Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway

We find ourselves fascinated by the differences between recreational boating on the Pacific Coast and Atlantic Coast.  Our boat at home, Always Ahead, is suitable for inland salt waters such as Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands, Canadian Gulf Islands and places further north, all waterways which are protected from the treacherous open ocean.

The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, which runs from the southern tip of Florida to Boston, is also almost entirely protected water. Only a few short portions are not separated from the ocean by barrier islands. The whole route is 3,000 miles (4,800-km) along the Atlantic and continues along the Gulf coast of the United States, called the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Some lengths consist of natural inlets, salt-water rivers, bays, and sounds; others are artificial, man-made  canals connecting the natural segments. It provides a continuous navigable route along its length without many of the hazards of travel on the open sea.

Following World War II, when the Germans sank many U.S. commercial ships just off the Atlantic coast, the U.S. government and many state and local municipalities decided to fund its’ dredging and marking with navigational aids (signage)  to complete this coastal route, which had been originally proposed in 1826, just 50 years after the Declaration of Independence, but had only built piecemeal.

It was initially designed as a 12-foot deep channel, 150 feet wide.  Over the years, as other forms of transportation became dominant,  funding to maintain it has dwindled at times and in places, so portions of it, including long segments here in Florida, are now only 7 to 9 feet deep, and occasionally narrower than 150 feet. If  you  enlarge the picture, above, you can actually see the dredged  channel.  The Waterway itself is much wider – often a mile or three miles – but the safe, marked, navigable stretch is narrow and requires constant attention to avoid running aground.

Our training Captains, Chris and Alyse  repeatedly stressed the importance of our looking ahead AND behind us as we weave our way up the channel, to visually line up the channel markers to determine whether we’re inside or outside the channel, as the wind and current can quickly move us into shallow water, even grounding. This is not like our boating experience in the Pacific Northwest where most channels are miles wide, hundreds of feet deep, have few obstructions and few Aids to Navigation except when entering a bay, cove, marina or inlet.

While there is some commercial traffic on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, it is mostly recreational boaters, including gigantic yachts like the one in the photo above.