The ICW

Recently the Waterway Guide Explorer Magazine, published an article on "The Magic of the ICW". I doubt many boaters in South Florida would call it "magical" but it is important.

The Atlantic ICW (AICW) is a protected, inland waterway that spans the entire length of the east coast–more than 1100 miles–from Norfolk, VA, to Key West, FL. It's a vital artery for recreational, commercial and military vessels, and it is often referred to as "the ditch".

Boaters choose to travel along the ICW for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, the ICW can be the safest route if the weather and sea conditions make sailing on "the outside" treacherous.

That was recently the case when HISC racers finished the Hillsboro to Palm Beach Regatta on May 6th. The next morning, sea conditions made for tricky sailing back south, so five of the boats (Contrails, Cookie Monster, Duet, Eximius, and Lady Grey) made their way home using the ICW. With fourteen bridges between the Palm Beach Sailing Club and Hillsboro Inlet, this can take a while.

The trickiest part of traveling the waterway is catching the bridge openings and not having to wait a good long minute (or half an hour) if you miss it. We Googled the bridge information and created a log of the names, times and distances for each bridge. Also with that information are the telephone numbers for each bridge. This came in handy for Eximius, Duet, and Contrails when the Spanish River bridge lost their radio.

1. Flagler Memorial

2. Royal Park

3. Southern Blvd

4. Lake Worth Ave

5. Lantana Ave (at Lantana)

6. Ocean Ave (at Boynton Beach)

7. Woolbright (15th Ave)

8. George Bush (8th Ave)

9. Atlantic Ave

10. Linton Blvd

11. Spanish River

12. Palmetto

13. Camino Real

14. Hillsboro Blvd

Cookie Monster and Lady Grey were luckily trailing right behind a disabled power catamaran being towed by TowboatUS. This is a situation which garners special consideration for the bridge tenders. Or as Alvira Johnson coined the term: Diplomatic Bridge Immunity. Every bridge opened On Demand for the towed boat. And luckily, the bridge tenders allowed us to trail along thru the opening. All the way to Atlantic Ave in Delray. This certainly took the edge off !

Good luck is always offset by bad luck. We approached Spanish River bridge to discover that the bridge had been in a broken lockdown for the past hour and was awaiting a mechanic. As we pondered how long of a wait this might be, we were rewarded by an announcement that the mechanic had arrived and they would attempt an opening on the half hour. Once the bridge started working they then had radio failure.

Lady Grey's overall race time in the PB Regatta was 4:30. The ride down the ditch took approximately 5:00 hours. But, a very different experience.