Would You Travel the Intracoastal Waterway in January ?

[UWOA]

Originally Posted by osirissail

Sandra B - - boy, asking for recommendations for interesting places to stop from Delaware to Florida is like asking how many grains of sand there are on a beach. There are enough great/interesting places to stop that I have done the ICW from Delaware/Pennsylvania (where my kids live) twelve times and still there are many places I have missed and would like to stop and see.
- - Skipping over hundreds and only mentioning some of the highlights starts with Chesapeake City at the west end of the Chespeake and Delaware Canal; Baltimore inner harbor (recommend Anchorage Marina); Annapolis; Reedville; Hampton, Va (recommend Public Piers); Norfolk (recommend anchorage across from Waterside Marina); Coinjock (just because nobody knows where it is); Belhaven (recommend River Forest Marina); Oriental; Morehead City/Beaufort; Wrightsville Beach; Georgetown (recommend Harbor Walk Marina); Charleston; Beaufort SC (recommend Downtown Marina); Savannah (Recommend Thunderbolt Marina); Fernandina Beach (recommend Fernandina Harbor Marina); St Augustine; Daytona Beach; Titusville (Titusville City Marina - access to Kennedy Space Center); Cocoa (Cocoa Village Anchorage - I live there and you can visit Kennedy Space Center from there and also Cocoa Beach); Lake Worth/Palm Beach; Ft Lauderdale (recommend Las Olas or Ft Lauderdale City Docks); and Miami (Miami Beach anchorage and Biscayne Bay - Coconut Grove Marina/mooring field).
- - For planning purposes you can only do about 50 nm per day in the ICW so there are dozens of anchorages and smaller places to just spend the night then move on.
- - Also from Morehead City/Beaufort NC can can start doing "outside" in the Atlantic (when weather permits) over-nighters to chop off days if not weeks from parts of the trip. There are plenty of "inlets" to allow access back "inside" to visit the highlights mentioned.

Osirissail pretty much says it all. If you're going to find a long term slip at a marina in water that's not gonna freeze every night, I suggest you look at places from Charleston SC south to the Jacksonville area. They're the most reasonable price-wise for monthly slip rentals ... and of course there is the mooring field at San Fernandina which is even more economical. I would look at the Active Captain website interactive chart section for uptodate info on the marinas and anchorages along the ICW.

Remember ... always borrow money from a pessimist ... he never expects to get it back.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Congratulations!

[jzk]

Has anyone tried installing an automotive type heater working off of your freshwater cooling system? You are running your engine anyway. With a full cockpit enclosure, you could even run a flexible hose with a blower to heat that as well.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by jzk

Has anyone tried installing an automotive type heater working off of your freshwater cooling system? You are running your engine anyway. With a full cockpit enclosure, you could even run a flexible hose with a blower to heat that as well.

Yes, second time I've posted this link in three days.

Tech Wiki – Catalina 34 International Association

Do a search under "Heat." Lots of posts.

[wsmurdoch]

We have traveled ten times from New Bern, NC to Miami in January/February on our way to the Bahamas. Two years ago before we left I installed a bus heater just like the one described in Stu Jackson's link above. That heater is a great thing. Although it only heats the boat while the engine is running, it dries the boat out every day as we motor south in the ICW. Combined with a 12V bunk heater that pre-warms the vee berth, the last two trips have been much more pleasant.

Unlike the story in the link, I did install a single three way valve in the line to the heater to bypass the heater in warmer weather. Motoring in no wind on a hot July day, it is at least physiologically a good thing.

http://irish-eyes-to-the-bahamas.blogspot.com/

[valhalla360]

It can be done but lots of hassles particularly if it's a new boat you are working the bugs out of. Georgia/S.Carolina is about as far north as I would want to be in January and even then it can get cold.

Is there a reason for the start scenario? If you already have the boat, can you do a couple of shorter trips and at least get down to NC? I assume you aren't talking about leaving in the next week or two and just now trying to figure things out.

Is there a time limit on the trip? If it's the start of full time liveaboard, I might sit tight in the current marina with the electric heat running and then look to visit northern destinations (and Canada if necessary for visa limitations) before heading south late summer.

[wsmurdoch]

Originally Posted by wsmurdoch

Motoring in no wind on a hot July day, it is at least physiologically a good thing.

I meant "psychologically a good thing".

[zboss]

We originally left Annapolis in early December. It was very cold. Diesel pumps were closed until we got to North Carolina and even there the water to the docks were shut off. The thing to consider is that you need to get way way south in Florida to get some warmth. By the time you get there... it’s time to go back north. Personally, I wouldn’t do that again. Instead I would wait until spring and then head north to Maine and catch the next season down south.... but that is us.