ICW in N. Carolina?

[nial]

Is it possible to sail a boat down Croatan Sound and then Pamlico Sound and not go thru the Alligator River? My boat draws 3' 3" and has a mast height of 35'. Thanks

[Helbent]

Absolutely.

The Umstead Bridge is the lower of the two on Croatan, and it is 45 feet, so perfectly fine for your mast height.

You just need to watch the weather as the Pamlico can see a stiff headwind and some pretty nasty chop with all that fetch and there are not many places to duck into. When we were coming down the ICW this August, we almost opted for the Pamlico. But there was a chance of T-storms so we stayed in the Alligator, which turned out to be a good choice given the stuff that rolled through while we were anchored in Belhaven. It would have sucked to deal with that out on the Pamlico.

[cheoah]

Definitely! My preferred route is the Pamlico sound, but with my current boat I have to go Roanoke in lieu of Croatan. My old boat was about 43' air draft, so it was close, but it was AWESOME being able to take that "sneak" under the 64 bridge via Croatan sound. Very convenient for my transits from albemarle to neuse river.

Just another perspective on thunderstorms in the Pamlico. I generally try to sail from about 0530 to 1400 when there is t storm activity. Getting caught on the sound is not a huge deal though if prepared. If I'm single handing, and there's lots of lightning, I'll just toss the anchor out in >15' water, and ride it out. Allows me to get away from the helm, and there's just,not,enough searoom to just reef and set a vane, heave to, whatever. I generally do this well before the storm is on top of me.


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[wildernessdave]

I am planning to take this route. We draw 4.5 and have a mast height of 40ft.

It looks pretty shallow in the croatan is there usually a lot of shoaling or is it pretty straight forward as long as you mind the channel bouys?

Thanks for any local knowledge from folks who know the area.