if you are up for speed and time and not seeing the sites then do as many outside runs as you can. Watch the weather carefully and pick your windows but you won't have to slow down to pass, you will do a lot of that, for bridges or no wake zones and you can run at full speed if you like. Our take on changes on the ICW can be found here,
Voyages of Sea Trek: Changes In The ICW so our preferences after several trips is to do as much outside as possible. This cuts down on the overall time to Floriduh quite a bit.