Larry wrote:
Rosalie B. wrote in
news
What got Bob's goat was that it was in the middle of the channel where
there should have been plenty of water and the depth sounder didn't
give us any warning. No one is more paranoid about depth than he is.
I drove an Endeavour 35 sloop out of the little basin at the yacht club in
Daytona Beach, followed the bouys around into the ICW to starboard to get
to the fuel dock at the marina next door. Right after I rounded up South
in the center of the channel, the boat hooked "something" like it had just
hooked a tree that nosed the old girl over and stopped her dead in her
tracks like a jet landing on a carrier snagging the cables on deck.
Florida is just terrible with a 6' keel hanging down. The keel of the Amel
Sharki 41 dragged along the bottom of Lake Worth in the middle of the
channel from one end to the other. Vary off course a little and it
grounded long before getting near the bouy line.
IT is the same way through the Georgia ICW. At low tide the daymarks
are well on dry land.
We only went through the ICW in Lake Worth once. That was enough.
Between there and Ft. Lauderdale there were over 20 bridges to be
opened.
There aren't near enough inlets for them to escape to sea on.....
On our last trip up the ICW, we went in the Hawk Channel from Marathon
to Miami. Then
Offshore from Miami to Fort Pierce.
Up the ICW to the St. Mary's River. (Usually anchor in Melbourne, and
stay in marinas in Titusville, Daytona, St. Augustine, Jax Beach - 5
days)
Offshore from the St. Mary's River to Charleston
Offshore from Charleston to Cape Fear
A short hop from Southport to Masonboro
I had just suggested to Bob that we go out Masonboro and come in at
Beaufort when we went aground.
From there - we usually go inshore stopping at Swansboro, Oriental,
Belhaven, Alligator R., Coinjock, NC (Virginia Cut - we usually go
south through the Dismal Swamp and come back through the Virginia
Cut), and Norfolk
Incidentally it is Gallant's Cut in Beaufort that is closed. I've
heard several radio conversations from trawlers that had put their
autopilots following the old channel on the chartplotter. But I
knew (from the guidebooks) that Gallant's Cut channel was closed in
2000 when we made our first trip down the ICW (and the only time that
we had anything to do with Beaufort by boat because I think the
marinas are too expensive - we anchored )
http://p.vtourist.com/953637-Beaufor...e-Beaufort.jpg