ICW depth for northern Keys

[svJasmine]

just go into the through "Channel 5" to the Hawk channel and up.

Rich

[timb7734]

I make the trip Ft Myers to the Keys, back and forth each winter, at night. Boat is a 7 knot trawler 47’ OAL. We depart Ft Myers Beach about 5pm and are in Florida Bay about dawn, Marathon by noon via Channel 5 bridge. Best to do Florida Bay in daylight for the thousands of crab pots. No traffic save for an occasional workboat or drone, and 12 to 15 feet of water except in the one narrows. Choose a calm night hahaha. From channel five stay in the Hawks Channel rather than inside Florida Bay, as following the winding channel is just too stressful and no shorter.

[Mauruuru]

Been to KW and back via ICW and through Florida Bay. While my boat has a vertically retracting keel I didn’t worry but there are clearly places where I think more than 6 feet of draft would be a teeth clencher-you can see the bottom in some of these cuts and channels are not all that wide

[Sailmon]

We brought Her Diamond from Miami to Marathon on the inside several years ago. Following the magenta line through Biscayne Bay, we never saw less than 8’ on the depth sounder. In Florida Bay the water was much shallower and we often saw depths of 1 to 2 inches below our 4.5’ keel. While we never felt anything that resembled going aground, we noticed that all the antifouling paint had been “sanded” off the bottom of the keel & rudder when we hauled out in Port Charlotte for hurricane season. We now go through 7 mile bridge & up Hawk Channel when heading north.