Sailing in Currents

The idea of a 3 knot push might sound like a dream come true! People spend thousands of dollars to have feathering propellers and faired underbodies, all in the interest of gaining a few tenths of a knot, and here you can magically gain 3+ knots, for FREE!  

Currents are caused by the movement of water from one place to another, as the water flows, it will carry everything in it along for a ride. If you happen to be sailing in the same direction as the current, then you will get a nice push in the right direction! Your speed over ground will become your speed through the water + the speed of the current. If you are sailing against the current, your speed over ground will become your speed through the water - the speed of the current. 

It is important to know what direction the current is flowing that way you can use it to your advantage! 

Offshore, currents tend to move in a single direction at a fairly constant rate. They also tend to be well known, such as the Gulf Stream and its famed "counter currents" that run parallel to it on its bounderies. In shore, currents are typically caused by draining rivers or tidal waters ebbing and flooding. While the currents offshore all flow in the same direction, the currents inland tend to correspond with the tides and will alter direction throughout the day. 

Knowing when the current will be flowing and how strong can really help a vessel cover serious ground in a single day. We sailed across the Bogue Sound in about 3.5 hours, covering 24 miles at an average speed of 6.8 knots! We are by no means a fast boat, and we usually average less than 2 knots on a passage since we are dependent on the wind being in the right direction. This day was perfect, we were on a beam reach and had a very strong current pushing us along at over 3 knots! While our speed over ground may seem impressive, our speed through the water was our typical sailing speed of around 3-4 knots. By timing the tides and its current, we were swept into the Bogue Sound and reached its middle before slack tide. When slack water approached, we slowed to 3-4 knots since we no longer had the current helping us. As the tide began to ebb, we were swept out with it on the other side and sped across the remainder of the sound, reaching the other side by lunch. When we crossed the inlet, we were then faced with an opposite current as it was also draining into the inlet and our speed plummeted from 6 knots to 2 knots as we fought a 4 knot current on the nose.

Using these speed boosts can seem fun and will help you cover more ground with less effort, but it does take some precautions on the part of the captain. 

Bridges and other obstacles will approach at a much faster rate than you are used to. This means that you need to line up with the opening in the bridge perfectly well in advance, as the current will slam you into the abutments if you are trying to cut it close.  

Strong currents will also create eddies and vortexes that will swirl just behind large fixed objects. These swirling forces can pull you in and throw you off course. Your keel is especially susceptible to these phenomenon and will pull you along helplessly. 

Encountering other vessels is also tricky, as the typical rules about right of way are skewed to accommodate for the current. The vessel traveling downstream will have right of way over all vessels traveling upstream because the downstream vessel has less maneuverability. If you are approaching a bridge pass, the downstream vessel can not stop as the current will pull them through the pass, so the vessel traveling upstream must stop and wait; even if the downstream vessel is under power and the upstream vessel is under sail. 

Currents are fun, but they can be a little stressful in tight quarters where the speed takes away your ability to stop the vessel with the normal controls, such as heaving to or putting the motor in neutral. The current will carry you along and push you where it wants, and currents in narrow areas run faster as the water has to rush through the narrow opening in a hurry. This can add to the stress of the situation if not managed well. 

If you do not feel comfortable navigating with a strong current, you will be forced to wait for slack water to occur before transiting tight areas. While it might seem intimidating at first, an important thought to keep in mind is that anchors still work with currents. If you ever feel like a current is going to slam you into a bridge or wall, the anchor will hold the bottom and keep your yacht from traveling at the mercy of the current. 

Yacht Builders False Advertising

At boat shows, you will typically see (especially on larger yachts) a "Tall Rig" and an "ICW Rig". The difference in these two rigs is the height of the mast.

With the current push towards taller and taller spars in search of the performance benefits of high aspect ratio rigs in upwind sailing, mast heights have towered higher than ever before! This might be great for a performance enthusiast, but what about someone who wants to retire on a floating condominium and cruise up and down the ICW? All of a sudden, a 70 foot mast becomes even more of a burden and the new yacht owner is banished to offshore cruising when they would really rather just marina hop up and down the coast. 

Yacht builders have this one figured out, offering "ICW Rigs" that have a shorter mast, usually in the range of 63 feet in height. This is because the advertised bridge height is 65 feet, so having a few feet of clearance will let you transit the bridges with ease! 

The false advertising is that these bridges are only 65 feet at low tide! In the Carolinas, the tides will be close to if not greater than 5 feet, meaning that the bridge may suddenly become 60 feet of clearance. Being a fixed bridge, there is no bridge tender to call on the radio, instead you must wait for the tide to go out before you can transit the bridge.  

We have a mast height of less than 60 feet, so we feel comfortable (although it is always unnerving) passing under the bridges at any tide, thanks to the bridge clearance signs at the starboard bridge abutment. As the tide rises or falls, the numbers become visible so that way you know how high the bridge is at that moment.  

If you are looking to cruise the ICW in retirement, I would caution away from a giant floating palace with a very tall "ICW Rig" and instead opt for something with a mast below 60 feet in height. This will make your life so much simpler as you can pass under the fixed bridges as you arrive at them instead of trying to make the next bridge before the tide comes up again. 

Dealing with Groundings

Running aground is a major part of sailing. If you have a fin keel, this will usually be followed by a haul out to inspect for damages, but if you have a full keel, it will usually be followed by a nice meal.

Full keels are much stronger, so they can bear the force of the boat colliding with the bottom better and also the weight of the yacht resting on it as the tide goes out. This is due to the increased mating area of the keel to hull. A fin keel only meets for a small area while a full keel runs the length of the hull. 

The ICW is a narrow and shallow waterway, where venturing out of the channel is swiftly punished by a firm smack on the bottom (see what I did there?) .

You might think that now you need to call the tow boat to pull you off because you are stuck, but the truth is running aground can be much less inconvenient if you time it properly. 

The tides occur four times a day, controlled by the moon. The earth has two tidal bulges on opposite sides of the globe. One bulge occurs on the side of the Earth that faces the Moon, the other occurs on the side of the Earth away from the moon.  This is why they are called "Lunar Tides".

They occur for two reasons:  

1. The bulge facing the Moon is caused by the Moon's gravity pulling the water off the Earth.  

2.  The bulge on the side without the Moon is caused by the Moon's gravity pulling the Earth away from the water on the other side.

Remember that the mass of the Earth is being pulled in all directions, by the Sun, Moon, and every other celestial body. Water just flows around, but the forces pulling on the Earth's mass are all affected by this. Water just has the ability to flow and demonstrate where these forces occur. But enough about physics and our solar system, lets get back to navigating the ICW. 

If you run aground at low tide, all you need to do is wait for high tide. That doesn't take much thought. The tides run on a cyclic schedule, and if you navigate the waters on this schedule you will not have any problems! There are two high tides, the one facing the moon and the one not facing the moon; most importantly, they are not the same intensity.  

If you leave on the higher high tide and sail through the following low tide, you will probably be tired and ready to anchor by the following high tide (which is the less intense high tide). If you run aground as you leave the channel to anchor, it isn't that big of a deal as you weren't going to be moving for the rest of the night anyway. The tide will go out and you will be stuck on the bottom until the next high tide comes around that is more intense and will float you off. 

It is imperative that you leave with this tide, because if you don't, you will be stuck an entire day until the next "higher high tide" comes around. 

Following this schedule, running aground will be but a temporary thing for the night. By the next morning, you will be floating again and ready to continue on your cruise! 

ICW vs. Offshore

When heading south on the East Coast of the United States, you are faced with two choices: ICW or going Offshore. 

You many be wondering why someone would chose one route over the other. The ICW offers many scenic views and towns to stop into along the way while the ocean offers none of this. 

Having done a little bit of both at this time, it seems that the biggest difference that could sway your decision on course is above all else: time. 

Storms, weather, and scenery are all secondary to time. If you need to get somewhere in a hurry, the straight line non-stop path is always going to be the quickest way to go. Sailing offshore grants you the ability to relax and enjoy the ocean as your yacht powers through the seas in steady and consistent wind around the clock, ticking off many miles a day towards your destination. There are no obstacles, no detours, and no traffic to worry about as you sail right along. 

When calculating your voyage duration, it is common practice to plan 100 miles per day. This means that Norfolk to Florida is about 7 days!  

The alternative to the offshore path is to go the ICW. This is the inland waterway that cuts down the east coast. Here, you can not sail around the clock, as there are many obstacles in your way. It is crowded, shallow, there are bridges, and strong currents to contend with. We have been sailing an average of 20 miles per day down the ICW, and only on days when conditions are good. The wonderful part about the ICW though, is when conditions are not good, you just stay anchored until they improve. 

The waterway is so small and narrow that waves can not form, meaning that the worst you will contend with are currents and wind. Both of these are easily overcome by a strong anchor and lots of chain! 

Having a 6.5 foot draft though has meant many a groundings. Our first day consisted of three groundings. Our second day consisted of one.  

The channels are well marked and if you stay in them, you will not run into trouble. The problem stems from when you venture off the dredged path in search of an anchorage. The water gets shallow very quickly, and letting out enough rode for the scope will usually result in the keel meeting the bottom. 

Having a full keel prevents any heartache, as we simply sit on the bottom for a while until we float off with the next tide. 

The ICW is very pretty, but it is slower than offshore. The advantage is you get to rest and relax as you make your way down.  If you were in a hurry, the ICW would be torture, so make sure you know what you really want before you choose your path. Making a choice for the right reasons will ensure that you enjoy your cruise to its utmost potential.

Choosing a Route

We have been slowly moving along as we are cruising with no end date in mind. We set out with a nebulous route in mind, taking us to Bermuda, the Azores, the Mediterranean, and back down to the Caribbean.

We left in July of 2017 with plans to be in Bermuda as soon as possible and in the Azores by November. We ended up spending a bit more time in the Chesapeake Bay, exploring many unique and interesting places that we never knew existed. This ended up taking about 3 months and we didn't leave the bay until early October. At this point, it was a bit cold to go across the ocean, so we decided to set our sights south, and head to the Bahamas!  

We left the bay and promptly got a bit shaken up in a long lasting gale off Cape Hatteras. From there, we entered the ICW and have slowly been making our way along as we explore and enjoy every town we drop anchor in. 

Fast forward to the present, it is now December 2017, and we are as far away as North Carolina. 2 states away and 300 miles south from our home port of Baltimore, MD, 6 months later. 

Our progress has been remarkably slow, and we have enjoyed every moment of it. As we approached Beaufort, NC on our way to the Bahamas, we were faced with two options: 1. Go down the ICW or 2. Go outside. 

Being how weather has been unfavorable with all the winter storms rolling through, we felt that we might be waiting for a weather window for a very long time. Also, the outside run would mean I would have to solo sail through the night and arrive exhausted at our next inlet. We would anchor and I would need a few days to sleep and recover. 

The other option is to go down the ICW from here, and creep along a few miles a day as the currents and wind allow. This would be much slower as compared to sailing in the open ocean, but at the same time, I would get to sleep every night at anchor, we could cook meals every night in calm water, and we would not be so limited by weather. 

After facing three days of 40+ knot winds and 30 foot seas off Hatteras, the threat of a light chop and high wind on the ICW seems mundane to us now. If the wind is in the wrong direction, we stay anchored and wait for the winds to change. If the winds are in the right direction, we will make many miles that day! 

When we made the decision, we equated it to the old fable of the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise moves slow and steady (ICW) and the hare moves very fast and then needs to rest for a long time (ocean). Learning from these childhood stories, we chose to follow the motto of "slow and steady wins the race." 

This choice has led us down a path filled with wonderful sights and beautiful sceneries that we would have missed if we were sailing offshore, braving the seas as we try to clear 60 miles before the next storm strikes!