Understand your charts and don't believe the magenta line.
Understand your charts and don't believe the magenta line.
I second Pgitug's comments regarding the ICW. For the past 2 years I was a co-leader for the SAIL ICW rally. We guided 20 boats south each year. I have had a chance to use a variety of charts and guides. The Doyle "CruiseGuide to the ICW", is a piloting guide and it is exceptional. No glitz, no advertisements just the facts, and unlike any other guide it can be used going north and south. Skipper Bob is bit out of date and has errors. The Doyle anchorage guides are far better. Anyone headed south in the fall ought to check into the Hampton VA Snowbird Rendezvous. The city puts on a great event with social events as well as ICW and cruising seminars.
The first time going out and around Hatteras I made sure conditions were absolutely perfect. Since, I've gone in more normal conditions.
I think every body of water, every location is said by someone to be bad. The ICW dirty and shoals, the PNW too rough, Fort Lauderdale too crowded, Long Island Sound dangerous. They all hold something in common. They are great places for boating if you're prepared. It's that simple. The first time in an area you spend time learning all you can before starting and then you're very cautious. I've stopped completely before and sat a moment because something just didn't feel right. Well, it wasn't right. The floods had raised water levels so it was much changed from normal. I got my bearings and resumed. The first time going out and around Hatteras I made sure conditions were absolutely perfect. Since, I've gone in more normal conditions. 10' swells off the coast of Washington were entirely new to me. But the period was so long that they were nothing as I would have thought.
I think most people are well intended and want to be conservative in their recommendations. However, sometimes caution turns into fear mongering. Also, some are intimidated by areas they haven't been and perceive and report things worse than they really are.
There is no where you can go in a boat that can't potentially be dangerous. However, all the places we talk about here can be enjoyed under the right conditions.
As to ICW in or out, both can be fun. A mixture can be enjoyable. However, either can be safe and enjoyable.
Good take. When I was 25 years old, I regularly fished off of Cape Fear in a 20 foot boat, single engine, no GPS (only Loran C), CB radio, barely enough fuel for the round trip (we carried an extra 12 gallons in a portable tank). Never got towed, never got seriously scared. Broke the Loran antenna one day, and ran in 20 miles with only a compass.
Maybe God saves drunks and fools (sometimes we were both, in the same day), but in this day of EPIRBS, GPS, and instantaneous smart-phone communication, we may have become overly cautious.
I apologize in advance for the thread drift.
Moriches has often been a little sketchy and apparently now more than ever.
Severe Shoaling At Moriches Inlet Poses Danger To Boaters - Remsenburg - 27east
Go inside and do the ICW once. In all likelihood you won't stop at all interesting locations during that trip, but you will get a flavor of the towns and anchorages. .
There are some sections of the ICW where the water is skinny and there are places where the route is more circuitous. We stayed in the ditch when the weather offshore, or the route made sense. Other places, we went offshore. But taking a bee line offshore at 7kt, as opposed to ducking in and out of adjacent inlets, usually meant making overnight runs. My recollection is we never saw any part of Georgia!!
If I just wanted to see the ocean, I could just go 15 off and drop the hook. I go inside for all of it. Good, bad, and ugly.
"We want to explore various places but not take forever getting to them."
AS always the different styles,
The Voyage , or the Visit?
We want to explore various places but not take forever getting to them.