Chapter 8: Navigation Electronics

 

Negotiating the ICW involves a lot of VHF radio communications. Get comfortable using your radio.



Surviving Thriving on the ICW


8. Navigation Electronics for Cruising the ICW 


Introduction

What electronic navigation devices are necessary for cruising the ICW? A working depth sounder helps, as does a VHF radio. But besides these items, nothing is really essential. Construction of the Atlantic ICW was completed in its current configuration in 1949, but parts of the waterway have been in use since before the Revolutionary War. We know delivery skippers who ran boats up and down the ICW in the 1970s and '80s, before anyone had even heard of GPS; LORAN was still in use back then. Our first experiences on the ICW were in the 1990s. By then, we were using GPS but there weren’t any electronic navigation charts or chart plotters. Even as late as 2013, Damon helped out with a delivery of a recently purchased boat that had few electronics onboard. They took this boat from New York to Panama, and decided to duck into the ICW from Norfolk to Morehead City rather than go around Cape Hatteras in the dead of winter. They had a couple of handheld GPSs (with no chart data) and a 20-year-old chart book. Did we mention that the boat drew nearly 7 feet of water? Lots of things went wrong on that delivery but the part of the trip on the ICW was trouble free. The point is that you really don’t need a lot of electronic gadgets to navigate the ICW successfully. Do some of those gadgets make the trip easier, faster, and more enjoyable? Absolutely. But it’s easy to get too caught up in the technology and to lose sight of the big picture. You are operating a boat, which requires some nautical knowledge, seamanship skills, and all of your focus (including your senses of vision, hearing, and smell). No electronic device can be a substitute for any of these things. You won’t get yourself into trouble by not having the latest app or gadget or by not knowing how to use all their features. But you can get into trouble by lacking seafaring skills and not exercising good judgment.

With this disclaimer in mind, let’s look at some navigation tools and how to get the greatest benefit from them, without letting them become a distraction.

Gadgets

VHF Radio
The VHF radio is one of the most important pieces of safety equipment on a cruising boat, and especially for one on the ICW. You might ask, “But I have a cell phone, why do I need an old-fashioned radio?” Well, if you need to contact a specific vessel to make arrangements for passing in a narrow channel, what phone number would you call? In an emergency, you can dial 911, but you may not immediately be reaching the most appropriate, local first responders (i.e., the ones who have boats), and you won’t be reaching nearby vessels that could render assistance most quickly. There are places on the ICW where you may not have a cell signal. Even when you do have a signal, cell phones are a one-to-one form of communication (you can only contact one party at a time). If you are in a situation where your safety is at risk and you have a VHF radio aboard, you can issue a securité, pan pan, or mayday call, which will not only be received by the Coast Guard, but also by every vessel in your vicinity (one-to-many communication). If the situation is truly dire, you can also send a distress signal via digital selective calling (DSC, that button under the little red flap on your VHF radio).  If the radio is properly registered and interfaced with your GPS, pressing that DSC emergency button automatically sends a coded message to the Coast Guard and all vessels in your area that are equipped with DSC radios. The information sent includes your vessel's name, latitude and longitude, and MMSI (which gives the Coast Guard access to other information about your boat, including the names and phone numbers for the owner, captain, and a shore-based contact person). The VHF is the most efficient way to communicate with another vessel and to summon assistance in an emergency. So familiarize yourself with your VHF. Know how to use it, what the purposes are of designated channels, and how to make various types of calls. (See Chapter 3 and the resources listed at the end of this chapter.) One final point, if your boat is equipped with a VHF radio, you are required to monitor channel 16 whenever you are underway. This requirement, which means nearly every vessel on the water is monitoring channel 16, is what makes the VHF such an effective means of communication in an emergency.  


AIS (Automatic Identification System)
AIS is primarily a collision avoidance system. It keeps track of the movements of individual vessels, showing their vessel information (name, type of vessel, length, home port, MMSI number, etc.), current position, speed, and heading. The AIS will also alert the operator to potential risks of collision by calculating the closest point of approach (CPA) and time to closest point of approach (TCPA) to each vessel in the area that is transmitting AIS information. These collision alert features are great on the open ocean but are absolutely useless on the ICW because the narrowness of the channel makes it look like every vessel out there is a potential collision risk. Just about every boat you see underway on the ICW will pass within 100 yards of you. So if you use a proximity alarm or CPA alarm, that alarm will be sounding for every boat that passes by.


AIS is extremely helpful to have on the ICW, however, because it tells you the name of each vessel that has an AIS transmitter, making it easier to contact them on the VHF Radio. You are more likely to get a response from a vessel if you call them by name rather than referring to it as the “blue-hulled sailboat” or the “southbound tug and barge entering the north end of the Alligator-Pungo canal.” The AIS will also show the location of each transmitting vessel, its direction of travel, and its speed.

Most cruising boats have Class B AIS transceivers. When the speed of a vessel is less than 2 knots, its Class B AIS will transmit its information every 3 minutes. When its speed exceeds 2 knots, the Class B AIS will transmit every 30 seconds. However, if there is a lot of traffic, class B units may transmit less frequently, meaning the position is updated less frequently.




Data from our class B AIS transceiver, viewed on my phone via a wifi connection.


Not all boats have AIS. It is only required on commercial vessels that are greater than 65’ in length (and commercial towing vessels that are greater than 26 feet). Small commercial fishing vessels (<65 feet), sportfishing vessels, and “runabouts” rarely have AIS. Fishing is competitive, so fishers don’t like to advertise their location to their competitors. A lot of yachts and small commercial vessels have AIS receivers. That is, they can receive AIS information from other boats but they don’t transmit their own position or information, so you won’t see them on your AIS display. We bring these points up as a reminder to never depend solely on AIS for collision avoidance. You need to maintain a watch, looking out at the water for boats and other potential hazards (Rule 5).


Rather than buying an AIS transceiver or receiver, some people use their phone and an internet-based AIS app, such as MarineTraffic.com. It is important to understand the operational differences between an actual AIS transceiver and an internet-based AIS app. Let’s say there are 3 boats on a bay--two of which have Class B AIS transceivers and the other is using an app on a cell phone. The most obvious thing here is that the boat using the cell phone app is not transmitting any AIS data, so neither of the other boats will see it on their AIS displays. The two boats with the Class B transceivers are sending coded AIS messages directly to each other via radio and will see each other’s information on their displays. And these messages are updated every 30 seconds (assuming they are both underway at >2 knots). The question is, will the boat using the AIS app see either of the other two vessels on its cell phone? The answer is "probably not...at least not in their actual current location." The way that the internet-based apps work is that the AIS radio signals from these two boats are received by a ground station antenna. Those signals are then transmitted via the internet to a server, which communicates with the cell phone on the third boat. The trouble is that these land-based AIS receiver antennas are few and far between; they are mostly found near busy commercial ports. Class B AIS transmitters are designed to work over relatively short distances, maybe 10 miles at most, depending on the heights of the transmitting and receiving antennas. So if those two boats are more than 10 miles away from the closest land-based receiving station (which is likely), they will not appear on the app at all. In addition, because the app is not intended for use in navigation or collision avoidance, there are no minimum standards for how frequently a vessel’s position must be updated. The refresh rates are typically much slower than every 30 seconds. And, of course, the app can only work if you have an internet connection or cell signal. There are satellite receivers that can detect AIS signals anywhere on the planet, but you have to pay a lot of money to get access to the satellite-derived AIS data; it will not be available on your phone app, unless you pay thousands of dollars. The AIS apps are mostly a novelty item and should not be relied upon for navigation.  If you want AIS information but want to spend a little less money than what a class B transceiver costs, try an AIS receiver.  


Three boats on a bay.  Boats A and B have Class B AIS transceivers.  Boat C just uses an AIS phone app or website.  Who will see what type of AIS information?  Boats A and B will see each other's AIS information but will not see any information from boat C because it isn't broadcasting any AIS information.  But will boat C see AIS information for either of the other two boats?  Maybe, if this bay is located near a major port and there is an AIS receiving station within a few miles. Otherwise, probably not.  Even if boat C receives AIS information about the other two boats, will that information be timely and accurate?  Probably not. The information from the phone app is likely to be several minutes old, so boats A and B could be miles away from where the app shows them.   Do not depend on an AIS phone app or website for collision avoidance.


Radar
Radar is nice to have. It comes in handy at night, in the rain, and in fog.  And, unlike AIS, it shows every boat and solid object above the water's surface, down to about the size of a crab pot buoy, if you have it dialed in properly. But it does take a bit of practice and skill to get it properly set and to be able to interpret the images that it shows. When cruising on the ICW, we plan our travel days to avoid foggy or rainy weather and we generally try to arrive at our day's destination well before dark. During those times when, despite our intentions, we get caught out in bad weather, it's good to have radar. But the truth is that we rarely need radar on the ICW. If your boat is equipped with radar, you are obligated to use it when conditions call for its use (Rule 7). However, if you are planning to outfit your boat with a new set of navigation electronics for cruising on the ICW, a VHF radio, AIS, and chart plotter/MFD should be prioritized over radar. (Radar would be a higher priority for cruising in New England, compared to cruising on the ICW.)       

Charting Software and Devices
Which navigational software should you use? And can you just use your phone or tablet for navigating rather than buying one of those expensive chart plotter/multifunction displays? The answers to these two questions are intertwined. There are probably 50 different navigation apps and software programs for use on chart plotters, multifunction displays (MFDs), tablets, phones, or laptop computers. Some of the most popular include Aqua Map, Navionics, and OpenCPN. Navionics has versions for use on both chart plotters and mobile devices (Apple and Android). Aqua Map works on Apple and Android mobile devices. OpenCPN is a free, open-source GPS chart plotting tool that is available for Mac OSX, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, BSDs and Solaris. Therefore, your choice of device or hardware platform will be influenced, in part, by your choice of software, and vice versa. Ditch is a newcomer app for Apple and Android mobile devices. It shows AIS tracks of other boats and uses this information and AI to automatically create suggested routes. From what we've seen of it (as of May 2024), the AI hasn't yet learned that the routes it suggests have to stay in the water.  That would appear to be a pretty basic requirement.  


The important thing to know is that certain navigation apps are better than others in particular regions. What works best for the Maine Coast or the Caribbean is not necessarily what works best on the ICW. There are lots of rocks and reefs in places like Maine or the Caribbean, which can sink a boat pretty quickly. So it is imperative to have good navigation chart data in these areas. But rocks and reefs are static; they don’t move over time. So in a way, the job of charting them is pretty easy. Once the chart is created, you’re all set. The situation is quite different on the ICW, and in the adjacent coastal ocean of the Southeast and Gulf of Mexico. Here, the bottom is mostly sand and mud, which move around constantly. Depth sounding surveys in this region quickly become less reliable over time. In dynamic regions, such as the ICW, it is important to use chart information that is updated frequently.


The products and technology in this arena are changing rapidly. But we strongly recommend using what we refer to as the “Holy Trinity” of ICW navigation tools: Aqua Map, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) depth surveys, and Bob423 ICW tracks. 

Aqua Map is a GPS navigation software tool that has a lot of great features, similar to some of the other programs, like Navionics. The thing that sets Aqua Map apart from the other navigation apps when it comes to navigating the ICW (or just about any inland waters in the U.S.) is that it can show the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) depth survey data, and it displays this information in a very intuitive, visual format. The USACE is the government agency that is responsible for dredging and maintaining all of the navigable inland waterways of the U.S. To figure out which areas need to be dredged, they put a huge amount of effort into charting the depths of these waterways on a regular basis. So the USACE bathymetry data made available through Aqua Map is updated frequently. And these are high-quality (accurate and precise), high-resolution data (0.1 foot depth resolution). The USACE depth surveys are the gold standard for navigation on the ICW. 


Other unique features that set Aqua Map apart from other navigation apps:

  • Aqua Map "reads" the USCG Light List and the weekly USCG Local Notice to Mariners (LNM) and places links to the individual notices in the appropriate locations on the Aqua Map chart. (Click on the orange and blue USCG "chevron" logo. You must have a Master version of Aqua Map and turn on “USCG data” in Settings.) For example, if an aid to navigation (ATON) is reported as being missing to the USCG, but its absence is not yet updated by the NOAA Coast Survey's Electronic Navigation Chart (and therefore not shown in your chart plotter's cartography), the symbol for the ATON would have a USCG chevron below it. Clicking on the chevron opens a text box containing the information from the LNM and Light List.  
  • Aqua Map provides users who record depths with their tracks the ability to share their data with NOAA and the International Hydrographic Organization to improve bathymetric data through "Crowd Sourced Bathymetry" (Crowdsourcing data, iho.int)
  • Finally, we've found Aqua Map as a company to be very responsive to the cruising community. Company representatives participate in social media forums (including the ICW Cruising Guide by Bob423 Facebook group) and make changes to the product based on cruisers' input, and will often respond directly to questions posted by users. 


The final element of the Holy Trinity is Bob423’s ICW tracks. Bob423 is Robert Sherer, who has been cruising up and down the ICW with his wife for a few decades in their Beneteau 423. He is an engineer/tech guru and an expert on navigating the ICW. Many years ago, he started making their GPS tracks available online to help other cruisers navigate the ICW. By providing this free service to the community, he quickly developed a large and devoted following. From these humble beginnings, the Bob423 tracks have evolved into a very sophisticated navigation tool that looks deceptively simple to the user: it appears as just a track line on our chart plotters. However, the information that goes into creating that track line now includes: Bob’s GPS track from his travels on the ICW, data collected by a group of expert contributors (fellow cruisers) who have calibrated depth sounders, crowd-sourced information from thousands of cruisers, and the USACE bathymetry surveys. His work is very highly regarded and the USACE, U.S. Coast Guard, and NOAA now consult with him to prioritize sections of the ICW that need to be dredged, to figure out where channel markers need to be repositioned, and where the official ICW channel needs to be rerouted. So the Bob423 tracks are much more than just one person’s GPS tracks. The "Master" version of Aqua Map (i.e., the paid version, not the free online version) makes it easy to display the USACE depth survey data and the Bob423 ICW tracks, by simply clicking on a button in the settings menu.



A screenshot of the "Holy Trinity" of ICW navigation: Aqua Map (master) displaying the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' depth survey data (color ramp, red = shallow), and Bob423's ICW track (blue dashed line).  Bob423 also provides side tracks, showing the routes from the ICW to many popular harbors and anchorages.  The side track here (red dashed line) shows the route into Georgetown, SC.  We use an Android tablet to run the Trinity. 



A note about using the Bob423 tracks. If you follow these tracks precisely, your chances of navigating the entire ICW without ever running aground are nearly 100%. But for most of the ICW, the channel is plenty deep and wide. So you don’t need to stay right on his track all of the time. In fact, most of the time, you shouldn’t stay right on his track. If everybody precisely followed Bob’s track all of the time, going north and south, collisions would be happening up and down the ICW every day. Remember Rule 9 of the Inland Navigation Rules:

“(a) (i) A vessel proceeding along the course of a narrow channel or fairway shall keep as near to the outer limit of the channel or fairway which lies on her starboard side as is safe and practicable…”


Use the Bob423 track as a reference guide. In general, keep to the right of the track. How far can you deviate from the track? The USACE depth overlay will show you how far off the track you can safely get.

Some people will convert the Bob423 track into a route and then use their autopilot to follow that route. Please don’t do this, it’s a bad idea. As stated above, you shouldn’t just follow Bob423’s track. You need to give way to oncoming vessels, boats that you are overtaking or that are approaching from your starboard side, sailboats under sail, kayaks, etc (Rules 4-19). Autopilot should be used sparingly on the ICW. There is too much traffic and too many obstacles. If you do use it, please remember that you need to keep to the right, that you cannot impede the progress of boats approaching from the opposite direction, and that you have to be at the helm, on watch, ready to press “stand by” to take over steering manually. If we had a nickel for every time we were unnecessarily forced to take action to avoid collision with boats coming in the opposite direction that were obviously on autopilot, we wouldn't have to beg for hose clamps. By the way, if this guide is helpful to you, you can buy us some hose clamps. 


Also, if you use autorouting, remember that you must carefully check the route that has been selected (zoom in and scroll along the entire route to confirm that the route is safe). Autorouting is far from perfect and should not be followed blindly. It is notorious for avoiding obstacles that don’t exist; departing from the main ICW channel; taking you through inlets that are unsafe to transit; and routing you through unmarked, poorly charted side channels. Remember that you need to captain your boat and that you cannot abdicate your navigation responsibilities to any of these electronic devices.

There are several sections of the ICW where the channel is very narrow and shallow. In these spots, there is only room for one-way traffic and you should follow Bob423’s track precisely. How can you tell where these trouble spots are located? They will be obvious from the USACE depth data in Aqua Map: you’ll see nothing but red (these tricky areas are also identified and described in the supplementary sources of navigation information discussed below). When you get to one of these places, slow down to idle speed, check for oncoming traffic, and proceed along the track when it is safe to do so. If there is another vessel approaching in the opposite direction, call them on the VHF (channel 13 or 16) to make a plan for passing. If the other vessel has already started its way through the skinny spot, stop and let them pass before proceeding.

In some of these skinny areas, the deepest part of the channel may be less than 50 feet wide. There is little room for error. So on your plotter, zoom in as far as possible to make sure you are staying exactly on top of Bob’s track. If your plotter/tablet/phone is zoomed out too far, it may look like you’re on the track, but you may be 200 feet away from it. In these narrow areas, you also really need to pay attention to how the current and wind are affecting your boat’s motion. A lot of these shallow, narrow spots are at intersections, where the ICW crosses an inlet or where a tributary creek meets the main channel. The direction of the current will change rapidly and it becomes a cross-current pushing you toward the edge of the channel.  


In addition, when you are zoomed out and are looking at a smaller scale view of a vector electronic navigation chart (ENC), you lose details, such as depth contours, important landmarks, ATONs, and text labels. Information that is clear at larger scales (zoomed in) disappears from view at smaller scales (zoomed out). Many mariners, including professionals, have lost their boats because they didn't zoom in on their ENC. Check out this article about the lessons to be learned from the S/V Vestas Wind grounding during the 2014 Volvo Ocean Race. 



The two images above illustrate why it's so important to zoom in on your chart plotter. Both images are screenshots of Aqua Map showing the same location: the Little Mud River in Georgia (MM 654). This is one of the ICW's notoriously shallow spots. The bottom image is zoomed in much closer than the one on top (note the scale bars on the right side). The magenta icon is a waypoint; the same waypoint is shown in both images. The dashed, blue line is the Bob423 track. In the top image, the waypoint appears to be in the center of the channel, right on top of the Bob423 track. However, when you zoom in (bottom), you see that the waypoint is actually far off to the east side of the channel, in charted depths of less than 5 feet. The same thing happens to the icon on your plotter that represents your boat.  When you zoom out a little, it may look like you are in safe water when, in fact, you are getting into shallow water outside of the channel. Zoom in! 


At the beginning of this section, we pointed out the importance of updating chart information frequently.  Regardless of which charting system(s) you choose, make sure that it is always up to date.  Both the system's firmware and the chart data need to be updated. Some systems update automatically, others require the user to take action.  In either case, confirm that the updates are taking place.   

Supplemental Information

There are a lot of sources of important information on the ICW. Information that is absolutely essential for cruising, such as: bridge clearances, drawbridge opening schedules, marina locations and the services they provide, anchorage information (depths, holding, fouling hazards, wind protection, currents, shore access, etc.), tide and current information, shoaling, and hazards to navigation. There are three basic types of information sources: (1) cruising guides (printed and electronic); (2) internet-based, crowd-sourced information; and (3) social media forums.

Cruising Guides
There are many cruising guides covering the AICW. Bob423 publishes a cruising guide, with lots of information on routes, navigation hazards, and the maritime skills needed to successfully navigate the ICW. Waterway Guide has several relevant printed guides and an app. Theboatgalley publishes handy, quick reference guides.


Crowd-Sourced Information on the Internet
There are two very useful web-based tools that make crowd-sourced information available in an interactive map format: Active Captain and Waterway Guide Explorer. The great thing about the Waterway Guide Explorer is that you can use it to view Aqua Map charts with the USACE bathymetry survey overlay, for free! Because it has great navigation charting capabilities, the Waterway Guide Explorer can be used as a back up chart plotter, in a pinch. 

Social Media
There are a few useful Facebook groups relevant to cruising on the ICW. First and foremost is ICW Cruising Guide by Bob423 Facebook group. This group has a lot of up-to-date information on shoaling in problem areas, USACE dredging activities, hazards to navigation, routes, bridges, marinas, anchorages, and other attractions along the waterway. The members of this Facebook group are very helpful and knowledgeable, and the group’s moderators do a good job of keeping the discussion productive. Two other useful Facebook groups are Navigating Inlets of the East Coast USA and ICW Free Docks. Social media channels are great for getting some types of information. But remember to take it with a grain of salt; remember to consider the source.

Old-Fashioned Notebook
Use a notebook or log for planning each leg of your ICW cruise. When planning a leg of a trip on the ICW, we make an entry in the notebook for each bridge, shallow spot, navigational hazard, and for the anchorage/mooring field/marina that is our intended destination for the day. For a bridge, we would note its statute mile; name; whether it is a fixed, bascule, swing or lift bridge; vertical clearance (closed); the schedule of openings; and the VHF channel that the bridge tender monitors. We include a similar level of detail for shallow spots, navigational hazards, and our final destination. We order each entry in the notebook according to statute mile so as we go along, it’s easy to access this information and we can check off each entry as we pass by. Then we can use the same notebook in the future and just edit any information that has changed since our last trip. This keeps things organized and simple, and is easy to access even during hectic moments when there is a lot going on or when the battery in your handheld device has gone dead.  The act of writing it all out makes us think about the upcoming passage as well, helping us be as prepared as possible when we get underway.




Our well-loved ICW notebook.  Our documentation number and the phonetic spelling of our boat's name ("Fulmar") is on the front cover, for when we need to give that information to bridge tenders over the radio.  Before we set out on the waterway, we make notes for each bridge and tricky spot, in order of their statute mile.  As we pass each one, we cross it off.  The two different colors are for our most recent northbound and southbound transits. Having it all written in a notebook means that we don't have to fumble with our phones or tablet as we're approaching each bridge. 


In addition to the Holy Trinity, we also recommend redundancy, for both the hardware devices and the software. Tablets are great; they are less expensive than multifunction displays and they can serve other purposes (sending email messages, having Zoom meetings, taking photos and video, watching movies, and frittering your time away on social media.) But tablets aren’t as robust as plotters/MFDs. Plotters/MFDs are made to be used in the harsh environment aboard a boat, but most tablets aren’t. They are getting better but, in general, tablets are difficult to see in sunlight or if you are wearing polarized sunglasses, are prone to overheating, need to be protected from moisture and impact damage, their touch screen is difficult to use with wet fingers, they often can’t hold a battery charge long enough to get through a full day of cruising and sometimes their charging rate doesn’t keep up with the amount of power that they use, and some have low-quality GPS antennas and receivers (or no GPS capabilities at all). All of these problems can be solved but you need to anticipate them and take preemptive action. Given the inherent fragility of tablets, it is important to have backups. We have multiple, independent navigation systems. Here is what we use while cruising the ICW aboard Fulmar:


  • Android tablet running the Holy Trinity:
    • Aqua Map (master subscription),
    • USACE depth survey overlay enabled in Aqua Map, and
    • Bob423’s tracks.

This tablet running the “trinity” is our primary navigation system. We keep the display zoomed in so we can see the finest details possible of what is immediately ahead of us. We also have Navionics loaded on this tablet, in case Aqua Map experiences a problem (which hasn’t happened yet). This tablet can also connect to our AIS via wifi or bluetooth. But we prefer to keep this screen uncluttered and instead view the AIS information on our B&G multifunction display. It’s worth noting that running the "trinity" on a tablet does not require a cell data plan or any internet connection to navigate.

  • B&G multifunction display connected to our NEMA 2000 network and running:
    • Navionics
    • Bob423’s track
    • AIS data (from our Vesper Class B AIS transceiver)
We keep this zoomed out further than the view on the tablet so we can tell where we are headed and what’s coming up in the distance.

Our B&G multifunction display running Navionics.  One of the tracks shown is the Bob423 track, the other is our track.   Showing Beaufort, SC (MM 536).  This unit is far more robust than most tablets and its screen is visible in bright sun.  But it won't run Aqua Map.

  • Cell phones running:
    • Waterway Guide Explorer, showing the Aqua Map chart with the USACE depth survey data layer enabled.

We use this to pan ahead to examine tricky areas that are coming up and to get information on bridges. This works great as long as you have a cell signal. Using the Waterway Guide app (rather than the web version of the Explorer) would enable its use even where there is no cell signal.

Screenshot from my phone showing the Waterway Guide Explorer, which is displaying Aqua Map with the USACE depth survey.  This is completely free and available on the Waterway Guide web site.  The downside is that it requires a cell or wifi connection.  Showing the notorious Hell Gate section of the ICW in Georgia (MM 601).


We run all three of these systems, all of the time. If any of them fails, we can safely carry on using just the other two. We also have an older Garmin chart plotter with a C-Map chip that we sometimes turn on simply to record our track. The charting on the C-Map chip is a bit out of date for use on the ICW. Even without decent chart data, being able to record our track on another device is helpful. If all else fails, we can simply follow the “bread crumbs” of one of our previous tracks stored on this plotter.  We also have a dog-eared chart book of the ICW that's about 20 years old.  We use this to plan out long stretches of our trip and it would do in a pinch of our electronics all failed (unlikely but who knows).


This “belt AND suspenders” approach has paid off on a number of occasions; the tablet has overheated and it has had power issues. A previous tablet died a slow death where it would turn itself off unexpectedly and wouldn’t come back on. We have also run beyond the boundaries of our Navionics subscription. In these situations, we could have been in trouble if we had been relying on just a single navigation system.

Charting software, chart plotters/MFDs, and tablet computers are fantastic. They have made it much easier to navigate the ICW safely. But, as mentioned in Chapter 3, don’t just focus on your MFD or tablet. You need to be looking out at the real world. There are things out there that can hurt you that won’t be displayed on your screen. Remember to use landmarks to steer by, so that you can keep your focus out on the water.

One problem that is common to all of the ENC-based (Electronic Navigation Chart) charting programs is that they do a poor job of providing place names. The old NOAA paper charts (or raster images of these charts) did a much better job of showing names of creeks, coves, harbors, rivers, points, capes, rocks, shoals, etc. The lack of place names on the ENCs makes it more difficult to communicate about these areas, particularly during emergency situations. When cruising far from our home waters there have been many times when we heard calls on channel 16–including securités, pan pans, and maydays–that referred to places that we couldn’t locate on Navionics or Aqua Map charts. We had to drag out our old paper charts, or look at an online raster chart viewer, to determine how close we were to the place described by the caller. Navigation app developers: if you are reading this, you really should try to do something about this shortcoming.



Conclusion

Modern electronic navigation instruments are wonderful. They make it much easier to travel up and down the ICW and take a lot of the stress out of boating. But they can also encourage carelessness and embolden boaters to do foolish things. Fixating on the tech can distract you from what really matters: everything that's going on around you. Don’t become dependent on any device. Use all of the navigation tools that are available to you but trust none of them, because sooner or later, each of those tools will fail you; hopefully not all at the same time.

Don’t become a slave to the technology. Keep it as simple as possible. Boating hasn’t really changed in a thousand years: you still need to keep the water on the outside, the stick pointing up (if you have one), and the pointy end facing forward. Having some new electronic gadgets doesn’t change any of this. It still boils down to basic seamanship. The technology can’t make up for a captain’s lack of knowledge or good judgment.


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Welcome to Thriving on the ICW

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  Welcome to Thriving on the ICW , a nuts & bolts guide to successfully navigating the Intracoastal Waterway. To access the guide, click on the tab for each of the chapters in the table of contents. Depending on your browser, you may first have to click on the "menu" icon to get the table of contents to appear. Alternatively, you will also find a table of contents with links to each chapter at the bottom of this page and at the  end of each chapter. This guide is a work in progress. It's still in an early draft form; the text needs editing, some of the figures are a bit amateurish, and we have inserted notes where photos or illustrations are still needed on specific topics. (Feel free to contact us if you have a photo that may be useful.) We are posting the draft on this blog site to make it easily accessible and to solicit constructive feedback from experienced ICW cruisers and those who aspire to cruise down "The Ditch" someday. The blog format makes it e
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