ICW Gear Must-Haves

After several weeks on the ICW (Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway), I decided that I’d serendipitously bought almost the perfect ICW boat. I can’t take credit for this—it was a happy accident. The things I really appreciated about my boat, a PDQ 32-ft. catamaran, were my shallow draft, short mast, multiple cockpit enclosures, autopilot, furling headsail and a Rocna anchor.

I most appreciated my shallow draft (3-ft., 3-in.) and my relatively short mast (about 50 ft.). This allowed me to easily pass under the fixed bridges, most of which are 65 ft., but sometimes only at low tide. Drawing just over three feet, I rarely had to worry much about water depth, but I did still manage to run aground outside the channel. Boats with taller masts and deeper drafts have to time their passages around tides far more than I did. Though opinions and experiences vary, I was happy to be on a boat with a draft under 5 ft. and a mast under 60 ft. If I were buying another sailboat for the ICW, those would probably be my limits.

My boat has multiple cockpit enclosures, and I used them all. My full, vinyl enclosure acted like a green house on the coldest days in January and kept my cockpit dry when it rained.  My full bug enclosure shielded me from bugs, and my half enclosure with sunshades brought shade when it got warmer. An autopilot is helpful on shorthanded boats, but mine is an old Raymarine wheel autopilot, and only goes in a straight-ish line. The ICW is not a straight-ish line. So, the places I could set the autopilot and step away from hand steering were limited. My easy-to-deploy furling headsail was the only sail I used in the ICW, and I appreciated the larger genoa I used for most of the trip more than my smaller self-tacking jib I used for the first couple of weeks. Finally, my trusty Rocna anchor served me well for the whole trip, and I appreciated being able to lift and lower it via a windlass controller that reached my helm.

WHAT I WISHED I HAD

The three things I wish I had were heat, a better way to charge my navigation iPad at the helm and a smarter auto pilot. In January, I wanted heat. The only sources of heat on my boat were a small electric space heater, hot beverages, soup and, occasionally, snuggling with the right crew. I spent more nights in marinas in January than I hoped so that I could use the electric space heater. For a few weeks I lived on hot beverages and soup. Maybe a better solution is not to be in the Carolinas in January on an unheated boat. Lesson learned.

My navigation iPad quickly ran out of power when constantly in use. I have several USB-A outlets on my boat and tried running an extra-long charging cable to the helm. This helped extend the battery life each day, but it still didn’t charge as fast as it used power. My solution was to get an external battery with a faster USB-C charger. I charged both the external battery and iPad overnight, and the combination was enough to get through the day on the ICW.

My basic autopilot was better than nothing, but a smarter autopilot that can follow a route would have been more helpful. I’m not an advocate of just letting an autopilot drive on the ICW—there is way too much traffic and other things to hit. However, as a single hander, a smarter autopilot would have given me more options for bathroom breaks and keeping watch away from the helm.

GEAR I DIDN’T NEED

The things I didn’t need on my ICW journey were radar, AIS, a watermaker, my mainsail and my Starlink internet.  My radar broke before I headed south. I didn’t need it. I never saw much fog after Montauk, NY, and I wasn’t moving at night. I didn’t have AIS, and I know I might be missing something, but I didn’t long for AIS on the ICW. A fellow cruiser gave me a Rainman watermaker in North Carolina, but I didn’t really use it until the Bahamas. (Yes, there is another story there about the generosity of fellow cruisers!) There is plenty of free, potable water on the ICW. Sadly, my mainsail never saw daylight on the ICW. Although there were some spots I could have sailed, I often lacked enough sea room to comfortably turn into the wind and lift or lower my mainsail—especially single handed when I like to give myself more time and space for maneuvers.

I had the RV regional roam version of Starlink, now called Roam, but I barely used it until the Bahamas. Mostly, I used my iPhone and Verizon 5G Hotspot for internet on the ICW.  Starlink uses far more power than my phone or hotspot. There was only one night at anchor north of the Alligator Pungo Canal in North Carolina where I had zero cell phone service (MM 104). That night I turned on Starlink for a couple hours to make some phone calls and let my people know I was safe. Mostly, I used Starlink when I was parked in a marina for a few days, plugged into power and waiting on weather or a crew change. Starlink usually beats marina Wi-Fi.