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(JAXAshby) wrote:

Skipper Bob's Anchorages Along the Intracoastal Waterway has served us well.

I found it to be so-so. It showed anchorages, including anchorages that
weren't there and anchorages you didn't want to go into that righ next to
anchorages that you did. A good set of current charts seemed to be more
useful.

I like Skipper Bob's anchorage book mostly for the information on the
bridge openings. [He suggests BTW that you set the bridge location as
a GPS waypoint (which he also gives in the anchorage book) and "goto"
it at a speed to get there at the time of the opening. I haven't
tried that, but it might work.]

A good set of current charts IS very useful, the operative word being
CURRENT. In the Bahamas, for instance, the Explorer charts are more
current and helpful than the Maptech charts.

And with his book you have to look and see what kind of boat (what
draft and length) the person recommending the anchorage has before you
can determine whether it is suitable for you. For instance, I saw a
catamaran anchored just northwest of the north Ft. Pierce bascule
bridge in April. We couldn't anchor there, as it was way too shallow,
but it was apparently OK for him. Skipper Bob has an anchorage listed
southwest of this bridge, which we have used, but there are lumps in
that anchorage which don't show on the chart.

Any book on anchorages must necessarily be out of date and incomplete.
You do have to look at the charts. His book gives you the experience
of others as a guide - local information at long distance so to speak.

Cruiser's chat on the VHF or SSB also gives you local information -
primarily on BAD places to anchor.

Before we went down the ICW to Florida the first time, I emailed some
local Florida people, and they gave me several anchorages that they'd
used.

We tried a couple of times to anchor at Newfound Harbor (Hawk Channel
in the Keys) based on a guidebook's (not Skipper Bob) recommendation
and were unsuccessful until a guy anchored farther up who recognized
us from Fernandina Beach came over in his dinghy and told us that we
should come up closer to the highway. We had avoided that because the
charts didn't show much water up there, but we followed his advice and
were much more successful.

Sometimes we anchor by necessity where no one has recommended
anchoring and sometimes where no sane person would ever recommend
anchoring. Sometimes we see why no person has recommended it, and
sometimes it works out OK. All the cruising guides can do is give
recommendations and local rules (like places where you are prohibited
from anchoring or only allowed to anchor for 24 hours, and places
where there is a fee for anchoring.) Actually anchoring is up to you.

grandma Rosalie