at night: Slow; spot lights; good charts; electronic aids such as FLIR. Broadband radar works well at these close ranges. The important simple tool is a GOOD set of binocs with 50 mm big light gathering lenses. Put your bimini down. bow spotter. well calibrated depth transducer. Do all of the bride operators work all night?

All very true and necessary if you feel you must run at night. But the first time you meet a tug with a tow in a narrow channel, you will probably reconsider.

[Nicholson58]

One other thing to consider is draft. If you are shallow and/or cat you can get out of the way of that tow. Personally, I am not willing to put us or the vessel at risk especially with little reward. We steam at 9 Knots. I'd rather spend the night sleeping. I can make up the distance in an hour. Also consider you will run the engine all night at idle. Not good and a lot of fuel.

[Inkwell]

Lostsoul is right. Not many daymarks with lights. The ICW is tricky here in Georgia and North Florida. Be prepared to go aground more than you want to.

[Time2Go]

I did this exact trip 2 years ago, leaving at the end of the sailboat show in Annapolis.
The trip would have been impossible without a chart plotter in some spots,
particularly going through Norfolk harbor where we got buzzed more than once by
military helicopters. They take security very seriously and will definitely intercept you
if you stray out of the channel in their direction. The marks are far apart and
we always had one of us (only a crew of 2) at watch with a pair off high power binoculars. The guaranteed channel depth width is very narrow in spots and if you wander a bit and you can run aground very easy. We took the Virginia Cut route, to the
Albemarle Sound to Beaufort NC. The Albemarle sound can get pretty gnarly in bad weather and the chart plotter was key again. Long stretches between markers that can be
hard to see in bad weather. We drew 5’6” so staying in the middle of the channel was
extremely important to us. As far as I know Sailing in the ICW is Not Legal
and fuel will be an issue this time of year so I would definitely not miss any opportunity
to top off and would bring a few 5 gallon cans just to be safe. There are plenty of nice spots to anchor out at BUT you have to be aware that they are not everywhere.
There are some days where you might have to stop at 2 in the afternoon because there
is no way your going to make the next spot before dark. IMHO trying to run at night
Is just plain not smart. Yea maybe if you had a pilot aboard who really knew the route
It Would be different but I wouldn’t do it for sure and besides
It’s one heck of a beautiful ride, spectacular in some spots, Why miss them?
We went outside from Beaufort and were in Cape Canaveral in 3 days
And wanted to make some time and sail a bit.
You are going to be COLD this time of year. We did it in the end of October
And it was Cold in spots. Remember that the only thing that separates you from the ocean at Cape Hatteras is a thin strip of beach.
All this being said I’d join you in a heartbeat if I was free for a month when you plan to go
Also key is a set of good paper charts and a ICW cruising guide.
Make sure the chips in your plotter have the detail for the ICW
I used Seaclear on my notebook as a back up.

[Time2Go]

I did this exact trip 2 years ago, leaving at the end of the sailboat show in Annapolis.
The trip would have been impossible without a chart plotter in some spots,
particularly going through Norfolk harbor where we got buzzed more than once by
military helicopters. They take security very seriously and will definitely intercept you
if you stray out of the channel in their direction. The marks are far apart and
we always had one of us (only a crew of 2) at watch with a pair off high power binoculars. The guaranteed channel depth width is very narrow in spots and if you wander a bit and you can run aground very easy. We took the Virginia Cut route, to the
Albemarle Sound to Beaufort NC. The Albemarle sound can get pretty gnarly in bad weather and the chart plotter was key again. Long stretches between markers that can be
hard to see in bad weather. We drew 5’6” so staying in the middle of the channel was
extremely important to us. As far as I know Sailing in the ICW is Not Legal
and fuel will be an issue this time of year so I would definitely not miss any opportunity
to top off and would bring a few 5 gallon cans just to be safe. There are plenty of nice spots to anchor out at BUT you have to be aware that they are not everywhere.
There are some days where you might have to stop at 2 in the afternoon because there
is no way your going to make the next spot before dark. IMHO trying to run at night
Is just plain not smart. Yea maybe if you had a pilot aboard who really knew the route
It Would be different but I wouldn’t do it for sure and besides
It’s one heck of a beautiful ride, spectacular in some spots, Why miss them?
We went outside from Beaufort and were in Cape Canaveral in 3 days
And wanted to make some time and sail a bit.
You are going to be COLD this time of year. We did it in the end of October
And it was Cold in spots. Remember that the only thing that separates you from the ocean at Cape Hatteras is a thin strip of beach.
All this being said I’d join you in a heartbeat if I was free for a month when you plan to go
Also key is a set of good paper charts and a ICW cruising guide.
Make sure the chips in your plotter have the detail for the ICW
I used Seaclear on my notebook as a back up.

[lostsoul]

I disagree about the chart plotter.

I had the book, and the chart book. You know the flip one with the spiral binding?

Yes the marks get far apart on the big water, but so what.

It is an easy trip navigation wise.

[zboss]

It took us 5 weeks from Annapolis to Fort Pierce this year. Actually longer because we stopped in Norfolk for 5 days, oriental for 5 days, and st Augustine for three weeks.... Etc. we ran from 6:30 AM till 5 PM 6 or 7 days a week until we cried uncle. It's just too much.

We left December 4th and froze all the way until Cape Canaveral. Be sure you buy the best foul weather gear available, otherwise you may lose some toes and fingers. We also have a full enclosure, an insulated hull, and a killer diesel heater.

It is nigh impossible to run major parts of the icw at night and to do so is running the possibility of hitting a giant barge coming around the corner, in an area that is basically pitch black with no lit markers , missing markers, shifted markers, etc. not at all recommended. None of those are on charts.

Water will be tough to come by. Most everyone in the northern half of our trip had already turned off their water supplies.

I would highly recommend you waiting it out till next season. Cruisers that we have met generally start back north in April/may, so by the time you got here you would have to start back up.

[Lodesman]

I'm not advocating running at night, but I wanted clarification as to whether it's a case of "you wouldn't want to" as opposed to "you can't do it." There has to be the realization that the sun sets pretty early at this time of year. By the time we got into Norfolk, the Gilmerton bridge was closed for rush hour and wouldn't open for us until after sunset. We only had a little bit further to go in the dark, so I can't say what challenges may have presented themselves, only that the little bit we did wasn't daunting. Looking at the charts, it seems that a reasonable number of marks are lit, and frankly we had fewer surprises from barges sneaking around corners - because we saw their lights. I guess I just want to be sure that if I get stuck out in the dark again, I'm not violating some special ICW law.

[Time2Go]

Lost soul
I'm not saying that you can't do this run without a plotter
But it sure makes it easier. We drew 5'6" and had to stay dead center in the dredged Chanel. There are spots where the bottom really moves about and shoals up. We where constantly exchanging info with other boats about these and about a few missing markers. Once we went outside the plotter was turned off and we steered by compass, every few hours I would update our progress
On good old paper charts via a gps snapshot

[Lodesman]

Bon Voyage Max (assuming you're not stuck in ice). Where are you stopping along the way?

[AnchorageGuy]

Originally Posted by Time2Go

Lost soul
I'm not saying that you can't do this run without a plotter
But it sure makes it easier. We drew 5'6" and had to stay dead center in the dredged Chanel. There are spots where the bottom really moves about and shoals up. We where constantly exchanging info with other boats about these and about a few missing markers. Once we went outside the plotter was turned off and we steered by compass, every few hours I would update our progress
On good old paper charts via a gps snapshot

It's really necessary to have the most current information on the waterway just before heading out. Things do change on a regular basis. Salty Southeast Cruiser's Net is a good source. Staying in the center of the channel all the time will surely get you aground in some places . The center of the channel may have shoaled and the channel off to the red or the green side might carry more water. There is much more to transiting the ICW than just staying between the lines. Chuck

[STXCUTTER]

I'm about to do the ditch from the West river to Beaufort NC and jump the GS from there to STX USVI.
I actually left last week and stopped at Solomons to "weather the weather."
Autohelm took a dump so I did a U turn for repairs.
Agree with the plotter or in my case a hand held garmin Oregon 400s w/pre-loaded charts. For $150 on Craigslist
there's no reason not to have one. I got fogged in at the bridge and would have been SOL w/o it.
I was frozen into the west river for three weeks before leaving. The "bad" weather was nothing Farther south... Annapolis got it worse. 60's down there this week!

THINGS I WONT LEAVE WITHOUT
!. Updated charts
2.My 3 hand held GPS units (back ups for back ups)
3.Laptop (maptech charts and charting software as well as Garmin homeport w/active captin for the hand held)
4.PROPPER CLOTHES
5.HEAT

Oh yeah and that other stuff hahaha.

Never dawned on me to look for crew... Great Idea :-)

Cheers
Oliver

[STXCUTTER]

Anyone wanna share the watch on a two man crewed Ericson 27 to St. Croix??? :-D

Cheers
Oliver