1/23-30/98
The Intra Coastal Waterway was our home in the ‘70’s while
we lived aboard. We seasonally cruised
the waters between the Chesapeake and Miami, spending the hurricane seasons in
Beaufort NC and eventually following the sun as far south as the
Caribbean. Fond memories of experiences on the Florida ICW had me
perpetually making plans to return.
We’d owned a trawler for awhile, berthed in Washington NC, but never had
the time to get her any farther south than Charleston SC. The overhead associated with owning a 35’
boat which was kept 350 miles from home became overwhelming and we sold
her. It took 2 years to find a suitable
replacement; a boat my wife, daughter and I could spend weekends aboard, one
that could take us back to all the places we’d been and also take us to the
places we’d missed. QT is a 15’11"
cuddy, sporting a porta-potty, 14 gallon fresh water tank and canvas camper
back, pushed by a Honda 50. She’s the
most fun, care-free boat I’ve owned and is my ticket to rekindling all those
memories of the ICW.
I am going into the third year of boating with QT - the
first year was spent mainly trying to get the new Yamaha outboard to work
properly. After months and months in 5
different Yamaha shops trying unsuccessfully to get the warranty work done, I
traded for a Honda and began to enjoy boating again. I had my Florida ICW trip
on the back burner while outfitting/customizing my little boat between long
weekends aboard. I did do a couple week
long cruises in Florida on QT, to see a shuttle go up from the Banana River,
and again to watch a Pensacola Blue Angles air show from the Gulf, before the
Southern Florida ICW cruise became a priority.
The plan was to put in around Daytona and head south down the
ICW. Major points of interest were Lake
Boca where we lived/worked on the hook for several months in the 70’s, the New
River and associated sights in the Lauderdale area that were ‘off limits’ to
our sailboat’s 4’ draft and 35’ mast, and No Name Harbor at Key Biscayne where
we’d spent layovers waiting for weather to jump the stream to the Bahamas.
It wasn’t until I actually was preparing to launch at the
Daytona Municipal Marina, looking at the Manatee signs, that I remembered all
the restrictions I’d come across on a trip up the St. Johns River from DeLand
to Lake George. I also remembered
getting busted by the water Sheriff for going 5 ½ in what he suggested was a
4. I decided I’d head farther south to
put in. I meandered down A1A and US1,
stopping at marine stores asking about nice ramps where I could leave my
truck/trailer for a couple days. I’m
not sure why, but no one offered an enthusiastic response – most would just
grunt instructions to a local ramp which they would offer little to no information
about. About the time I got to Stuart,
I couldn’t hold off any longer and headed for the nearest ramp. I was very fortunate to stumble on a state
park at Manatee Pocket that had first class facilities. I put in (no charge for the ramp) and headed
south down the ICW.
I headed S-L-O-W-L-Y south would be a better
description. Given free reign, I’ll
usually put her on about 20 mph – just a little past where she gets on a plane,
slowing to +/- 8mph in interesting areas, and bringing her down to 4 mph or so
when courtesy dictates. According to my
GPS trip computer, the restrictions imposed to keep the Manatee safe were
limiting my average speed to significantly less than 8 mph. None the less, I continued south, determined
to revisit Hobe Sound as well as all those interesting boating facilities on
Lake Worth. All in all it was a very
enjoyable run to Lake Boca where I hooked out for the night, but the Manatee
had put a cramp in my schedule. I
decided I’d head back to the Pocket, take the boat out and trailer it closer to
Miami, otherwise I’d run out of time.
On the trip back up, I was more familiar with the Manatee
rules; No Wake vs. Slow Speed/Minimum Wake and Channel Exempt vs. Channel
Included, and knew about how long the restrictions would apply, so I could pay
more attention to the surroundings than to the qualifications to avoid getting
busted in restricted areas. I also began to use the speed restricted
portions of the ICW to fix snacks or meals and get things done that required
minimum helm attention.
As I approached the ramp back at the Pocket, I realized that
I wasn’t ready to put the boat back on the trailer so I spent a couple hours
exploring the pocket. Still not ready
to call it quits for the day, I headed toward the St. Lucie Canal that takes one
on to Lake Okeechobee. Once past the
open waters of the St. Lucie River, I throttled her back to a high idle and
meandered down the canal. I
particularly enjoyed the serenity of the canal; the silent operation of the
Honda allows one to soak up all the natural sounds along the banks, and being a
four stroke, there’s no intrusive TCW3 oil smell..
Unless I have specific plans on the other side, I hesitate
to make a lock passage. In this case,
as I approached the lock, I weighed the advantages of locking through vs. just
settling in for the night. It was
Superbowl Sunday, and I decided to hook out and tune in the game. I found a secluded spot, dropped the hook
and before I found the game on the radio, the mosquitoes found me. I climbed into the cuddy, closed out the
bugs, opened some Cheetos and enjoyed the best Superbowl game in years -- on a
scratchy AM radio station...
As is often the case while at anchor, I was up way before
dawn. I’ve added a new dimension to
boating with the GPS. Mine makes a bread
crumb trail of where I’ve been. On a
nice night, I may use this trail to get out and around before the sun comes
up. This was one of those occasions. I put the water on for coffee, pulled in the
hook and leisurely made my way in the dark back toward Manatee Pocket. Things look different in the dark, a new
view/perspective of the area. Sipping
coffee and loping along the water into the sunrise; it doesn’t get any better…
I put her back on the trailer about 7am and took US1/A1A
south, not knowing exactly where I’d end up putting back in. I decided a spot half way between Lauderdale
and Miami would be nice, so I started getting serious about finding a ramp near
Hallandale. I enjoy the sights along
A1A but when a public ramp turned up at Sunny Isles just north of Bakers
Haulover, I couldn’t resist putting in, especially when the folks at the Marina
there said there was no problem leaving the truck and trailer overnight.
I anxiously looked forward to revisiting No Name Harbor at
Key Biscayne, but the Manatee signs again dictated a slow pace. I used much more of the daylight than I had
planned, slowly making my way south down Biscayne Bay. The sights had drastically changed since I’d
been through in the 70’s, but I began to get nostalgic as I entered the open
water past the Rickenbacker Causeway. I
remembered the nervousness and excitement my wife and I felt 25 years ago at
the same spot in anticipation of our first crossing of the Gulf Stream on our
way to the Bahamas aboard our 27’ sloop.
Relying on my memory from the ’73 trip, I swept around the
southeast end of Key Biscayne and peered ashore for the entrance to No
Name. My depth sounder alarm was set at
4 feet but by the time it started sounding the boat had almost ground to a
standstill on a sand bar. I wasn’t the
first to have this experience as the area was full of bald furrows angling
across the grassy shallows in every direction.
I tilted the Honda almost out of the water, gave the bottom a couple
nudges with my boat hook and idled back into deeper water. I resigned myself to putting the coordinates
of the harbor entrance in the GPS, did a GOTO, and made a straight shot into No
Name.
The entrance to No Name bore more Manatee signs, along with
a notice that it now cost $10 plus tax to anchor overnight, or there was a $2
charge for day only use. I wove an idle
course in and out of the 6 boats anchored inside, stopping near one to ask the
skipper if the harbormaster really stopped by to collect the fee. I was assured that the fee would be collected. It didn’t appear that there were any
services offered for the $10…I didn’t even see any facilities ashore. I dodged a manatee on my way out and because
the seas were so friendly I anchored on the sand bar about a mile offshore
where I had previously run aground.
I ducked into the cuddy for a nap, but after a short while I
was awakened by the roar of one jet after another as the evening traffic in and
out of the Miami airport regularly passed overhead. I unhooked and spent some time exploring Hurricane Harbor and
some other shallow channels into the island.
I would soon need to pick a spot to spend the night, but with the parade
of jets overhead, I couldn’t get excited about the area. I finally decided I’d keep poking about Key
Biscayne until sundown, then head back north.
With the lights of Miami against the night background, I was
guided back across Biscayne Bay to the ICW by the GPS bread crumbs. I kept her at about 8 mph as I knew the
greatest danger in following the GPS track is that it can/does get one
uncomfortably close to (unlighted) markers.
The GPS also showed me that I needed to crab against the wind and
current to hit my Miami mark. Once I
made Miami, I would run the ICW north until I felt like turning in – there
would be no shortages of places to hook out along the way.
I dodged scores of small fishing boats in the dark waters
between Venetian and Broad Causeways, finally ready to find a quiet anchorage
as I passed Bakers Haulover. There’s a
sprawling cove just north of MM 1080; I anchored in the cozy hook at the south
end and turned in. About an hour later,
at 1:30am I was awakened by loud crude voices on the bank; it sounded like 5 or
6 guys wondering how they could get out to that little boat anchored just off
the shore. I monitored their boisterous
conversations until I was comfortable that I was beyond their reach, and
settled back in. Their ‘partying’ woke
me up 2 or 3 more times before it got quiet enough to sleep the night out.
The next morning I continued north, again complying with the
Manatee signs. It sometimes appears
that the Manatee like to hang out in high rent districts – the bigger the
houses on shore, the more apt one is to have Manatee (or at least Manatee restrictions?). I suppose all these Florida water craft
restrictions are for the best, but it takes some getting used to. It could have been worse. I imagined myself at "Idle Speed No
Wake" (4 mph?) on a sweltering hot day with mosquitoes, no-see-ums and
green headed flies having me for lunch…
There’s a new addition to the waterway in the Dania
area. It’s a gambling casino posing as
a catamaran, with a footprint the size of a football field. I could have easily motored cleanly between
the two hulls. I wondered how they
would get that beast through the A1A bridge to get out to open water. I was
favored to witness the event on my return trip when this floating building
swung in behind me from Port Everglades.
I put QT in about 4 feet of water at the channels edge and watched this
mammoth rig not only successfully navigate the bridge, but also come to a stop
and slide sideways up to it’s dock. And
to think I often have trouble getting my boat back on the trailer.
If you’re into boating at all, ya gotta love
Lauderdale. I checked out all the marinas
in the adjacent waters, did an idle by at Las Olas where we’d spent several
days on a mooring in ’73 and then headed up the New River. The New River was too complicated to mess
with when we were on the sailboat, but QT is the perfect vehicle to use to see
the sights. I didn’t have charts for the New River, but that didn’t appear to
be a problem and I suppose there were SLOW, NO WAKE and MANITEE signs along the
way but I had planned to make this leg at 5 mph or less so I didn’t pay
attention to the signs. There’s so much
to see; boats of every kind and nature, tied one behind the other for miles
along the banks. Boat yards, bridges,
estates, water taxis, tour boats, folks along the shores …
I don’t usually have to worry about bridges as I only need
about 6’ of vertical clearance, but there was a low railroad bridge down with a
work crew grinding and welding away. I
wanted to check on my bridge opening protocol so I did a 180 to regroup and was
immediately met by The Jungle Queen heading up river. I grabbed the nearest piling and waited for
this monster tour boat to pass, then fell in behind her as the railroad bridge
made her a hole. I wondered how a boat
any larger than mine would negotiate a confrontation with this Jungle Queen, as
she only leaves a couple feet clearance to the boats moored on each side along
the river, and less clearance at the bridge.
Continuing north up the New River, I came on the North
Fork/South Fork junction. Not having a
plan, I followed the wake of a boat that was taking the North Fork. As I rounded the first turn, there was
another low (highway) bridge, and the boater in front of me was shaking his
fist at the couple walking out on the bridge.
I didn’t hear the specifics, but I guess the captain felt the
bridgetender could have opened sooner – the wait couldn’t have been more than 2
minutes. I followed the boat through
the opened bridge.
I headed north for another ½ hr or so, until I ran out of
water, then did a 180. I don’t like to
blow my horn, especially in a residential neighborhood, so as I approached the
low highway bridge I dug out my handheld VHF and turned it on. I could hear a lot of chatter between irate
boaters and the various bridgetenders in the Lauderdale area who were
following/explaining the rules. There
was one lady who couldn’t get a bridge to open, only to have her husband take
over transmission suggesting that his wife was confused and was hailing the
wrong bridge. When I got close enough,
I could read the sign, "Bridgetender monitors VHF 9", but nowhere did
I see the name of the bridge and not having a chart I wasn’t willing to hash
out the name of the crossing while on the radio. I drifted for about 10 minutes while making a sandwich, but
finally blew the horn. The
bridgetending couple immediately appeared, confirmed by voice that I wanted
passage and opened the bridge. When I
returned to the North Fork/South Fork "Y", I took the South
Fork. The South fork was just as
enjoyable as the North Fork. It’s quite
a bit farther on the South fork until you run out of water, and actually I
ended up at a row of buoys that forbade further navigation. I didn’t go any faster on the return that I
did on the way up – there’s so much to see.
As I returned to the ‘congested’ area of bridges and boats,
I turned on the VHF to get a feel for whether the railroad bridge would be open
or not. The first thing I heard was the
Jungle Queen advising all boats in the New River that she was headed upstream,
approaching the bridge and advised anyone navigating in the area to take
appropriate measures. So that’s how it
was done when there’s room for only one in the channel – call ahead for
clearance! I pulled over into a pocket
between two moored boats and waited until she passed. She was immediately followed by several boats who had no way of getting
around her in the narrow stretch.
I spent quite some time in and around Port Everglades
watching the freighters and liners come and go. Then I checked out a recreation area that has an entrance on the
east side of Dania Sound and runs parallel to the ICW for about a quarter mile
in protected waters. There’s a ramp at
the entrance and a small water sports shop with rentals up inside. The water is pretty shallow, but it would be
a nice place to spend the day with the family.
After observing the previously mentioned casino clear the
bridge and tie up, I headed back to the ramp at Sunny Isles, obediently
complying with the restrictions on the ubiquitous signs along the way. I put QT back on her trailer and headed
north on I95 to meet up with some fellow Interneters.
To me, A1A is fun to travel. Sure, it’s stop and go, but you'll find beaches, water, boats and
related businesses. It’s a recreational
destination. If you’re on A1A, you’re
most likely pretty close to where you’re going. If you take US1 up or down the coast, you’re apt to be heading
somewhere else vs. the A1A folks that are pretty much where they want to
be. Drivers on US1 are in more of a
hurry and are much more impatient than the A1A drivers. Now you try I95 and LOOK OUT! No one wants to be where they are on I95
between West Palm and Miami…it’s every man
for himself…spare no patience or courtesy!
I won’t do I95 again in that area, I’ll gladly pay the tolls.
My next port would have been Merritt Island, to visit the
first of 3 fellows I met at rec.boats Newsgroup on the Internet. I would have arrived too late though, so I
headed up to Daytona to check out a boating store called Blue Water Boats. Bill Grannis, the service manager there, had
e-mailed me some pointers on getting my Yamaha warranty work done and he’d also
encouraged me to see the St. Johns River (which I had done on a previous
Florida adventure). The wind was
blowing between 20 and 30, but I easily launched at the Municipal Marina and
spent the morning checking out marinas and water sights from Ormand to Ponce
Inlet. I put QT back on the trailer
late in the morning, then stopped by to thank Bill for his help and
recommendations. Bill was very busy and
could only spare a minute or two away from his service department.
I then headed south, back to Merritt Island to get up with
Paul Kruse (Jr.). I was dying to see
how his home built, 60 foot, power catamaran was coming along. As he showed me the first of what would be
many sections of his cargo/fishing cat. Paul bubbled with ideas, facts and
techniques about the construction and uses for his custom rig. Paul’s son, Paul III, is a partner in the
undertaking and will be part of the crew when the cat goes to sea.
After all my oohs and aahs had subsided and my questions had
been answered at the driveway construction site, we decided to continue the
conversation aboard QT for a night run out of Port Canaveral. Again, Paul was a wealth of knowledge about
the area and related businesses. I
never felt the need to pull out the chart as he piloted us through the night
into the Atlantic. We enjoyed a
pleasant run south beyond Cocoa Beach before deciding to return.
To me, Paul’s project is monumental - build a 60 foot
catamaran in your yard? Still, dreams
are the nourishment of life, and Paul is an inspiration for us to believe in
and follow our own dreams.
My next stop was Jacksonville. Bill Sheffield, of American
Marine in Jacksonville, and I have swapped e-mail as a result of some posts on
rec.boats and while I have never really needed the services of a Honda outboard
dealer (except to buy one), I figured I’d stop by and say "Hello".
Bill not only sells Hondas, he also builds and sells (Honda powered)
Shoal Cats from 8 to 22 feet – he says his 17’ Shoal Cat will do 45mph with a
Honda 75. Maybe next time I can get him
to take me out for a spin. After Bill
leisurely showed me his yard, we shared boating experiences.
The 500 mile trip back in the truck gave me time to
reflect. South East Florida has changed
quite a bit since I was last there; the manatee have taken over and there’s much
more boat and highway traffic, still it’s a great place to be on the water and
provides a marine environment you’ll not find anywhere else. It also made me appreciate the freedom,
serenity and variety I tend to take for granted in my coastal Carolina waters. Another thought crossed my mind on the way
home – it’s ironic, but then again not so surprising after my own personal
experience, that the Yamaha service guy was so busy, and the Honda guy had time
to show me around.
Total Trip - combined miles = 2,029
Water miles = 355
Engine hours = 41.5
Boat fuel = 45 gallons
