Cruising the east coast

E

El and Bill

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Bob
We thought this discussion on cruising the east coast would be best done with it's own heading.

I am going to have to disagree with Bill. Formally the Atlantic Coast ICW runs from mile zero at Norfok VA, to Mile 1089.0 at Miami, Fl. You can continue in mostly protected water down to Key West, FL. On the North end, you then enter the Chesapeake Bay, then the Chesapeake Delaware canal, down the Delaware Bay. The New Jersey Waterway can be entered from the Delaware Bay at North Cape May--Higbee Beach. There are several entrances to the Atlantic ocean--and even boats with 5 foot draft (on rare occasion, with the right tides have made it to Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey. I have looked carefully, at both my paper charts, Navionics charts, Skipper Bob's books, and the Northern Waterway Guide. There is no inland waterway between Manasquan Inlet and Sandy Hook which would allow access to New York Harbor. I have sailed the entire Atlantic ICW, the West Coast ICW, and the Gulf Coast ICW--including from Maine to New York Harbor (inside Long Island)--and Sandy Hook. However with 7' draft and 65 foot air clearance, I could not venture into the New Jersey canals or ICW. You have to go outside for the 25 miles from Manasquan Inlet to Sandy Hook, to get to New york. After Long Island Sound, there are mostly open stretches, with the exception of the Cape Cod Canal.
_________________
Bob Austin
Thataway
Thisaway 2006 22' CDory November 2011
Caracal 18 140 Suzuki
Thataway TomCat 255 150 Suzukis June 2006 thru August 2011
C Pelican; 1992, 22 Cruiser, 2002 thru 2006
Frequent Sea; 2003 C D 25, 2007 thru 2009
KA6PKB
Home port: Pensacola FL
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You are quite right, Bob, the Corps defines the northern terminus of their maintained ICW in VA. However, thousands of commercial and private vessels cruise the East Coast route north of there.

To go northerly from VA, we suggest there are several admonitions for prudent boaters:

1. Watch weather, tides, and wave conditions carefully.

2. Know that tall masts and deep keels can restrict access. This is why we love a CD - NO tall mast or 9' keel.we go where tall ships (rightfully) fear to tread

From VA, as you said, go up Chesapeake Bay (a marvelous cruise), thru the canal to Delaware Bay, down that Bay, cross over to NJ and enter the marvelous bays (behind protecting offshore sand bars). Great cruising.
Then, watching tide, wind, weather, offshore wave conditions, head out Manasquam Inlet to the open ocean under good conditions. Cruise to NYork Harbor the short distance on open water (nice trip in good weather). Say "hi" to Lady Liberty, circumnavigate Manhattan, and head up the Hudson.

We would suggest your comments are directed toward those with tall masts and deep keels - NOT to C Dory cruisers - we have made that trip many times on our 20-foot sailboat (mast down) and on our 22-foot CD and it was wonderful! Have you cruised that section on a CD, Bob ?
 
Just received a post that dredging of Manasquan Inlet, along the Jersey shore, giving access from the ocean to the channels inside the protecting sand bars along the Jersey shore south of NYC, is complete. The Inlet was hit by Hurricane Sandy and required some dredging to deepen the channel to well below the depth required by a CD-22.

Do others on the coast know if there are any lasting negative problems along the waterway from Sandy?
 
The issue is that you do not have the protection of ICW all of the way. You have to venture out into the ocean to get to New York. I have done most of the Chesapeake Bay and Eastern Shore the two years I lived in Richmond VA, and used an 17 foot open boat with 35 hp to explore all of the rivers and coves on both sides of the Chesapeake. My only complete trip from Key West to the Canadian Border was in the larger vessel.
 
I did the coast of New Jersey a week before hurricane Sandy came through. I put in a the Statue of Liberty State park and wondered out of New York Harbor down to Sandy Hook then in the Atlantic ocean down to the Manasquan Inlet. I think you are out in the open for about twenty miles. Up the Manaquan river a mile or two to the Point Pleasant canal which connects the Manaquan River to Barnegat Bay and ran the inter coastal waterway from there down to Cape May. We traveled 95 miles the first day. We stayed in Tuckerton up the Tuckerton Creek at The Sheltered Cove Marina as I was worried about the coming storm and that the boat ramps would be mobbed so I was moving right along. The following day we ran from Tuckerton to Cape May another 76 miles. There were moments in the upper portion of Barnegat Bay that our depth alarm when off when we were in the middle of the channel according to my depth alarm which goes off at 3.7ft. Further south things got shallow in the channel just south of Sea Isle City. There we felt the boat slide over a small bar. We just tilted up the motor and churned a little mud and got back into deeper water. That bar took some paint of the motors skeg. Again near Stone Harbor more shallow water . We traveled on a low but a rising tide. Again near Grassy Sound we had a stretch were we had to tilt up the motor quite a bit and we in between the markers. This was before Sandy hit on a rising tide. They say they have the northern portion dredged now after Sandy but there are still areas just south of Tuckerton around Tow Island (aptly named)in Great Bay which were mentioned in this weeks update of the Waterway guide that are shoaled up to 3 ft or less at MLW. The local fishing reports reccomend to travel at high tide. If you leave the channel of the ICW better be idling and use your bread crumb trail when you want to get to get back to the channel. There still a lot of things out there that they have not removed although they report the ICW is passable.
 
Quite right, Bob, there is an ocean-exposed section from Florida to NYCity. As I in a later post pointed out there is a stretch where you go to the ocean, from Manasquan to Sandy Hook. Will-C did it just before Sandy struck and did not describe it as a bad experience, and our trips on that ocean stretch have been on good days that took us less than an hour on the CD-22 -- no sweatski. Just go on a good day. Many cruises on rivers in the US one passes through lakes where weather can also be a major factor, and although not the ocean, it can sure feel like it in a CD, and distances are often more than twenty miles on some of those lakes -- Patience and Prudence.

I thought the basic issue was the suggestion that the trip from Florida to the bays of New Jersey (and we think on to the north) is a delightful trip for a CD, used with prudence -- watch both for water depths and weather, tide, etc. And now, with the further discussion, take care when venturing out on ANY open water, such as the short ocean stretch to New York Harbor (or any open water in the bays and sounds along the way).

We have really enjoyed that trip and encourage others to do the cruise (as Will-C and I'm sure many others have).

Those on big sailboats with high masts and deep draft, of course, would give it a miss and not be able to see the beauty of those New Jersey Bays.

Oh, and since you rightfully disagreed with me on the ICW (as you said, it ends technically at VA), I will similarly disagree with you. There is (according to the Corps of Engineers) no west coast ICW, as you stated. Only along portions of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. :-)
 
Wow. I am truly enjoying reading everyone's experiences and wealth of knowledge. I feel I should print some of the replies for future reference. As a novice (my C-Dory is 8 weeks away from delivery), I feel I have a lot to learn and look forward to enjoying some of the adventures you all have experienced it seems, many times. Thanks for all the information.
 
OK, here's Our Journey, from Mobile, Alabama through the ICW to the Chesapeake, up the East Coast to the Eire Canal: Our Journey on the East Coast It was a sailboat, but if we got through a C-Dory certainly can.

The trip from Annapolis, through Delaware Bay and up the Hudson to the Eire Canal (Part 9) covers the New Jersey coast. We went outside for 2 reasons: 6' keel and 52" mast, but Skipper Bob's books discusses the New Jersey Intercoastal Waterway, from Cape May to Manasasquan. The ocean jump from Mas etc. to New York Harbour is only 25 miles, which is a couple of hours on a C-Dory.

thataway/Bob and I had to go outside between Cape May and New York because of our keel and mast, but that's not a concern with a C-Dory. In fact, the various ICW's on the East Coast would be perfect on a C-Dory. The boat is comfortable, sea worthy and if you're able to wait out the East Coast weather, it beats a 7 knot sailboat. I'd love to do it again, it's the 3000 mi drive that keeps me away.

Boris
 
We really enjoyed our trip down along the coast of New Jersey. We left our truck in a mini storage right across from the boat ramp at Liberty State Park. Once in Cape May we took a rental car to go back north to get the truck and trailer right up the Parkway to the New Jersey turnpike.The weather turned a little from what was a beautiful forecast. It was a little dreary but the winds stayed down. New York City is really pretty breath taking in a boat. I would strongly recommend going up the Hudson to the Harlem River and down the East river and then back to the Hudsen and the Statue Of Liberty.. Take a camera. We really enjoyed going down the intercoastal waterway. There are a lot of sections that are actual wildlife preserves. Some sections a birdwatcher's paradise. New Jersey is full of contrast. Beautiful neighborhoods on the water in Breille,Pt. Pleasant, Atlantic City, Ventor. Brick,Cape May, Beach Haven,Barnegat Light There is also rusty abandoned fishing boats. It's like a cross section of America. Every kind of house imaginable. Folks that we met were as nice as can be. We will do this again when we can take more time to really make lots of stops along the way. One thing to watch for is a strong west wind on a falling tide can cause what locals call a blow out. The wind causes the water in the bay to get blown out the inlet a little faster than normal which can result in a very low tides. Meaning mean low water less than shown on charts. In the spring we have east winds coming off a cold ocean that meet the warmer land and set up heavy fog. Check out our sub album under Will-C titled the Jersey Coast. Also another sub album if you wanted to pics of the trip around NYC. I like September or early October weatherwise for these trips. New Jersey can be hot and muggy and sometimes very buggy in the summer. In May the gnats or no see ums,flying teeth can be a real problem.
In spite of all the above it's a great place to cruise. Since there are not a lot of rocks we choose a stainless prop as there is sections of skinny water and the stainless props can chew through sand and mud without getting too beat up.
D.D.
 
In case others missed the question, are there any residual navigation problems along the East Coast ICW or Jersey Shore from the Hurricane Sandy storm?

I know they were doing dredging and have hear it is complete in Manasquam Inlet. Any other residual problems?
 
My point being the New Jersey ICW has spots which I mentioned as habitual shoaling spots. The ICW has always been known for being very shallow in spots at low tide in New Jersey. A lot of the beach sand ended up in the bays. Some portions have been dredged some not. Fishing boats I was on ran the Manaquan inlet soon after Sandy. I don't think the inlet ever closed. My guess is that there are a lot of spots that have changed as the the bars move around a little every year in the bays especially near the inlets. The Waterway guide just mentioned two trouble spots this week in Great Bay. I would check active captain for updates. The real boating season gets started for most recreational boaters after Memorial Day. Thats when they will really find out about the changes from Sandy.I don't think anyone really knows just yet how the whole ICW is in the whole length of New Jersey may have been effected. Just getting the houses and cars things they could see was a start. The areas first reported are near the inlets as the fisherman use those areas daily. I for one would wait before cruising the whole length of the ICW in New Jersey as they have had their hands full with recharting all the channels. With money tight it might take a while.
D.D.
 
Thanks for the update, D.D. Keep us posted, please.
 
Brought over from another link on the Brat site, posted by Roy, and pertinent here:

Stan, Our 2 cents, in 2002 we did the "Loop" in our 42' Grand Banks. Everyone said we could NOT do the ICW in NJ because our draft was over 4'. Well we did it! There were some shallow places & very narrow channels, got stuck in the MUCK once & had to wait for a raising tide. Hind sight we should of moved in tune with the tides, but we did it & had a great time in NJ. The only time of the whole loop trip that we went into the ocean was around Sandy Hook, very easy passage. I would do the trip in a C-Dory anytime. Roy
 
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