Joe wrote:
Phillipines yes Japan not much interest.

Why? It's gorgeous coast and good sailing.

... The St Lawrence down the
mississippi to crowded for taste in crusing. Many of the trawler people
here talk about the great loop.


It's surprising how many people do it every year.

Doug I pushed barges for years in the ICW, they drew 13 ft loarded. Why
do you have problems with a 4+ft draft?


When & where? I can't think of a single place in NC where
you could pass with more than about 9' draft, and that's
dead center in the channel. Once you get further south, you
can make it on the tide.

Bahama's do sound nice.


It is nice, and nicer the further west. Of course, the
Bahamas gov't realizes they don't have much in the way of a
national economy and has decided to make cruisers vote with
their dollars.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

Joe wrote:
Phillipines yes Japan not much interest.


Why? It's gorgeous coast and good sailing.

Godzilla


... The St Lawrence down the
mississippi to crowded for taste in crusing. Many of the trawler people
here talk about the great loop.


It's surprising how many people do it every year.

Thats what I mean, you need blinkers to get on and off the loop. Like
the good sam club of camping RV's.


Doug I pushed barges for years in the ICW, they drew 13 ft loarded. Why
do you have problems with a 4+ft draft?


When & where?

From South Texas around Port Aransas all the way to the Mississippi,
Most times between the Sabine and the Brazos. I did it in the early
90's. They still do it today, I'm sure you could go all the way to
Florida with anything under 11 ft.


I can't think of a single place in NC where
you could pass with more than about 9' draft, and that's
dead center in the channel. Once you get further south, you
can make it on the tide.

IIRC the controlling depth for the ICW in TX is 13 ft. We pushed that
many time with the supply boats loading out of Freeport area.

Working the tides is very important here on the ICW. If you leave at
the wrong time you can be pushing or riding the tides all the way
between the sabine and Galveston bay. Sometimes with a loaded barge you
could arrive faster leaving 6 hours later.

Bahama's do sound nice.


It is nice, and nicer the further west. Of course, the
Bahamas gov't realizes they don't have much in the way of a
national economy and has decided to make cruisers vote with
their dollars.

May just be cheaper to cruise the USA and stay at 5 star marinas and
anchorages if were talking money.

Joe

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

Nice route.

joe

... Many of the trawler people
here talk about the great loop.



It's surprising how many people do it every year.

Joe wrote:
Thats what I mean, you need blinkers to get on and off the loop. Like
the good sam club of camping RV's.


Yep. Fortunately there's still a lot of water around, you
can usually get away from the crowd for at least a little
while. We've made some very good friends on the ICW and
cruising in company is part of the fun.



Doug I pushed barges for years in the ICW, they drew 13 ft loarded. Why
do you have problems with a 4+ft draft?



When & where?

From South Texas around Port Aransas all the way to the Mississippi,
Most times between the Sabine and the Brazos. I did it in the early
90's. They still do it today, I'm sure you could go all the way to
Florida with anything under 11 ft.


That may be true, I don't have any experience in the Gulf
ICW... what about getting into anchorages?



I can't think of a single place in NC where
you could pass with more than about 9' draft, and that's
dead center in the channel. Once you get further south, you
can make it on the tide.

IIRC the controlling depth for the ICW in TX is 13 ft. We pushed that
many time with the supply boats loading out of Freeport area.


I wonder if the Corps of Engineers expends more on your part
of the ICW, we seem to only get the very worst places (like
consistent 5' shoaling' dredged. And most of the channels
have not been re-bouyed in years.


Working the tides is very important here on the ICW. If you leave at
the wrong time you can be pushing or riding the tides all the way
between the sabine and Galveston bay. Sometimes with a loaded barge you
could arrive faster leaving 6 hours later.



On much of the Southeastern coast, the inlets are close
enough together, and the channels twisty enough, that the
current will be helping you for a mile and then against you
for a mile. Almost impossible to predict the current over a
day's run... we just go.

DSK

It seems most the world has heavy traveled cruising routes, hard to
avoid. Bringing up the cost of cruising for everyone. What ever
happened to naked native rowing out bearing gifts to the only boat to
visit in years?

Anchorages on the ICW are plenty. Lots of shallow bays you can ease out
of the channel, small rivers, petro cuts, and many lay points for the
barges, huge set of pilons put in by companies and the corp or engrs
for boats to wait out locks, docks, ect.. I think most heavy cargo on
your coast moves via offshore tows or composite units. Here it is
cheaper to keep heavy boats in the ditch due to short distances. Most
ICW traffic here is fuel, chemicals, grain, gravel, giant items. You
can build 5 nice ICW tugs for the cost of one offshore tug or
composite, and push or pull 1/2 the tonnage with each. I would suspect
more is spent here because the tonnage is much higher.

The inlets here between the Sabine River and Galveston bay are spaced
about 25-60 miles apart, And if you timed it wrong pushing 250,000
gallons of fuel with a single screw, 8-71 natural detroit luger tug,
you could spend the entire trip at a grinding 2-3 knots... or flying
along at 9-10 knots. We could predict the slosh within 10-15 min.

Did not matter as much when the barge was empty. We would just hope to
have 25-30 knots wind from the north or south so we could sail the
barge.

Joe

"Capt.Mooron" wrote
..... Compasses don't work for **** up there. No radio contact

GPS?? Why no radio contact?

"Vito" wrote in message
...
"Capt.Mooron" wrote
..... Compasses don't work for **** up there. No radio contact

GPS?? Why no radio contact?

Maybe with SW.... but SSB is limited and VHF is out of the picture due to
lack of repeater stations. GPS is fine... but Joe would have it on the
default Nad87.... while fishing for Yellowfin Tuna!!

CM