A great adventure, interesting, challenging - definitely worth the effort.
Smartest thing we did - talked with others who have gone and traveled with experienced boats.
Trip
- Begin mid-October to miss most hurricanes, return before June 1 for the same reason
- Leave anchorage at first light, stop by 3 pm - dark comes at 5:30 pm
- Evenings
- Visit other boats in anchorage by VHF or dinghy
- Study charts and weather, then make a tentative plan for destinations during next 3 days
- Mark next day's GPS points, write in log
- Prepare fast-pick-up lunches
- Ditches - know how to let boats pass. Rearview mirror (for bicycles) helpful
- Rivers, sounds, cuts, savannahs, swamps - the terrain shapes the trip
- Anchorages scarce, plenty of marinas
- You usually can't raft up south of the Chesapeake - visit by dinghy
- Don't be in a situation where you must travel - weather, visitors, groceries, whatever.
- Tell visitors they may decide where or when they will meet you, but not both
- Many bridges in Florida. Recommend outside south of Palm Beach (Lake Worth)
Equipment
- Sturdy boat with reliable engine and ample battery power - Trojan-Smart charger, 100 amp Balmar
- Top priority
- Good charts
- GPS
- VHF
- Autohelm
- SSB
- Good anchors
- Lots of spare parts
- As much canvas as you can afford (dodger, bimini, doghouse, sun shade)
- Dinghy
- Hardbottom rubber, if Bahamas
- Extension for outboard tiller
- Long bridle
- Computer
- Trip log
- Letters home
- Provision list
- Email
- Weatherfax
- Cell phone, and Bahamian phone cards (some phones need 25¢ for 800 numbers)
Provisions
- Carry as many groceries as storage space will allow
- Stow items by where they will fit
- Use plastic bags so items will fit odd spaces
- Have a system for finding stowed provisions (ours organized port/center/starboard, zero to 38)
- Be able to make bread from scratch
- Take concentrated juices (not frozen), parmalat milk, egg magic
- Take lots of munchies for afternoon get-togethers
- Groceries in Bahamas scarce, expensive
- Learn to fish
- Order canned poultry & beef from Brinkman Turkey Farms, Findlay, OH - ph 419-365-5127
Radio
- Waterway net for amateur radio operators
- Weather net for Atlantic passages
Helpful
- Self-adhesive postage and envelopes
- Zip lock bags (George Town purse)
- Whitewater bags for dinghy rides
- Order free literature & maps from each state and country you will pass through
- Highlight your charts
- Pink - dangerous currents or bridges that must open
- Green - anchorages
- Blue - places of interest
- Make notes in pencil of anchorages, stops
- Use a sticky colored triangle to mark location on ICW as you go along
- ICW anchorages:$12 Skipperbob, Suite 463, 1150 Carlisle St, Hanover PA 17331
- Travel with someone who has been before
- Form into groups of boats when at anchor
- Know about currents:where to expect them, how to read the cuts
- Have information about bridge schedules and procedures
- Consider becoming a ham radio operator
- Boat cards to exchange
- Take something you can share with others:craft, music, special skill or knowledge
- Leave relatives a plan for contacting each other, and you in an emergency
- 3 days before a marina stop, phone & have mail sent by UPS or Fedex. (not US mail)
Special things
- Many new boater friends, helping each other
- Wildlife
- ICW:eagles
- Florida:manatees, roseate spoonbills, ibis, many, many others
- Bahamas:banaquits, grassquits, bahama mocking birds, white-crested dove
- Sights along ICW
- Dismal Swamp cut of the ICW, or Virginia Cut
- River Forest Inn in Belhaven (smorgasbord:banana fritters, lobster fritters, fried green tomatoes, pecan pie, green bean casserole)
- Barefoot Landing, Myrtle Beach area (free tie-up 3 days, shopping, preceded by the rock pile)
- Charleston (harbor and old town center)
- Beaufort (bewfort), SC (loaner beatup brown car, horsedrawn carriage ride, fine crafts store, good hardware, armory museum)
- Beaufort (bofort), NC (nautical museum, charming town, special to boaters)
- Cape Fear River (6.5 knots paddlewheel, 10 knots across the ground GPS, Bald Head Island)
- St. Augustine (red trolleys, great marina (currents difficult), coquino fortress, gorgeous town)
- Kennedy Space Center (incredible! Phone NASA for launch schedule)
- Bahamas:a fantastic experience
- Allen's Cay iguanas
- Norman's Cay druggers
- Farmer's Cay festival
- The George Town area
- Warderick Wells (spectacular beauty)
Recommended books
- Tide tables:we used Reed's Nautical Almanac
- Cruising the Chesapeake, by William Shellenberger
- The Intracoastal Waterway:a cockpit cruising handbook, by Jan & Bill Moeller
- Florida Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway - single page to keep in cockpit
- Cruising Guide to the Florida Keys
- The Exuma Guide, by Steven Pavlides
- Explorer Chart Book:Exumas, by Monty Lewis
- Yachtsman's Guide to the Bahamas, from Tropic Isle Publishers
- Winds from Carolinas, by Robert Wilder
- Out Island Doctor, by Evans Cottman
- Don't Stop the Carnival, by Herman Wouk