Cruising ICW North Palm City to Charleston

[tyd]

We are the new owners of MV Cat's Away, a PDQ34. We are planning to head north on the ICW from Palm City, FL to Charleston, SC in mid April. I understand there are many variables when cruising including weather and mechanical issues, but if all goes well, and we want to move pretty quickly, how many days should this trip take? Also, for those of you who have done the journey, do you have favorite marinas or anchorages you recommend? Thanks for your knowledge and feedback.

Ty & Pam
Cat's Away

[PDQfan]

Congrats on the new boat.

It would help to know what speed you plan on cruising at and how many hours per day that you think you will average.

[Don & Robbin]

Ty & Pam,
Congrats and welcome to the PDQ family. What is your email? I have an Excel file of marinas and anchorages that I'm glad to share with you. It has mile markers so you can plan your days. There are many more marinas but the ones I have listed are cat friendly. We are in Tampa Bay and will be headed to the Chesapeake in mid-April. Maybe we can meet somewhere/sometime. "I can tell you where I will be, and when I will be there, but not necessarily at the same time."
Don & Robbin
Ripple, hull 39
pdq039@gmail.com

[tyd]

Hi Don and Robbin,

We appreciate you sharing this information. My e-mail is PDQ34hull104@gmail.com We look forward to crossing paths with you on the way North on the ICW! Thanks for reaching out

Ty Dickinson
Cat's Away

[tyd]

Hi Bryan and Lori,

Love your videos! Hope to see you in New England this summer. We are out of Stonington and Block Island.

Cruising north on the ICW I would like to travel 15 knots if possible with wake zones and bridges. Willing to get up early and go, but would like to get settled in an anchorage or marina before too late int he afternoon.

Thanks Ty

[PDQfan]

Hi Ty. Thank you and thanks for watching. We're having fun with it. Unfortunately, my Mom is getting on in the years so our plan is to spend time with her this summer which means going up to CT by car. I's very bittersweet as we love the Stonington\Block\Narragansett area. Hopefully next year.

We've only done the trip north once but here's what we did, following Navionics and recommendations from Active Captain:

Day 1 St Augustine - The municipal marina is nice and convenient to town. The mooring are good, with launch service, but can be rolly depending upon weather. If you don't care about the city then we really liked an anchorage a few miles north called Ximanies Creek. Some wakes during the day but calm after sunset.

Day 2 - Jekyll Island (Jekyll Harbor Marina) There are also a few anchorages nearby. You get 90 minutes use of a golf cart to explore if you are at the marina. Optionally, you can do Fernandina which is before Jekyll. Nice town. We took a ball in Fernandina going up but it was too choppy on our way down. The marina there is a good choice. The town has nice shops and restaurants.

Day 3 - Beaufort SC - mooring balls managed by Safe Harbor. Some current there but easy dinghy access to marina and town. We took fuel there. Nice little town with a few good restaurants.

Day 4 - Church Creek anchorage - about 1.5 hours before Charleston. Our favorite anchorage that we did on the way up and back. Super calm and lots of dolphins. We also stayed at Safe Harbor Charleston city for a few nights. We were on the long dock which can get a bit choppy depending on winds and boat wakes but was ok at night. They had free transport to town and back which was super convenient and a big plus.

Enjoy the trip! Don't rush because it's still cold up in CT\RI. We left June 1 last year and had a nice trip up. Our friends who left earlier complained about the cold in May\June. It took us about 26 travel days going up but we stopped a lot especially in the Chesapeake. Coming down we had awesome weather and didn't stop much. It took us 19 travel days and 23 overall due to weather.