ICW south bound of Beaufort NC

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by BlackHeron

..........
.......... 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. ......

BlackHeron word is true! Almost all groundings in the ICW are in positions where there is deeper water to your port or starboard. There's a skill to keeping in the channel and it is NOT following the magenta line on the electronic screen. Remember that the markers are not your targets, but the outside edge of your best fit curve. Be sure to view the markers and background in parallax to monitor your leeway.

[MicHughV]

whether sailing the ICW is prone to groundings or not, it is infinitely less stressful to go offshore...

[smj]

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.

We were north bound on the ICW years ago and approaching the rock pile. We did our usual securite call on the VHF as we are a wide beamed catamaran, no reply. About half way through we met up with a tow and barge and moved over to the side. As he approached he sucked a lot of the water out from under us leaving us aground on the rocks. Of course after he passed the water flooded in and no problems. Thankfully he had a single small barge, nothing like what traverses the Louisiana and Texas ICW.

[smacksman]

Sailing up and down in the Atlantic is less stressful, granted. But as a tourist, I wanted to see America and meet Americans, so for me the ICW was wonderful. Yes I ran aground sometimes but I manage to do that in Europe!

[Happ]

Originally Posted by Sailor_Al

I will be bound for the Florida east coast with a 45 Hunter that has a 5 foot draft.

Leaving Virginia, I will travel the ICW passed the capes to Beaufort NC.

Would a 5 foot draft be an issue if I continued on rhe ICW through South Carolina and Georgia?

I live in Beaufort NC and have done the trip from Annapolis to Beaufort and yes you can do it with 5’ draft. Going further south watch tide in some areas where draft can be an issue. Other than that you are good to go. Keep in mind air draft needs to be 65’ or less.

It’s a nice trip enjoy!

[OldSailors]

Heads up to anyone on the ICW just north of Altamaha River (near Darien, GA).
There is a submerged object in the ICW channel that has at least one metal bar or beam within feet of the surface at high tide (partially exposed mid to low tide). The obstruction was marked, but reports indicate that the marker buoy had drifted away from the hazard. The private warning buoy was supposedly moved back to the obstruction, but there is no guarantee it won't "drift" again!



I looked at a heavy displacement sailboat that hit the obstruction and is on the hard for repairs. The owner and his wife are fortunate that their Stamas 44 had more than 12 layers of glass on the forward hull, as the impact peeled 10 layers back along an intrusion two feet long. Fortunately no water intrusion, crew OK, and boat repairable.


Still trying to find someone with Lat/Lon of obstruction. Will report if/when I get more details.

[Scrosby]

Navionics has crowd sourced Sonar which is updated weekly via internet. Invaluable. Did not do SC/GA since we drew 6'7" with 64 ft mast. But, with Navionics, we never went aground from VA to Beaufort and from Fernandina to Ft Lauderdale. Every place that was mentioned as problem, we saw quite a few aground, not us. Good luck, have fun and enjoy the ocean sails. Agree, ICW is not fun (except for the places you stop/explore), offshore is beautiful.

[Defarm]

I have a 40’ HR with 6’5” draft, 60’ above waterline height, 54 Yanmar engine and a bulb keel. I am a solo sailor 9 times out of 10. I have done the run you are describing in 2016 (Tx to NC), 2017 (NC to FL and back to NC) and 2018 (CT to FL to ME to CT). 2019 was CT to ME to MD. I end each day deciding the next day’s plans using primarily Waterway Guide, Accuweather, Mike’s Weather Page, Dockwa and Tides4Fishing. Each morning I verify no overnight changes. All are done on an iPad and cell coverage is OK almost the whole time. My boat has reliable plotter and auto helm with a nice remote for sitting on the foredeck with a camera and a cold one. It’s a peaceful trip and you can stay out of the silt or plow through it with good planning. Talking to other captains transiting can help direct your passage to hug or swing wide of certain channel markers. Most deeper cuts are on the windward side. Variable silting at certain cuts is prevalent but passable. I take some day trips offshore for fishing and the love of the blue water in nice conditions. It’s a waterman’s pub crawl with plenty of nice places to tie up or anchor out. Certain areas on your trip require the right timing and conditions, most problems will be because you timed it wrong. Make a sandwich and wait a couple of hours, at most.

[feudalkaos]

Originally Posted by Sailor_Al

I will be bound for the Florida east coast with a 45 Hunter that has a 5 foot draft.

Leaving Virginia, I will travel the ICW passed the capes to Beaufort NC.

Would a 5 foot draft be an issue if I continued on rhe ICW through South Carolina and Georgia?

We are in the process of doing this trip but going north. We are in a Hunter 410 with a 5.5 foot draft and a 59 foot bridge clearance. We have not bumped bottom so far. We just got up to the Charleston area.

There have been a few sketchy areas that would surely have too little depth near low tide so be sure to play the tides as needed. We have been using the Bob423 tracks which really give so much information and detail. If you follow his track and read his information about the areas you will be in pretty good shape. So far it has not let us down.

[sowwaninii]

Get Bob423 ICW guide. Excellent resource with bridge heights, depths,etc., all in great detail and well documented.

[rnnoft]

There are several groups on Facebook focused on traveling the ICW. Main one I would recommend looking at and joining is:
icw cruising guide by bob423

Bob is constantly traveling the ICW and making his track updates available on aquamaps. There is a wealth of information being shared on depth conditions, bridge closings, navigation updates etc. Really great forum to ask questions as it connects you with folks with first hand info.

[bmwhyte]

I have a Catalina 400 with 5'6" draft. Came through from the St Johns River to St Simons Island June 20, 2020, 2 hours short of high tide. The shallow section on Jekyll creek has been partially dredged and is deep (well, deep is a southern term here). I did not see less than 4' below the keel for a depth of about 9'6". Stick to the eastern side of the marked channel after passing under the bridge and you will be just fine.

The only other section is the Little Mud River north of St Simons Island. All I can say about that stretch is: plan to transit it maybe 2 hours or so before high tide in case you need a rising tide to help you through.

Enjoy, the countryside and marshes a extremely pretty at the moment.

[happydog]

While we prefer sailing outside as much as possible, two weeks ago we did go into the ICW at St Catherine's GA and went up to the Beaufort River in SC, then went from Calabash NC inside to Beaufort NC. We draft 5'3 and have 65' air draft with wind indicator and lightning arrestor. You have to carefully manage tides. We erred on getting under the bridges at lower tides so we did have to watch depths a lot. We hit bottom once near Savannah and once just before Beaufort NC. We did 15 bridges, just clearing a few and scraping the bird spike on one. I would do it again if weather was really inclement outside and I wanted to keep moving. Highly recommend following the notes on Active Captain on the ICW especially on shoaling, this helped us avoid 99% of potential problems.

[Woodland Hills]

I posted this previously, but AquaMaps has the most up to date Army Corps of Engineers surveys. We came north last week from Savannah and had no contact with the bottom.

[JebLostInSpace]

Just made the trip from GA to Chesapeake, almost entirely in the ICW, singlehanded, in a Hunter 410 with 5.5 ft draft and 58 ft air draft. I touched bottom exactly once, and it was user error passing on the wrong side of a marker. Luckily, the tide was making so I floated off half an hour later with no damage.

With careful consideration of the chart and markers, the entire ICW should be passable for you. Remember to always follow physical markers over what the chart shows. If the chart disagrees with the floating markers, it is always because the floating marker was moved to account for a migrating shoal.

I also got the ActiveCaptain app (no affiliation), which was hugely helpful for getting updated data of shoal movements and shallow areas. By checking my route for warnings on ActiveCaptain, I avoided many potential incidents.

A modern chartplotter with real-time gps location overlaid onto an up-to-date chart was also extremely helpful.

There were 2 places I recall where I chose to wait for a high tide to cross a shallow spot. Since it was only the 2 times, I don't see it as a reason to avoid the ICW at all.

I will say, you will have much more fun going outside and getting some canvas up whenever possible. I was single handing, and didn't want to maintain a watch alone for more than ~12 hours, so I had only a few times that I could jump outside for a day, and get back inside to anchor overnight. If you have crew, I would definitely encourage going outside just for the sheer joy of it, but the ICW in 2020 is definitely manageable for a 5 ft draft.