T&T: AICW, Southbound, inside/outside, etc

[George Hechtman]

I'll echo the posts of Peg and Jim, Scott, and Pascal. Almost all of  
the ICW is a pretty trip offering great gunkholing, interesting towns  
and cities, beautiful wilderness. I strongly recommend going inside  
for any first timer. The journey is the destination, if you will. The  
so-called "trouble areas" are all easily dealt with by managing your  
schedule to the tides. We have 61ft boat LOA that draws 5 ft, weighs  
close to 45 tons fully loaded and tanked up, and is stabilized.

That being said, we think three of the relatively "missable"  
stretches are Morehead City to Wrightsville (Masonboro Inlet),  
Southport to Myrtle Beach (Cape Fear to Little River) and Savannah/ 
Thunderbolt to Walburg Creek (Wassaw Sound to St. Catherines). We are  
very glad we did these inside at least once, and will probably do  
some of them inside again, especially if weather is in play, but came  
back north this spring "outside" for those stretches. The Walburg-to- 
Thunderbolt run outside is the most picturesque, perhaps the one  
place where outside is prettier than inside. I would not want to make  
any of these runs in an unstabilized boat in anything but close-to- 
calm weather.

In Florida, we have just done the outside from Lake Worth to Port  
Everglades, PE to Miami, Florida Channel (Key Biscayne) to Marathon  
(Hawk Channel), but again all have their interest inside too.  Inside  
from Islamorada to marathon with my boat is something I will NOT do  
again, however: shallow and filled with crab pots.

We are currently in Baltimore (Dundalk) and will head south tomorrow  
or Friday. Tentatively planning on Solomons or environs first night,  
Deltaville area second night. Norfolk or Great Bridge, depending on  
whether we choose to try the Dismal Swamp. Any reports on Dismal  
Swamp Canal conditions are welcome! We hope to get to New Bern (our  
ostensible home port) by the 1st, for a few days, then amble on south  
to Hollywood/Ft.L.

George

"Incentive" 1981 Hatteras 56MY