Miami - Nantucket live on Webcam...

This thread should never die.

Pascal - As one who has made the ICW trip numerous times over the years, please know how much I appreciated your sharing your trip with us.

Some day, we should begin a thread sharing our various experiences traversing the ICW. For those of you who have never made that trip, you, as a boat owner, should make every effort to do it.

The experience is way beyond sitting at your computer and viewing the screen. Don't get me wrong. The screen worked for me this year, but you need to know that it's living and breathing life at its best. Believe me, it'll be very easy to make some excuse as to "why I cannot do it this year". The only response that I have for this statement is "long time dead".

Thanks, again, Pascal. I hope that you know just how much it meant to me and to our fellow (unisex) ROs.

Best regards,
 
lol... reviving this thread with a pic. of my dog lounging on the sunpad!

Bill, i agree... a trip up or down the ICW is an incredible experience and it's not as bad as many make it seems with horror stories of shoaling and hitting things left and right. It takes a little preparation and there are a couple of spots where you want to play the tides (little mud river, jekyl creek, and to some extend Hell Gate) but it is worth it. I can't imagine doing the run outside and missing it all.

especially these days, with the cost of fuel, you may as well take it slow and enjoy the ICW while you can... with commercial traffic nearly gone, i wonder how long it will be maintained.
 
So what would be the smallest boat you would consider making that trip on? With my new boat, I imagine i could make the trip, although the gas would kill me, but if I coudl take a couple of montsh off I would love to take the boat to Florida and beyond.
 
there are very few areas where size matters although in all fairness we had some pretty good weather along the way. With a smaller boat, you can use the NJ ICW so that section isn't an issue. The delaware and Ches. can be troublesome but with a flexible schedule worst case scenario is a few days waiting.

The ICW is well protected for the most part, again, you may have to wait a couple of days to cross some of the sounds but there is no reason why a 20 to 30' express coudlnt' do it.

Fuel isnt' a big issue if you slow down to 7 or 8kts... I bet your boat sips fuel at that speed...
 
Scott,

Pascal is right about the displacement speed.

And according to the book, you only draft 2 1/2 feet !

With that 13'beam, you ave the equivalent volume of a 36-38 footer and your hull design gives you the ride of a 40' vessel.

Compare your situation with someone with a 33'-36' 3 year old boat with payments & high insurance.

Ouch.

Your annual boat budget allows you the luxury of a lot more fuel.

RWS
 
Scott, having now made the trip from Baltimore down to Marathon and back up I can say your boat is very well suited to the task. We are anchored in Haverstraw Bay, NY as I write this, yet another scenic detour on our way to Massachusetts. There are plenty of great spots to anchor out the entire length of the trip; do that a few extra nights and you have off-set your fuel cost. We are doing it at about a tenth the overall speed Pascal did (we left Marathon March 15th); the journey is the destination and we could have easily done it another ten times slower.

Bill 2 has got it right. We decided last year to chuck it all for a couple of years while we are still healthy; didn't want to be another 20 years down the road regretting we never pursued one of our dreams when we had the chance. This will be without doubt the dumbest thing I have done financially; on the other hand all our old friends we have seen in the meantime tell us how healthy and relaxed we look and how much they wish they could do something like this.

George

1981 Hatteras 56MY "Incentive"

(Twin DD 8v92TIs, by the way)
 
Scott, the great loop has been done in just about everything from a 70' Viking to a waverunner and an outboard powered canoe. The ICW is about 25% of the loop cruise and if you pick your weather, apparently anyone can do it.
 
Thanks, I figured it coudl be done. Now to find time to actually do it. With younger kids, (7 and 8) I don't have a ton of free time. But one of the reasons we wanted the bigger boat was to start venturing out of the bay more. We are using this sumer to get used to the boat, fix the minor issues and get her the way we want. Then next summer we look to do some extended cruing, maybe a trip to NYC and back. I figure I can work my way into it as time alots.
 
Hello All! Naomi here! I don't know about Pascal, but I keep re-living my experience on this trip as well as the comraderie with all the ROs that had something funny to say and followed along while they worked. My back also serves me as a reminder for I'm still feeling discomfort from hauling the oil pails. We were even invited to Connecticut from Giolic (I haven't forgotten but did forget to thank you). I look forward to entertaining Scott if he ever gets down here.

And the freezing weather I thought was unbearable is now a distant memory, and NOW fantasize about it due to the heat and humidity-hell I'm living in now. I hope this thread never ends!

And to those of you dreaming about cruising the ICW, JUST DO IT!
 
Hi Naomi! You missed some of the best wetherof the season up here by only a few days - and some of the worst weather of the season by only a few days. (Seems every time I'm at work, the weather is beautiful, and when I leave and get ready to go find the lobsters, the rain, wind, and fog roll in. This morning I may go anyways, even in the fog.)
 
mike... I didn't know there were fog, rain and wind under the surface where the lobsters are!
 
There wasn't. But there is on the surface, and that makes paddling out there in a kayak no fun. Not real thrilling with a wrecked shoulder (just when I thought it had gotten better, I decided to go kayaking - that was smart, huh?), but I finally got my new regulators in the water this morning. First dive of the year, and the Mares Abyss is one sweet regulator. Didn't have enough weight on the first dive, so on the second dive I only dove with half the wetsuit - water was plenty warm enough. Had trouble getting in my rig standing up second time (first time I just tossed it overboard and strapped in in the water) - shoulder burned so bad I was almost shaking when I tried to reach back and lift. End result, though, onyl saw one small lobster, and he was under a few rocks that I didn't feel like going under diving solo - too sketchy for the first dive of the year. Second dive site, on the way back in, wasn't bad at all - I'll e-mail you about that one.
 
I would love to get down to Miami again. Haven't been there in a few years. Not int the summer though, too nice upi here :)
 
George if you are wifi'd on the Rondout Creek let me have an update, we are up this way and we think we saw you go by the marina.
 
quote:
And you don't want to be there during the hurricane season!!!
Click to expand...


That would be June 1 - the end of November which is pretty much our boating season. Besides, there hasn't been a Hurricane here for 17 years.

John
 
Hey Dan, we were at the Kingston city docks last night and took a little tour of the creek this afternoon before heading back down stream to catch the ebb current. We are back anchored in Haverstraw as I write this. Like every other Hudson newbie since the beginning of time, we were awestruck by the experience; certainly one of the big highlights of the trip so far. Ann has an old friend in Rhinebeck we hung out with this morning, and we had a surprisingly good Tex-Mex dinner at the Armadillo last night (we lived in Texas and California a long time, and needed a fix).

Tomorrow we head out Long Island Sound, probably Oyster Bay and visit with more of the Admiral's family. We can squeeze under the Harlem River bridges with the antennas down, so that should be a whole different type of experience.

George
 
George,

Just curious! The Harlem River? If I may ask, why the Harlem River rather than going around Manhattan?
 
Actually, I couldn't get the tide (for fitting under the bridges) and current sequence (coming down river, hitting Hell Gate, etc.) timed to my liking today, so we did go around the long way. We'd been by the West Side a couple days before, and up the East River years ago on a tour boat, so I was looking for something different, that's all.

We had a fine time, saw the "waterfall" under the Brooklyn Bridge, and it was a nice day on the water.

George

currently lying Manhasset Bay, LI.
 
Pascal,

going to leave Charleston end of August and go to Baltimore via ICW and/or outside.

Would you be so kind as to point out the crtical areas regarding the tight spots on the ICW from Charleston north?

I got a 4'2" draft.

thanks.......UB
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top