ICW CRUISE

[Amapola]

As others have posted, a lot of the ICW is restricted for speed/wake. If you want to speed, please do it on the outside. That said, my favorite places between Wilmington & Key West are Myrtle Beach, Georgetown, Charleston, Beaufort, Savannah, Fernandina, St. Augustine, Ft. Pierce, Marathon Boot Key Harbor, Key West.

[Al B]

I boat out of Cape Canaveral .
Retired , use my 31 ft Regal weekly . Wife & myself enjoy cruising, marina life, sleeping aboard few nights a week, limited fishing .
Knowing all the negatives twin gas engines I still purchased this boat .
I use often staying close too home port .
I burn a gallon a mile .
Boat not designed too not go slow .
I am a boater all my life and question why I never purchased a sail .
Recent years I went from a fishing type boats too a cruiser wife & myself can enjoy together . Spending many weeks aboard buddies Hunter,
Was easier at that time too go too the DARK SIDE
Never a go fast person. I enjoy going slow . Sail boaters under power pass me.
I just returned from a 4 day journey north too St Augustine .
I burned 2oo gallons of fuel . MAKES YOU WANT TOO CRY AT GAS DOCK
But not as bad the boat next too me $ 2500 gas guzzler sport fisherman
ICW is nice but expect too find jerks , ( all over these days )
Confusing signs such as Limited Wake , No Wake , MAX speed 25 MPH during May 1 - Sept 1 ( could be off on my dates ) Signs suggestive causing the boater too get stopped from deputies .
My boat at 5 knots draws a deep wake . I have too keep it almost neutral having control. If I keep it 12 knots it burns more fuel then on plane
Fuel burn , fuel available all over , prepare to pay around $ 4.39 gallon
Diesel generally $ .75 cheaper but some places charge same price
Marinas generally charge 2 dollars a foot , plus electric over night
You said its 900 miles each way . Round trip
9 TRITTION DOLLARS in fuel
Returning ICW July 4th , after I passed my share of jerks, traffic , beer drinking idiots , drivers with beer in hand heading straight towards me , wave runners, pontoon boats ( most are renters ) and the best idiots towing their kids with all the not giving a damn people I said too myself , Ponce Inlet is close . Opening too Ocean
South YOUNG MAN , cape Canaveral was 30 miles
Hitting big rollers was not fun , wife was freaking, a few vodka drinks helped her LOL ( not me ) burned a lot more fuel coming in on fumes ,
Still better then dealing with crowds . Stayed 5 miles off shore , not one boat.
Your journey could be fun , but prepare too spend a lot on fuel
marinas and deal with a lot of stuff .
I have a trailer for my boat . Not a fan of towing a boat this size its not fun 53 ft down highway 9.6 beam ( have wide permit ) its like a job but made a decision will trailer at times too conserve fuel use .
A journey via water is great , but you need the right boat .
SAIL or Trawler .

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by tmise

I believe they misinterpreted my mention of a 32 mph cruise speed. Mentioned that because that is my intended speed for wide open areas that don’t have a no wake zone and it is the most efficient cruising speed for the boat. Thanks for your input, I agree with 4-5 weeks time!

No, they didn't misinterpret. There are idiots on all types of boats and they made the leap to the assumption that you are one of them, which was wrong to assume.

While there are lots of no wake zones, there are also lots of stretches where you can get up on plane. The one thing that would be nice to keep in mind. There are a lot of stretches where you are not speed restricted but the channel is relatively narrow (often below the surface), so slow boats are limited in their ability to react. On open water on our sailboat, I would just bear off a bit to ride out the wakes and it was no big deal. But often the deep channel will be 100' wide and that's not an option to bear off without running into the shallows.

I do suggest doing some tests to estimate your MPG at various speeds. Based on our 31' power boat that got 1.5MPG, I would figure on the order of 1200gal round trip. Not insignificant but not horrible either.

[tmise]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

No, they didn't misinterpret. There are idiots on all types of boats and they made the leap to the assumption that you are one of them, which was wrong to assume.

While there are lots of no wake zones, there are also lots of stretches where you can get up on plane. The one thing that would be nice to keep in mind. There are a lot of stretches where you are not speed restricted but the channel is relatively narrow (often below the surface), so slow boats are limited in their ability to react. On open water on our sailboat, I would just bear off a bit to ride out the wakes and it was no big deal. But often the deep channel will be 100' wide and that's not an option to bear off without running into the shallows.

I do suggest doing some tests to estimate your MPG at various speeds. Based on our 31' power boat that got 1.5MPG, I would figure on the order of 1200gal round trip. Not insignificant but not horrible either.

Thank you, appreciate your input!

[Almost-There]

I spent a lot of time bringing a Stamas 362 up from Washington NC to NJ. I know it's not the same direction but we had to navigate a lot of no wake zones with 2 big outboards. We were burning a lot more fuel than anticipated. One thing we found by accident when we burned up a impellor. was that we turned more rpm on one motor yet our slow speed fuel burn was 30-40% less. So if we were expecting a long no wake zone we'd shut down a engine and chug along.