The Other ICW: Florida’s West Coast By Scott Welty
Scott Welty and Sue Budde sold their house and cars and left Chicago in June 2005 aboard their 1978 Catalina 30, Enee Marie. Since then, they have negotiated the Great Lakes, Welland Canal, Erie Canal, Hudson River, Long Island Sound, Jersey Shore, Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic ICW, Florida’s Hawk Channel, Florida’s western shore, and the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway. Along the way (in Long Island), they bought their current boat, a center cockpit 1984 Endeavour 40, also named Enee Marie. They travel with their reluctant crew, Gracie the cat. You can track their adventures at www.scottsuesailaway.blogspot.com.
D
ue to a variety of circumstances, we find ourselves shoving off from Clearwater Beach, FL, on July 1, 2005, for points south. We had originally made a run from Key West to Clearwater in two largish jumps; Key West to Marco Island and then Marco Island to Clearwater. Now that we are heading south, we decide to take the inside route for much of the trip to Fort Myers Beach. While summer is not the best weather window for Florida’s west coast (little wind and thunderstorms most afternoons) the weather makes an inside run desirable. With an early start you can arrive at the next anchorage before the afternoon storms. With the light summer winds, you are going to be motor-sailing at best on the ocean side so you may as well motor in flat water. Also, on the outside there are a few navigable entryways from the Gulf. They are Longboat Pass, Venice, Port Charlotte, and San Carlos Bay. On the inside, you find the usual well-marked waterway as on the Atlantic ICW with some fine anchorages to explore. We did not go inside from Clearwater, however, but went outside as far as Egmont Key. We should have kept going to Longboat Key. Egmont Key stands in the mouth of huge Tampa Bay. There is a lighthouse, and the island is mostly a bird sanctuary. While it would provide protection from a west wind, it provides little protection from the more normal easterlies. But it was nice and calm when we arrived, so we put the hook down and decided to stay the night. When the wind picked up during the night, we were in for a long spell of hobbyhorsing and not much sleeping.
News & Views for Southern Sailors
LONGBOAT KEY ANCHORAGE The next morning we made the short run outside to Longboat Key. This could have been done the previous day as mentioned. Longboat Pass is well marked and leads to a drawbridge that opens on signal. When you first pass through the bridge, you can actually see the anchorage off to starboard, but you can’t go there! There is a huge sandbar that comes out and blocks travel to the south from the bridge. There is an island, Jewfish Key, directly east of the pass, and you have to follow the buoys around to the north, enter the ICW, and then turn south along the eastern shore
SOUTHWINDS October 2006
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