ICW

They said it couldn’t be done, but damn it, we did it! We sailed the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, in light winds, no less. Everyone else just motors. Like many other cruisers, I have also transited the canal twice under power and can tell you from personal experience that none of ...read more

Being a cruising sailor, one is already practicing a kind of social distancing. But coastal cruisers, and those transiting the Intracoastal Waterway, in particular, still have to return to land for re-provisioning and things like water, fuel, and pump-outs. When you dock in a ...read more

There are many mantras experienced cruisers like to pass on to those less experienced. First and foremost among these is: “Never sail to a schedule.” After that comes: “Choose your weather window carefully.” Unfortunately, this past spring, my husband, Brian, and I violated both ...read more

Last summer, I was delighted to be invited to join two of my girlfriends on a sailing trip—my third, no less! This trip would surely herald my promotion from nautical novice to savvy seafaring expert. I was to join them on a charter in Southwest Florida and sail along the ...read more

The magenta line was first added to charts in 1913. It was created to aid commercial navigation up and down the East Coast and around the Gulf Coast. To aid pilots running through the convoluted mix of waterways, a magenta colored line was drawn on the charts to indicate which ...read more

Travel on the ICW is made simpler if you follow the mantra “half tide rising”. If you are headed towards and planning to transit one of the infamous ICW “trouble spots,” the advice is: enter the area on a rising tide and exit the area before the tide starts to drop precipitously. ...read more

Last April, my wife, Marjorie, and I decided to take our Tartan 4100, Meri, north to Maryland from her winter home in Hobe Sound, Florida. This, in turn, meant deciding whether to stay in the “Ditch” for the duration or go offshore part of the way. Although we had both been ...read more

Dawho Creek STM 495 has been a growing area of concern. It has shoaled to less than 6 feet at MLLW and you do not have to be far of course to see less than 5 feet. There are USACE surveys through Dawho Creek from the fall of 2017. They show a deep-water route to the north of the ...read more

13. Ramshorn Creek STM 570 As you pass G39 and R40 there are reports of shoaling near the red. It is recommended that you stay on the green side if your draft is over 6 feet. On our track on the green side, we saw 7.3 feet MLLW. A deep draft sailboat with us was too close to the ...read more

12. Hell Gate STM 602 The very name of this short ¾ mile stretch of the ICW strikes fear into the hearts of many cruisers. It needn’t. While at 3’7” it is the shallowest section of the ICW we have seen, with 7 to 8 feet of tidal range, it is very easy to plan your transit with ...read more

2018 ICW Southern GA, STM 684 to STM 640 Note: We use Navionics Sonar Charts in parallel with our chart plotter for navigating the ICW. They are another tool to have at your navigation station, they are pretty accurate, and much more detailed and accurate bathymetry than NOAA or ...read more

As the northbound migration begins, we are getting some early reports on conditions along the ICW. The overall impression this spring is that after the damages caused by the hurricanes, the winter storms have apparently not made too many additional changes. There is even some ...read more

The ICW trouble spots develop anywhere an inlet or river crosses the ICW. At every change of the current, sand moves into and out of the ICW channel. Most of the changes are gradual. Whether gradual, or cataclysmic due to passing storms, you do want to have up to date ...read more

Whether you are in the planning stages for a southbound ICW cruise in 2018 or you are looking at a northbound trip this spring, it is important to know where the shallow spots are along the ICW. It is wise to mark your charts and familiarize yourself with these so that you are ...read more

After hurricane Irma bashed through Florida and the southeastern coast of Georgia and South Carolina, significant damage to infrastructure has been reported. Damage to marinas and other facilities is relatively easy to see and report. There are several resources to track the ...read more

A decade ago, here in the pages of SAIL, I wrote of my experiences with the inaugural Classic Boat Rally fleet as it sailed along the Intracoastal Waterway from Savannah, Georgia, to Charleston, South Carolina. It was a six-day cruise that led the boats through some of the ...read more

As far as fleets go, the collection of boats that greeted me as I motored into Hampton, Virginia, in late October was as varied as they come: sloops, cutters, catamarans, a trawler and even a trailer-sailer, all geared up and ready for an adventure. I had brought our Norlin 34, ...read more