| >>> things to watch out for
Bridges and shallows. The former because they squeeze traffic into a
narrow physical space, and sometimes into a narrow time slot, too. The
guides all list opening times or hailing frequencies as applicable.
The latter are more prevalent than one would expect in some portions of a
major waterway, NC and SC particularly. Everything we bumped was soft,
though strong currents at times added to the challenge of making a timely
and graceful retreat. (We usually just settled for timely. ;-))
>>> Does anyone know of a good book on the subject ?
The Inland Waterway Guide, sold at most of the larger chandleries and
chart stores. It has little map strips every couple of pages showing 2-20
miles of the ICW, with marinas, etc noted. Keyed descriptions are on
accompanying pages and are quite detailed. Large scale blow-ups are
often provided for harbors and tricky sections. Ads for many of the
various marinas, restaurants, yards, etc also appear in the same sections.
We had a full set of charts, in order to make time by doing some outside
legs when we got impatient, though today I'd just carry the few Chartkits
it would take to cover the route (saving perhaps 75% of the USCG chart
cost), and *definitely* the Waterway Guide. You probably can safely do
all the inside sections using the guide alone.
J.
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