ICW at 6 knots - Daily Stops

Would anyone who has traveled the entire ICW at 6 knots be willing to share your daily stops from end to end? I am beginning to plan my future journey from Norfolk to Marathon. I have charts and books but the best info always comes from those who know it best. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to share your destinations in an open forum. Thanks!

I do 7 knots and go as far as Stuart, FL. If you want to post or PM me an email address, I'll send it to you as a Word document. May take a day or two as I need to add a few.

Ted

O C Diver - Thank you for your offer! I sent you a PM with my email address. Please let me know if it didn't get through.

I will give it a try for the northern part that I can remember well. But Active Captain works well for this kind of planning. Go to https://activecaptain.garmin.com/en-US/ and sign in. Then click on Map. You can choose Garmin, NOAA, roads or satellite views.

Here goes from Norfolk South taking the Dismal Swamp route:

Norfolk- get an early start to make it through the early bridge restrictions or go through the night before so you can get to the first lock so you can make it in one day. Or stop at the visitors center and tie up for the night.

Elizabeth City- free town docks

South end of Pungo Canal near Bellhavn- anchor out

Oriental- tie up at free town dock

Mile Hammock Bay at the New River inlet- anchor

Southport- anchor in basin or a couple of places to the west nearby

Butler Island on the Wacommaw River north of Georgetown- anchor

Ashley River across from Charleston or a nice ox bow a mile or so west on the ICW.

Beaufort- anchor just south of town marina

Savannah- Lots of anchorages nearby but most are open or narrow. We usually grab a marina slip in Thunderbolt

That's as far as I can go by memory. Active Captain will find the rest for you.

David

At Elizabeth city we used the free docks at the collage because of a pretty good storm and chop at the city docks. The collage docks seem to have more protection but there is more of a walk to get to town

SeaBreeze said:

Would anyone who has traveled the entire ICW at 6 knots be willing to share your daily stops from end to end? I am beginning to plan my future journey from Norfolk to Marathon. I have charts and books but the best info always comes from those who know it best. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to share your destinations in an open forum. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Wifey B: I don't travel as 6 knots but let me suggest an approach to planning. Start by looking at all the potential stops along the way. Study and research them a little. Then select the ones that appeal to you and provide the right daily distances. You could easily on that trip have 100 nice places to stop. You could stop different places every time through and never get them all. So, list with distances and then select. It's personal preference of whether you like larger cities or rural towns, whether you like lots of attractions and things to do or just peaceful undisturbed scenery. We travel up and down the coast fairly regularly but our last trip to NC we made our first trips to Manteo and to Hatteras. Not places likely to be top on your journey south but enjoyable for us.

We only went as far as Charleston last time, used the Virginia Cut, and mostly ran at about 8 kts:
- Portsmouth
- Coinjock
- Alligator River Marina (coincident with bridge maintenance)
- Belhaven
- Oriental
- Beaufort
- Swansboro
- Wrightsville Beach
- Southport
- Osprey Marina ("Myrtle Beach" but actually Socastee)
- Georgetown
- McClellanville
- Charleston.

That's from memory (log's on the boat and I'm not), so if there are any huge gaps I probably forgot one...

Mostly 5-ish hour days...

-Chris

ranger42c said:

We only went as far as Charleston last time, used the Virginia Cut, and mostly ran at about 8 kts:
- Portsmouth
- Coinjock
- Alligator River Marina (coincident with bridge maintenance)
- Belhaven
- Oriental
- Beaufort
- Swansboro
- Wrightsville Beach
- Southport
- Osprey Marina ("Myrtle Beach" but actually Socastee)
- Georgetown
- McClellanville
- Charleston.

That's from memory (log's on the boat and I'm not), so if there are any huge gaps I probably forgot one...

Mostly 5-ish hour days...

-Chris

Click to expand...

We are northbound and currently in Swansboro, we made many of the listed stops from Charleston. We stopped at Osprey for diesel @ 2.57/gal with a $.10/ BoatUS discount. Butler Island was a nice anchorage......

Recent trip from Gulf Coast to/from Bahamas. 56'/5'6" draft. 6-7 knots. ICW on both east and west coast has many bridges. If you need draws obtain a schedule and time arrival to opening times. High recreational traffic on weekends. A few commercial ports with good passes in/out to Atlantic. Active Captain has tested anchorages but alternates possible if your draft allows.

Stuart: many anchorages for any weather in St. Lucie River. Excellent provisioning, parts, services, fuel,cruising community.

Peck Lake: small anchorage but manageable.

Lake Worth: large anchorage/mooring field with small boats to large yachts. Easy anchoring.

Lake Santa Barbara: small anchorage in residential area but manageable.

Maule Lake: Large anchorage, practically empty in residential setting. Dinghy access to retail provisioning - Costco, West Marine.

University Cove: south of Maule Lake, near FIU. Similar dinghy access/retail provisioning. Crowded and odd. Moved to Maule Lake.

Key Biscayne: large anchorage. Crazy interesting on weekends. Near Stiltsville inlet to Hawk Channel direction Keys, or cross to Bimini.

Rodriguez Key: Large anchorage with options north or south depending on wind/waves.

Marathon: Large anchorages south or north of Hog Key. Good provisioning. $1 bus to Key West if you want to skip taking your boat there.

We did not go to Key West or Tortuga's due to weather and schedule. Headed north to anchorages: Little Shark River (large, empty and quiet); Indian Key Pass (large, empty, quiet); Pine Island anchorage north of Ft. Meyers (back to civilization). Ft. Meyers has a convenient mooring field and is west junction of Okeechobee waterway. From there several anchorages north to Tampa, Apalachicola, FL panhandle.

Are you doing this delivery style (banging out the miles) or a relaxed exploration of towns & attractions along the way?

The AICW is measured in statute miles , so for planning remember you will be going"faster".

I plan on making a leisurely trip to the keys allowing a month or so to get there from Norfolk Va. At 6 knots that should be plenty of time to make it an enjoyable trip.

Woodland Hills said:

We are northbound and currently in Swansboro, we made many of the listed stops from Charleston. We stopped at Osprey for diesel @ 2.57/gal with a $.10/ BoatUS discount. Butler Island was a nice anchorage......

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Good mediterranean restaurant in Swansboro, on the island between the two bridges... and they delivered to the dock.



-Chris

ranger42c said:

Good mediterranean restaurant in Swansboro, on the island between the two bridges... and they delivered to the dock.



-Chris

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Wifey B: And for all cruising wherever, this is a reminder that both grocery delivery and restaurant delivery are getting more and more widespread. Most groceries have some form of it, either directly or through Instacart. And for restaurants you have Doordash, Grubhub, Ubereats, and others all around the country on top of those who delivery themselves. Where we've docked at resorts or hotels, we've gotten food delivered to the boat through "room service".

Speaking as someone who has made that trip a few times to and fro,

Don't see where speed makes much difference as far as stops; pick out the ones that
have been talked about here and other forums extensively, and fit in the ones that make sense for you or sound great. Someone who averages 12 would theoretically see half as many as you.

One big question is are you anchorers or marina people?

Are you trying to get south as fast and directly as possible (which in some spots could dictate going on the ocean) or are you open to exploring off the ICW (for instance, Manteo, Ocracoke and Cape Lookout Bight here in NC come immediately to mind). In other words is the journey the destination, or not? And per another thread, what is your length of daily voyaging time limit?

We went from Rhode Island to Punta Gorda Florida in two months. We travel at about 7kts. Here is our blog describing our day to day adventures.

We have run from Baltimore to the west coast of FL many years. 6knots is ok to plan but in reading your "leisure trip" makes we wonder - are you looking to stop and enjoy some of the highlights of the areas you go through or do you plan on moving each day? how many hours do you like to move each day? I have friends who prefer to leave at first light and have the hook down by 2pm. We usually try to put more miles under us but have several places we always stop because we either have friends in the area, or they are favorites for a variety of reasons. Just 6 knots leaves too many other questions. Do you prefer marinas? anchorages? do you need to take a dog to shore? do you have fuel, water, blackwater range restrictions?

good tool for cruising ICW. Download the bridges from the state website, you can measure distances.

"One big question is are you anchorers or marina people?"


The anchor out folks will find that from New England to Daytona FL it is possible to anchor out all the way, but in a few spots you will be forced to pay for a city mooring .

Get this guide

SeaBreeze said:

Would anyone who has traveled the entire ICW at 6 knots be willing to share your daily stops from end to end? I am beginning to plan my future journey from Norfolk to Marathon. I have charts and books but the best info always comes from those who know it best. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to share your destinations in an open forum. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Go to Amazon and get Bob423’s ICW guide. This is the best and only resource you need. Literally. Bob and Ann sail a Beneteau 423 sailboat that has a 4 foot 10 inch draft. They list each and every stop to include Anchorage’s.

Bob also has a Facebook page with lots of good info. He has made available his tracks down to key west and back. He follows the USACE latest data. It has gotten so that I load his tracks on my chart plotter and seldom look at Active Captain anymore.

BTW, bob is also the Waterway Guide’s ICW editor.

If you have never been on the ICW, this will be the best money you will have spent.

Gordon

Unless you are on a delivery trip stop and see the sights. Spend a day or two at interesting stops along the way. There are often things to do within a short distance to marinas. The next place is not always better than the present place. Many towns along waterways were founded around the water so the old town is usually still there and worth exploring.

Thank you all for the information - I am finding it very helpful as I am in the early planning stages. One of the reasons I want to think through the different stops is to see if I need to allow more than a month to get to Marathon from Norfolk. I am not on a strict schedule and don't want to make this an exhausting trip. I expect to be doing most if not all of this trip solo since my wife will still be working. Ideally I'd like to get in with a few buddy boats that travel about the same speed and enjoy the journey. I will be anchoring and staying in marinas. My boat carries 190 gals of fuel and burns 2 gals per hour at 6 knots so fuel stops will not be needed to frequently. She is also equipped with a composting head so no pumpouts required. Water capacity is 110 gals. I usually like to start each day early and try and end at a reasonable time. This will most likely result in 40 - 50 mile days with no outside running. I am aware of Bob's ICW book and just received my copy today so I will be spending time with that as well. I must say, the feedback I am getting is exactly why I love this forum. Multiple opinions and thoughtful suggestions. Please keep the suggestions coming!

ranger42c said:

We only went as far as Charleston last time, used the Virginia Cut, and mostly ran at about 8 kts:
- Portsmouth
- Coinjock
- Alligator River Marina (coincident with bridge maintenance)
- Belhaven
- Oriental
- Beaufort
- Swansboro
- Wrightsville Beach
- Southport
- Osprey Marina ("Myrtle Beach" but actually Socastee)
- Georgetown
- McClellanville
- Charleston.

That's from memory (log's on the boat and I'm not), so if there are any huge gaps I probably forgot one...

Mostly 5-ish hour days...

-Chris

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i did the same spots from Newport news to oriental .except i stopped at Atlantic yacht basin also (due to very bad planning ). i fueled at top rack Norfolk and river Forrest bellhaven . i did this in late December and stayed in marinas so we would have heat.it was very cold the year before last. the days were short but we made all stops well before sundown .we ran 5.8 to 6.5 knots.

A few years back when I did a section of the ICW I used a flip chart that was spiral bound at the top. Does anyone know who makes that flip chart? Also any other suggestions for a good flip chart? I like being able to visualize and plan in the flip chart. It is also very easy to use under way. I already have Bob423's 2019 Cruising Guide.

SeaBreeze said:

A few years back when I did a section of the ICW I used a flip chart that was spiral bound at the top. Does anyone know who makes that flip chart? Also any other suggestions for a good flip chart? I like being able to visualize and plan in the flip chart. It is also very easy to use under way. I already have Bob423's 2019 Cruising Guide.

Click to expand...

That was the Kettlewell book, Ann's favorite when she had the helm. Now out of print, last edition 2012 if I recall correctly. Though you can buy that one and use the LNMs to correct.
https://www.amazon.com/Intracoastal-Waterway-Chartbook-Norfolk-Miami/dp/0071803904

Icw

When we did that trip a few years ago, we would try to begin each day a just about low tide. The water in some spots is pretty low, and we always wanted to be on a rising tide. We also found that about 6 hours of travel time each day was plenty for us.

You might enjoy our blog of that trip in our Mainship 400

http://pathfinderlog.blogspot.com

Gordon J said:

Go to Amazon and get Bob423’s ICW guide. This is the best and only resource you need. Literally. Bob and Ann sail a Beneteau 423 sailboat that has a 4 foot 10 inch draft. They list each and every stop to include Anchorage’s.

Bob also has a Facebook page with lots of good info. He has made available his tracks down to key west and back. He follows the USACE latest data. It has gotten so that I load his tracks on my chart plotter and seldom look at Active Captain anymore.

BTW, bob is also the Waterway Guide’s ICW editor.

If you have never been on the ICW, this will be the best money you will have spent.

Gordon

Click to expand...

You can also read about Bob423 travels in his online blog....you can look at years past trips in both directions.... Bob travels from New York to Key West every year. Check out fleetwing.blogspot.com You can find his previous years trips listed there and all the stops on the way.

This year because of health reasons, he left his boat in the Chesapeake... he says his plans are to travel down from NY to pick her up and restart the trip north for the winter in September.

Icw

Buy Alan Lloyds cruising guide. Worth every penny. Spiral bound so you can put on the dash board and check off spots as you go. Has recommended anchorages and marinas.

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