Inlets: Leaving the Atlantic intracoastal waterway (ICW) to sail the Atlantic ocean

Wind, currents and waves can make inlets treacherous. Come along as we experience 6 inlets for the first time. Three of them were a bit rough. One was particularly brutal.

[ATthruhiker]

Great video. Thank u. Wife and i are taking our new sail boat up from Stuart, FL to Brunswick, Ga. We can't wait to see your next video. 😊

[oday]

The Tartan 3500 is a BEAUTIFUL boat! I did the trip from Warwick, RI to Ft Myers Fl in 2020 in my 1986 O'day 35. The two inlets where I had trouble were the Edisto River and Sapelo Sound. We went in the Edisto River, and anchored. All was good until the wind clocked around so that it was blowing right at us, but the swell was hitting us abeam. Hoping to get some rest, we moved into Big Bay Creek and re-anchored (I even put out a stern anchor) then went to sleep. I woke up a few hours later to find that the wind and tide had tripped the stern anchor and pushed us into the marsh. It took some work, but we got her out. We tried to enter Sapelo Sound after a crew member started puking over the side in rough seas. If you look at the raster charts for the inlet, you will see that it is marked "Changable Area" by Experiment Shoal. We ran aground by R N "6" in very "sporty" conditions, resulting in a bent rudder post. According to both the latest raster and vector charts, we should have been in 22 feet of water when we hit bottom.

[notsuretoo]

Looking sporty out there! Even setting a small main (2nd or 3rd reef) will give you a better ride next time. Sheet it tight, will cut some of that violent rolling. We got out asses kicked leaving Cape Fear Inlet in a similar set of conditions, glad you didn't break too much stuff!

[helenvojtko]

Thank you for your helpful comments and observations.

[petercaras]

It may seem like a good idea to use a out going tide to leave a place like Winyah and without a fresh breeze, it could be but it seems you learned a valuable lesson.

[jamesknight]

Thanks so much for this vid. Really helpful. I’ve done a lot of sailing on the west coast, calif, Mexico, Hawaii where there’s mountains, hills etc which help determining position at sea. On the icw and offshore the land is so flat there’s nothing to help tell where your at. My last boat was an old 49 ft Rhodes sloop. Looking to get another wood boat that’s in Lake Superior and do a trip down the Erie Canal, icw, and work my way back to the pacific. On a chart the icw looks easy but I now realize it’s all bouys and channel markers, tricky as hell .

[roadboat]

Thanks much for the video. I have not done this kind of route. Have gone total open ocean to the Caribbean and have done the intercostal route south to S FL and Bahamas. But never did these inlets. Thanks.

[petersavage]

I filled my anchor well one night leaving an inlet like that. I had just bought the boat and neglected to put the anchor bilge pump on auto. Flooded the v berth with skanky anchor water. Lesson learned…

[sailingabroad]

@ 11 mins it looks like pass a grill inlet south of St Pete beach Florida. The weekend yacht traffic makes it almost unbearable for a sailboat.

[TheCornucopiaProject-bdjk]

I’m always confused that people don’t consider these conditions normal and part of a days sail. So many areas are super easy to sail.

[christopherfranks]

Winyah taught me the importance of wind against tide. I’ll never forgot being beaten up so badly! 😅. Georgetown was nice so long as the wind blew the paper mill odor offshore.

[charlesethridge]

Were the shoals you mentioned marked on the gps map? Or did you have to guess at where they were. The former is not usually stressful. The latter is very stressful unless you are following someone with local knowledge, ya?

[andocmdo]

What type of boat do you have? Looks like a Pearson 33-2? Or maybe a Tartan?

[ProShop-qu]

What make of sloop are you sailing. It looks possibly like a Tartan.

[llgee]

See I told you …

You know what you said at the end …

[llgee]

Why do you keep going in inlets ..? So you an sleep?

[ufodude]

Lol sail the boat icw is not for sailboats I'm 10 miles offshore as I type this

[llgee]

I don’t understand why with good blue sky you only stay in ocean for 10 miles …. Just get out there and avoid the inlet challenges !

[cardinhamkilligrew]

what were the weather conditions on that georgetown inlet and what would have made it better or more favorable?

[Mark-foto]

Good video. .. . . I was curious on some of those inlets