F51: We've made the trip
Texas to
Florida three times eastbound (most recently between March and May) and twice westbound. All three eastbound trips were in the ICW plus
offshore (Dec 04-Jan 05, ICW to Gulfport MS, then offshore to
Pensacola, then offshore to
Key West; Feb 08, ICW to
New Orleans, Miss River south to Gulf, then offshore to
Dry Tortugas; March-May 11, ICW to Biloxi, then offshore hops to
Panama City, St. Joe, ICW to Appalachicola, offshore to Tampa, ICW between Tampa and Ft. Myers Beach, offshore to Fl. Keys). Both westbound trips were offshore (Cozumel,
Mexico to Galveston Bay in June 05, Key West to Galveston Bay in June 10).
For the Gulf ICW get
Skipper Bob's. There is some out of date info (we have a dozen or more corrections to send in after our last trip), but the anchorage info doesn't really change. We've used
Skipper Bob's on the
east coast ICW and like it, and we liked it for Gulf ICW and the trip along the
west coast of
Florida also.
For westbound, we enjoyed our passages, but did them at the right time of the year. After listening to a lot of folks who sailed eastbound across the Gulf, I'm convinced we did it right all three times (except that the mouth of the
Mississippi isn't really far enough east before heading south - it was still too much of a beat for us and it wasn't a fun
passage, although it was March and there may not be many good windows in the gulf in March). Not sure where you're headed, but after skipping it twice we enjoyed cruising the
west coast of Florida (the
Panama City - St. Joe - Appalachacola bend and then the Tampa - Ft. Myers - Everglades stretch). It was more motorboating and less sailing than we prefer, especially between Tampa and Ft. Myers beach, but we enjoyed it.
We're back in the Chesapeake for the summer.
Good luck.
Dave