New and New

[hisnhers]

New sailors on a new venture. Leaving Brunswick Landing Marina to sail to NC. Any good moorings/anchorings along the way?

[Vasco]

If you're in the ICW there's lots of anchorages, get Skipper Bob's book. If you're going outside, you're too far offshore, about 60 miles, although you can plot a few "escapes". Look for class A inlets in GA and SC such as Savannah and Charleston.

[hisnhers]

Thanks, Rick I. With a 22' beam, we are very uncomfortable in the ICW. Prefer outside, then coming in to an anchorage. We hope to just sail through, but would like to find some waypoints.

[Vasco]

It's not the beam you have to worry about in the ICW, it's the bridges and the most important thing, your draft. A cat should have no problems. If you have the time and don't mind motoring do the ICW. If you do jaunts outside it might take the same amount of time, going out into the ocean and back into a port wastes a lot of time. I have not tried this but it might be possible to do day trips up the coast but the winds have to be favourable because looking for an anchorage in unfamiliar waters at night is not advisable. Brunswick to Charleston should take less than 30 hours. In this stretch it's either ICW or the Atlantic Ocean. For a newbie the ICW is very interesting. If in a hurry go in one shot.

[stacy]

We have used St Catherine Inlet to anchor at Wallberg creek north of Brunswick, further north have used Wassaw Sound (tricky inlet), Port Royal inlet at north end of Hilton Head( very long inlet but very well marked, and have used N. Edisto inlet South of Charleston( well marked).

[hisnhers]

Thanks Stacy. So sorry that your vessel was hit by lightning. We're on the next dock. Thanks for the tips. We'll put them to good use.

[hisnhers]

Welllll... we're not so comfy steering down the ICW. I mean so far. We've dipped in on a couple occasions on the way north, but found ourselves sitting on the edge. We really love the sailing aspect of our new lifestyle, so we're not in a hurry. And we wouldn't even attempt to drop anchor at night. We like to be settled well before sundown. Thanks for your insights.

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by hisnhers

Thanks, Rick I. With a 22' beam, we are very uncomfortable in the ICW. Prefer outside, then coming in to an anchorage. We hope to just sail through, but would like to find some waypoints.

Don't be hung up on beam. You're only 8-10' wider than a monohull that would typically have 12-14 feet beam at your length. That's 4-5 feet on each side. Surely if you're that close on the waterway you should be rafted together anyway .

Our beam is 28 feet and it's almost never an issue except in a marina, but you just learn how to visualize the parallax when estimating where your bows will go in tight quarters. It's not unlike lining up the angles when playing pool.