Intercoastal Waterway 2011 - AC to Cape May

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dl2525

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I didn't want to piggyback on the other old thread from 2009, so I figured I'd start my own.

My wife isn't able to do any rough boating in the ocean or out any inlets due to a medical issue (hopefully temporary). Anyway, we cancelled our other vacation plans and we're looking at cruising the intercoastal between AC and Cape May and then back over the course of a week just to get out on the boat.

My question is, how doable is this pass in 2011? My boat drafts around 36". From viewing the charts, most of the trip looks fairly manageable from AC to OC, then OC to Cape May I am seeing some low tides/shoaling around Avalon. Once through Avalon and into Stone Harbor, that looks fairly good from there and down to Cape May.

Any info or guidance is appreciated. Thanks.
 
There is a low bridge (35' if I remember correctly) between Avalon and Stone Harbor. If you can make it under there you should be fine.
 
The trip can easily be done with a 36" draft, but there are a few spots between OC and Cape May that I would not want to hit during low tide. If you stay in the channel, you can easily do the whole trip, even at low tide, but sometimes that's easier said than done. There are four spots between OC and Cape May where you always see people run aground, I've hit all of these many times. Good news is that the ground is soft, so if you slow down in these areas, I wouldn't expect any damage even if you do hit. This is I/O / outboard country, because you can just trim up the drive a bit, and get back to the channel, assuming you aren't on plane and well aground. Sea Tow or Boat US membership is advised if you have inboards, or a fixed keel.

If you can leave OC about two hours after low tide, that would get you through the shallow spot between Strathmere and Sea Isle ( Ludlam Bay) with enough water; however since you aren't familiar with that area,I would consider running at 'no wake' speed for that stretch. The channel is deep enough, but the markers are spaced pretty far apart, and at low tide you always see people who venture a few feet outside the channel and wind up aground - they are usually to far east. I'd tell you to hit this spot at high tide, but then the tide would be falling by the time you get past Avalon, you'd run the risk of running aground there. A bit past Avalon, the channel makes a hard left, or east turn towards stone harbor. You don't want to hit this stretch at almost low tide. If you do, the shallower side is to your starboard, they call it the football field, because at dead low tide, it looks like a football field, no water at all. I used to keep my boat at Avalon Pointe Marina, and just about every weekend Sea Tow was bringing someone in for a haul out, and 90% of those people hit the football field. Looking at the chart, the area I'm talking about is a bit to the south of the channel, between green 395 and 401.

The next spot you see a lot of people exit the channel and run aground is right past Stone Harbor, the channel makes a sharp right (right if you are going south). The markers are so close to the beach, it seems they must be in the wrong place, but they aren't.

Last spot people seem to miss, is the area to the east of red 442 and 443. I once was getting towed in, and the towboat captain missed this turn and ran aground.
 
Thank you for the very good advice. I will reference the chart and see what my wife is up to doing prior to the trip.
 
Hope you have a nice trip; I listed all of the bad spots, but that is probably my favorite stretch of water, so I should list the good ones as well. Best two anchorages are the state park at Corson's inlet, and the beach across from Townsend's inlet. There used to be a spot called low tide island, or champagne island, inside the Hereford inlet, but nobody goes there anymore, it gets too crowded {:.

My favorite dockside bar/restaurants are Twisty's in Strathmere, Michael's in Sea Isle City, the Anchorage in Avalon ( breakfast only), Sunset Bay in North Wildwood, and the Two Mile landing in Cape May. If fishing is your thing, or you just want to get out of the channel for a while and relax, turn west around green 367, between Sea Isle and Townsends inlet, the channel snakes around a bit, and gets 20 or so feet deep back there, stay towards the south side of that channel, even at low tide, it's pretty deep all the way to the shore.
 
Awesome! Thanks again. I will be plotting something out during the week before we leave next weekend.
 
Just to update anyone who was following -

We took our trip on 8/7 to 8/14. We stay in OC for the night on 8/7 at All Season's Marina and headed up to AC via the intercoastal on 8/8. It took us between 2.5 to 3 hours. It was a very nice ride. I was disappointed with the marina we picked because apparently they haven't kept up with their dredging and at low tide you are churning up a bunch of muck. They were actually dredging while we stayed there. Anyway, 8/8 and 8/9 were up in AC at the Golden Nugget/Trump Marina. They put us on E-dock in a 65 foot slip which was awesome! We had front row seats for the music on the dock at night. We left on 8/10 to head back towards OC again. We could not make the tides work out to ride the intercoastal down to Wildwood for the rest of the week. We were scheduled to meet up with friends in Somer's Point on the weekend, and unless we left at some crazy hour to time the tides, it just wasn't working out. On the ride back to OC on 8/10, I had been standing for about 2 hours straight when we were about 1 - 2 miles from the marina when I decided to sit down for a little. Not even 30 seconds after we run aground? I'm like WTF? I shut off the motors and looked at the marker in front and in back - we were right in the channel albeit slightly to the port side. Anyway, raised the props - no damage. Backed up and were on our way. That was the only issue whatsoever. When we headed up to Somer's Point for the weekend, we stayed at Harbour Cove marina. What a nice marina! I have never met folks so nice in a marina before. Every damn person on the dock said hi! I was sorta taken back. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We left this morning early in order to beat the storms. We headed back to All Seasons and loaded back up on the trailer. Two hours later we finally arrived at home. The trip was great! I felt like I honed some of my boating and charting skillsets. I taught my wife how to read a chart as well. No damage to the boat. Good time bonding with my wife. And we got home safely. Can't wait for the next trip!
 
We were boating the same area this week ourselves. We rented a house in Sea Isle for the week and trailered our 21' bowrider. We never had a problem while in the channel and it seemed like every day we were in dead low. Our favorite stop by far was the Tuckahoe Inn. Not marked coming in we hugged the Rt 9 bridge and were fine. Thanks for all the info Alk, we printed your posts and brought them with us. Twisty's was nice but verrryyy slow service, especially watching the tide drop while you're waiting. The Two Mile Inn is closed. Corson Inlet beach was the best, I've yet to find a beach that nice on the Chesapeake.
I know there was a cut thru leaving the Tuckahoe heading for Sea Isle but it's not marked, tide was going down, little boat traffic, and no local knowledge we went the long way back past Somers Point. I'll find it next time. It was a great trip.
 
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