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I'm not sure whether it was the dense fog on the first day, waiting for countless restricted bridges, or the thought I'd get to perform three oil & filter changes before reaching our destination , but pretty quickly I formed some definite opinions on the good and bad aspects of extended travel along the ICW. Everything that follows is based on our actual experience. No two journeys are alike, thus your experiences and opinions might well be different from ours! |
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Mostly you will be traveling in protected waters, and are thus somewhat less influenced by weather and sea state. There are however some more exposed areas which could become quite choppy in a blow (e.g. Albemarle Sound). It rained a lot during the first part of our trip, but the wind generally behaved so we didn't have any problems. Channels are almost always well marked and easy to follow even if you don't happen to have the proper charts in front of you. (Not a recommended strategy!). Beware of severe shoaling as you approach any inlet. We bumped the bottom quite hard in the middle of the channel near Carolina Beach along with a few other places, so even if you pay close attention to the marks you may still run aground near low tide. (If you don't pay attention, you may also run into one of the temporary floating buoys... believe me, the bang gets your attention really quickly!) Generally you only travel during the day, and thus you pretty much can guarantee to get a good night's sleep after a hard day at the helm. The only kink to this strategy is that you have to carefully plan your itinerary in advance as you just might not be in a position to reach a suitable anchorage before it gets dark. We got caught out by this a couple of times when prospective anchorages turned out to be too shallow to accommodate our 5'8" draft.
There are a great many "restricted" low bridges which have limited opening schedules during morning and evening rush hour. Sometimes these are spaced in such a manner that you need to motor at top speed in order to reach the next one ready for a once-an-hour opening. A series of three or four such bridges makes for a stressful day! In Virginia and North Carolina, the ICW is very busy with both pleasure and commercial craft. As it is customary to slow to idle speed while being overtaken (to allow the faster craft to pass quickly and with a minimum of wake), continually being overtaken by other boats can become tedious really quickly. Luna Azul is not fast under power, thus it was not uncommon for us to be passed by other sailboats as well as the constant procession of powerboats.
Large barges need room to maneuver, and seeing one coming at you just as you go under a narrow bridge makes your heart beat just a little bit faster. A great many tugs and barges travel at night (along with the casino party boats near Myrtle Beach), and judging safe passing distances under these conditions can be challenging. Radar helps, but at close range the backscatter limits its usefulness. Expect to spend many long hours traveling through marshy areas with little to see or do except steer the boat in a straight line. An autopilot might help in the wider areas, but even this will still require constant tweaking as the majority of the waterway channels don't have sufficient "wander room". (Autopilots are generally not designed to operate in restricted waters, and will not hold a tight enough course even if fitted with a rate gyro) Remember also that bugs live in marshes & mangroves. These same bugs much prefer to spend the night buzzing round the inside your boat feasting on you rather than being left out in the cold! After being seriously mobbed during our first night in Vero Beach, we constructed hatch screens capable or resisting no-see-ums, and now make a point of shutting up the boat well before it gets dark. Finally, it is worth noting that regardless of whether your vessel has a mast & sails or not, you will be motoring most of the way. Occasionally we were able to unfurl the genoa and get a useful increase in speed, but most of the time there was either no wind or it was blowing from the wrong direction. |
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Crew: Trudy and Graham Norbury, and their cats Sylvester and Shadow
Written January 16th, 2004 |
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Copyright © 2004 Trudy and Graham Norbury. All rights reserved. |
