Post Card From Iraq

R

Rabbits Hutch

New member
Hi All,
Seems like forever since I've been on the site. All these trips overseas are getting a bit silly. Regardless, here I am yet again, in Iraq, and planning my next adventure with Rabbit's Hutch.

This time around, I'm looking at taking my 30 days of leave upon returning to the USA and going down the inner coastal, from MD to Florida and back. No rush for time.

I have a good chunk of time for trip planning. This will be my first long distance cruise with my 22. I'm wondering if I can get some solid guidance on the following:

1. I want to pre-position the boat in MD about a month prior to the trip to allow a dealer to apply a proper bottom paint. Any suggestions on who I should use and their location? What is the best choice for bottom paint? The boat will see both fresh and salt water during these 30 days.

2. I'm looking for some very detailed, published guides that I could find on Amazon or another site... or would gladly purchase from one of you, that can guide me on the navigational side of this trip. Last year I had installed either the C80 or 70 on Rabbit's Hutch and will use that as a primary tool.

3. I'm also wanting to find a detailed guide book as to the best spots to stop along the way. Or, perhaps suggestions from the group of your favorite spots to see and dock.

4. For staying overnight at moorings, would anyone suggest a solar panel on the roof?


I look forward to communicating with you all as my planning continues and we move forward towards the trip itself. I'm sure some of you will receive great joy as I stumble along figuring this out... as I'm looking forward to the planning as much as the voyage itself.

Always a pleasure,

Gary R.[/b]
 
Gary, First off, thanks for your service and your support for our Country and being away from your family and boat.

Getting the work done on your boat should not be an issue at all depending on who you left behind to care for it, and it being on a trailer. What is a projected date or return to CONUS?

Your journey looks to be in the neighborhood, very ruff...1200 miles depending where you start in Maryland, and where you want to end up in FL. FL is a long state. You are not traveling on the interstate system, but rather the water system and Mother Nature may simply just shut you down a few days now and then. Pick a number of miles you are comfortable with traveling each day via the water....allowing time for pulling up the anchor, or departing a marina. 50 miles a day is comfortable as a "ruff rule of thumb".... and then you need to figure about one in every 5-6 days a zero miles day.....again, for a rule of thumb. Between weather, finding great spots, and traveling slow enough to enjoy what you are passing....you may even need to plan more than 30 days....or, save some portion of your trip for another time.

You having time on your side, go up to the top of the site, THE BRAT MAP link area, and get an idea of the footprint or our C-Brats. Clusters as you can see. Or, you can sort them by state in our OUR C-Dorys, or MEMBERS LIST..... Use them for local guidance.

If you are going that far, that fast, you will not need detail travel guides. Just get the chip for your Raymarine for the eastern shore...and stay in the channel. Again, part of why I think you may be taking a bit large of a bite for 30 days...if you have 45-60, plan for it, take off, and adjust fire on where someone meets you with your tow vehicle and trailer to haul you and your boat back home via the road system.

That would be a start... and some thoughts.

Again, Thanks for your service and hopefully we can get our hulls wet together upon your return to our Great Country. Those at this time that are so upset with Her...well...maybe a bit of travel to other countries is in order.

Byrdman
 
Gary, as a Vietnam vet and father off a Marine Corp 2nd Lt, thank you for your service.

I use Cutter Marine in Essex Maryland (near Baltimore) for all my work. They used to be a C- Dory dealer. I bought the Jeanie P there. Great people to work with. Good size marina, storage and gated entry.

I used to drive 18 wheelers for a living a long time ago and love road trips. If you'd like, I'd be willing to pick up your boat and trailer and bring it down to Cutter for you to stage the boat and get the work done prior to you coming home, so it would be waiting for you to start your trip.

Allan
 
Gary I too would like to thank you for your service to our country and pray that you come home safely.

I agree with Byrdman the length of your trip is somewhat ambitious for the time you have but it is doable provided you have good weather.

For pretrip planning I really like Active Captain website http://www.activecaptain.com/OTW.php for planning my stops and anchorage's. Last two trips I entered spots that looked interesting, phone numers of marinas and GPS cooordinates in a log book which I took along with me. I got most of this information from Active Captain and some from various Cruise Books. I don't think you can go wrong with Clairborne Young's books on the ICW. There's and awful lot of information out there and it's hard for me to keep it all in my mind so creating my own book was really helpful and I'd refer to it in the evenings after I stopped for the night planning my next days cruise. I'm really partial to the NC coast and you could easily do a month seeing it. One of my favorite spots along this stretch is Beach House Marina in Surf City NC. Being in the Marine Corp you may be familiar with the area it's not far from Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville NC. The Marina is only two blocks from the Ocean and a fishing pier plus really great rustic seafood restaurants and a grocery store and huge independantly owned boating supply store. I liked it so well I spent 4 days there. If you want more information about this stretch PM me and I'd enjoy sharing my information on that stretch of your trip. If you make it to Florida I'm at MM 46 green dock house about 20 miles from the Georgia border.
 
Good to hear from you, Gary. Thank you for being there and for being a member here. One means everything and the other means a lot.

Right here is a thread on the old MSN C-Brat site by MichaelOnTheClaraMae about his trip from Charlseton Harbor to south of Tampa Bay. I'm not real sure of the relevance, but at least it's on the right side of the country.
 
Gary, as you head south from MD to the ICW, consider stopping with us for a night. We're at the mouth of the Potomac, Point Lookout is in sight from my pier. Power and water for you and good food too. You can get to Portsmouth Va in a long day from here (Wx permitting), I did it 4 years ago in my 22.

Can't recommend a marina up in No MD unfortunately but there are lots of them and the locals can help with it.

Keep your head down and stay safe for the rest of the tour.

Charlie (USN, Ret)
 
Hi Gary,

Exciting times ahead. I have to agree with Pat that the number of miles you intend to cover is pretty ambitious in 30 days. When we were in Florida two winters ago, we did about 600 miles on the water in two months and felt like we could have spent a lot more time.

Here's a link to one of the cruising guides that we like. This one covers the ICW along the east coast...

http://www.waterwayguide.com/resources. ... ruisingicw

Do a search on ICW Cruising Guide and you will come up with a lot of resources.

Thank you for your service to our country, and we're looking forward to hearing all about your cruise.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
Gary,

First, just want to say thanks for your service there. God bless, stay safe, and prayers for a safe return to conUS.

Second, I'm on the wrong coast to be much help, but there will be plenty forth coming from those that know.

I might suggest that that seems like an ambitious length to cover in 30 days. You may want to kick back and relax and having to push hard takes alot of the enjoyment out of the trip.

Byrdman knows that side like the back of his hand, and Jim has spent alot of miles. Both have offered great advise.

Best to you,

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Gary -- PM me your mailing address and I'll send you an issue of Latitudes & Attitudes Magazine with a good article on the ICW and the "bests" for multiple categories of sights/services. Small gift from a current REMF.

Matt
 
We used Skipper Bobs Guides and the link will take you to that site. The guides had a lot of local knowledge as to cheap marinas and the best places to anchor, etc. Seemed less commercial and more helpful. There are two good guides: Anchorages alocg the ICW and Marinas along the ICW. They give the mileages, depth crossings. They're also fairly cheap. By the way, we took a couple of months coming up to the Chesapeake Bay from Miami, in a sailboat. It was a wonderful trip.

Looking at the publications , I notice they have a Military Marina along the ICW, which they'll send free over the internet, to those in the military. You qualify if anybody does.

The Great Circle Route is interesting and helpful but at a more general level.

Boris
 
Looking at the Skipper Bob website, I ran across this item which may be of particular interest to you as one who is in the military:

Military Marinas on the Great Circle Route
Military marinas that can accommodate vessels in the 35-45' range along the waterways of the Great Circle Route. Rates, phone numbers, GPS position, and distance to commissary/PX. To use these marinas the vessel owner is required to have a valid military ID card. Copies of this publication will be forwarded via E-mail as a PDF file at no charge. Request a copy of “Military Marinas” from SkipperBob@att.net.
Click to expand...

Warren
 
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