Gfretwell wrote:

The Chesapeake is basically oriented south to north with Baltimore at the top
but the ICW has lots of places where the "port" is south of the point of entry
from the sea. The ICW behind Miami Beach is one.

Check the USCG and Corp of Engineers. The ICW is "returning" if traveling south to
north on the East Coast, west to east on the Gulf.

There are lots of other channels which are connected by the ICW, which you transit
if following the ICW, which are marked differently because they are going from the
sea to a specific port. Their markers are not considered to be the same as ICW
markers, in fact in many places there are two sets of markers. It can get
confusing, which is one reason why I would not encourage anybody to try and
navigate without a chart.

DSK