ICW south bound of Beaufort NC

[Woodland Hills]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

The ICW at McClellanville and Hell Gate has been dredged; a few other places too, but I don't remeber which, off hand.

AquaMap USA with the "Master" option includes Coprs of Army Engineers survey maps overlaid onto the marine charts, and we found that very useful for our ICW trips over this last winter.

Timing some specific area transits with the tides is very useful.

-Chris

This is what we do and it worked out well when we came north last week. 5.5’ draft and never touched. Just use the tides to your advantage as much as you can follow the Army Corps of Engineers survey path to stay in the deepest water. We bypassed Ga due to their restrictions on anchoring by going outside from St Mary’s to Savannah, anchoring at Cumberland Island and then just off the ICW a mile north of the Savannah River. It was a long day, there is a lot of daylight this time of year.

[Woodland Hills]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

There's much good advice above. I would add just two concerns about this ICW trip. There are two locations where it could be risky to meet large commercial traffic. One is the short, but narrow and swift current Elliot Cut just south of Charleston, SC between the Wahoo Creek Bridge and the Stono River. The other is the rock cut sometimes called the "rockpile" at North Myrtle Beach. This stretch has a rocky ledge outside the center that can be unseen at higher tide. At these locations it would be wise to call on your VHF inquiring about any large commercial traffic approaching you before you commit to the passage.

We passed through the rockpile yesterday morning at low tide with no issue, just like ever other time we had gone through there. This is much ado about nothing IMHO.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by chris mac

it sure is easier with the gulf stream. Southbound would be tough

It should be pointed out that in the region being discussed the Gulf Stream is well offshore - 100NM or more. Inshore from that, there is generally a weak countercurrent (ie. southbound) 1/4 kt or so. While the GS runs very close to shore in southern Florida, it starts to diverge in the Cocoa/Ft Pierce region and is well off by Jacksonville.

[MicHughV]

this is true.....there appears to be a relatively weak southern flowing current that runs along the shore from about NC down to north FLA. The Gulf Stream is waaaaay out there..

if you download "Mike's Weather Page" there are maps on there which show the ocean currents off the coast of the USA and the Gulf Stream location and currents elsewhere. There is a slew of other information on there as well...wave heights...wind strength and direction....predictions, etc...probably 20 or more charts....NOAA maps, etc, etc.....if you can't find it there, it probably does not exist. It's a very usual website for tracking hurricanes as well.

[BrianGJS]

We did the trip from Tampa to Lake Ontario a few years ago. Sailed and raced CnC 34 for 25 years then got sick and bought a power boat. I thought you might enjoy some of the blog. We took 38 days for the entire trip and planning for your overnights is important. One night we were anchored in the swamps and watched the final Stanley Cup game. Something right and something wrong about that.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Woodland Hills

We passed through the rockpile yesterday morning at low tide with no issue, just like ever other time we had gone through there. This is much ado about nothing IMHO.

I absolutely agree; however, the concern is meeting large commercial barge traffic that gives you little space to pass the rock ledges. With no oncoming wide beam barges there is no issue.

[Flatswing]

Sail outside preferentially, but I draw 4’ 9” & have no problems even in the known trouble spots. But you have to time the tides & current. Avoid challenging the trouble spots on Lower 1/2 of a falling tide if possible (but then you will get off sooner). As others have mentioned, Aqua maps master version for iPhone/iPad (not sure if they have released the Android version yet) gets you the latest USACE sonar data for $10. Splurge!

[MicHughV]

I will admit, there is one part of the offshore route where one must be diligent, and this is passing Cape Hatteras and also Cape Lookout, but leaving from Beaufort , NC, to head south, you'll miss these two capes....piece of cake from there...

[Enfant Du Vent]

Ahoy Captain Al:
You should say why you're thinking of taking the ICW, it will save all us "offshore" types from needling you <grin>

I was always single handing, so Beaufort / Charleston / St. Augustine was my typical pattern (4 times). Had a 32' full keel sailboat that drew 5' and had an wind vane">Aries wind vane. (Okay 1 year I waited 10 days for a good "weather window" to leave Beaufort....but I was retired so where I sat to read, do maintenance didn't really matter.)

[tomrealest]

Originally Posted by Enfant Du Vent

Ahoy Captain Al:
You should say why you're thinking of taking the ICW, it will save all us "offshore" types from needling you <grin>

I was always single handing, so Beaufort / Charleston / St. Augustine was my typical pattern (4 times). Had a 32' full keel sailboat that drew 5' and had an Aries wind vane. (Okay 1 year I waited 10 days for a good "weather window" to leave Beaufort....but I was retired so where I sat to read, do maintenance didn't really matter.)

I think this is a good route. I would skip all of Georgia. I think it is miserably hot there in the summer.

I also like to stop at Fernandina Beach at the St Mary's River, Ft Pierce, Cape Canaveral , West Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale.

I think a delivery Captain would be good if it worries you.

[MicHughV]

if you plan on traveling the ICW south of Fernandina, be aware that around Amelia Island, it is extremely shallow...even for 5'....need a rising tide to make it here...
just south of St. Augustine, around the Mantanzas Inlet, it is also notorious for shallow spots, so much so that the "deep" water is actually outside the channel markers..

I re-iterate....do yourself a favor, go outside and save yourself a lot of agony....

I have sailed the outside route on numerous occasions, it really is a piece of cake compared to slugging it out on the ditch.

Ok, I have beat this horse to death here........

[BlackHeron]

Get Navionics for your phone. $30 well spent. My $250 Motorola G Android has a GPS accuracy just as good as our B&G chartplotter. Enable Sonarcharts and running aground will mostly be a thing of the past. We run the cell phone at the helm right beside our chartplotter with a $250 navionics chip in it. Good for redundancy and having different scales at the same time.

We have done the ICW 4 times and have never more than bumped a few times that we could easily back off of. Usually it is when we are trying to push into iffy anchorages with shoals and sandbars blocking entrance/exit at low tides. Don't let people tell you that you will constantly run aground. There is plenty of water if you stay in the deep parts and pay attention. If you screw up you'll run aground anywhere.

Buy a TowboatUS tow insurance plan anyhow just in case. You are most likely to run around before you have gained much experience. There are a few places where you might need to wait for a favorable tide in SC and GA.

Download the Bob423 tracks online and load them on your chartplotter and/or phone as they are helpful but don't trust them too much. There are mistakes and often he will go way off into the wrong side of the channel in busy areas with a lot of traffic to gain a foot when there is still 8+ feet staying on the correct side of the road in heavy traffic. You can always tell the idiots following the boobtrack religiously and be damned to other traffic on the ICW looking for the deep water too but coming the other way. Following the boobtrack religiously is as bad as following the magenta line religiously.

I also second the Kettlewell chartbook. It is very handy and it is good to have a paper chart backup to follow along with. But beware that the latest 6th edition is already 8 years old and many things in it are quite out of date, especially the bridge info. Many swing bridges have been removed/replaced and often the bridge schedules have been changed since then. It is better to use ActiveCaptain on your Navionics or just online for phone numbers of marinas, other liated businesses, and especially the locations of anchorages. In Southern Florida some of the anchorages listed in the book are no longer legal.

[Sailor_Al]

Thank you for the advice. I have made a few passages outside as crew; this will be the first as owner of a new to me boat. It will be a first for my crew and Admiral. I want to be sure this trip goes well

I want to go outside with sort hops to rest. Thanks for the information so I can make good choices.

[MicHughV]

happy Admiral = happy boat !!!

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Sailor_Al

Thank you for the advice. I have made a few passages outside as crew; this will be the first as owner of a new to me boat. It will be a first for my crew and Admiral. I want to be sure this trip goes well

I want to go outside with sort hops to rest. Thanks for the information so I can make good choices.

We took our new-to-us boat down the ICW to Beaufort as well. Although we briefly hoisted the sails in Albemarle and Pamlico sounds, it wasn't enough to get fully dialled in. We stayed at Beaufort for a little while and made a few day-sails from there out into the briny deep to get ourselves comfortable with "sailing" our boat, before we made the overnight jumps. I can't remember the name of the inlet just north of Southport, but that gets you back into the ICW if you want to stop there, and you avoid the Frying Pan shoals. It's a similar jump to Charleston. Both of these are also great places to visit btw.
We had intended an overnighter from Chaz to Fernandina, but the wind gods failed us, and we spent another night out, so advanced our schedule to arrive at St Augustine (we had a car rental booked) - I know schedules on a boat are never a good idea, but it wasn't written in stone
We took the ICW from StA down to Ft Pierce - not at all challenging in the channel itself, but you have to expect "depth issues" when you go into marinas/anchorages. Going in and out in Florida is do-able, but you spend half the day motoring in the channels in and out, so not much advantage over motoring down the ditch - the clincher for us was that the weather was iffy for going outside when we did it. Fair winds and enjoy the journey.