Joe wrote:
If you had 1-2 yrs to cruise would you go

Up the east coast, around Canada ,the NW passage, around Alaska, down
south, round the horn, back to Texas.


No. Icebreaking has no attraction for me. How about up the
St Lawrence, down the Mississippi, back to Texas, and then
on further down the Gulf? And then of course (for you) back
to Texas again.


Or Panama canal, hawaii, palmyra, phillipines, micornesia, marshalls,
soloman, vanatau, OZ, new calodonia, fiji, tongo, Cook, NZ, picard,
tonga, roratonga, Bora bora, tahiti, tuamotus, marqueses, panama canal,
texas.


You're missing some of the best parts of the Pacific. Not
visiting Japan or the PI?


Or up the east coast , nova scotia, greenland, iceland, norway,
amsterdam, london, france, spain, italy, greece, isreal, egypt, libya,
tripoli,morroco, canary's , bahama, florida, texas .


Again you're missing some of the best parts of the route.
What about Ireland and Scotland?


Or hondo, costa rica, venezuela, guyana, rio, uraguay, falklands, s.
georgia, capetown, hamibia, angola, cameroon, libera, sierra leone,
senegal, perto rico, texas.


Throw in Tristan de Cunha, St Helena, the Cape Verdes and
the Azores, and that's the best yet IMHO.


any other suggestions?




rgnmstr wrote:
I'd take a slow trip down the intercoastal then head for the Virgin
Islands and hang out for a month and come home early. Why would I want
to live on a boat for 2 years.


Why not? If you had the right boat for it, that is. A lot of
people cruise on 30-footers and smaller boats. In fact
smaller boats have a lot of good practical features (less
work). The ICW is a PITA for any boat drawing over 5' and
not much fun for boats over 4'; if you mix some of the nicer
ICW runs with hops offshore, you can make better time and
still see many of the "good spots."

A Bahamas cruise is great, I have not been as far 'out
island' as I'd like to go but we will spend some time there
I bet. Another good place for shallow draft.

My wife and I are planning to take a 1 year plus cruise in
the near future, making a "Great Loop" around the eastern US
via the ICW, Hudson River, NY State canals, Great Lakes,
some canals in Canada, the Chicago & Illinois Rivers to the
Mississippi, then a short run up the Ohio to the Tennessee
and down the Tenn-Tom waterway to Mobile, around the Big
Bend and Florida, back up the ICW to NC.

http://www.greatloop.com/

I've been reading up on canals & local history, interesting
stuff. For example there have been lock & canal improvements
on the Neuse & Cape Fear Rivers allowing 'navigation' at
least 200 miles inland, not in existance any more.
Pennsylvania & New Jersey were crisscrossed with canals, too.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

Phillipines yes Japan not much interest. The St Lawrence down the
mississippi to crowded for taste in crusing. Many of the trawler people
here talk about the great loop.

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

Bahama's do sound nice.

Joe

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

... 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