The Top 10 ICW Stops on the Southern East Coast

Back in 2010, I started my cruising life by sailing Guiding Light, a Lagoon 410, from Houston to Nantucket Island and back down to the Florida Keys before taking a left turn and heading to the Bahamas. What I loved about cruising the Gulf and East Coast is the ability to use the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) to travel regardless of the weather plus the surplus of anchorages. In the past I have done Top Ten Lists for The Gulf and The Keys, so this month I want to share my favorite stops along the southern part of the East Coast.

Running north to south from North Carolina to Florida, here are my ten favorite ICW stops — from a shipwreck-rescue museum and feral horses to a 220-year-old canal and a launch pad at the water’s edge.

#	Stop	State	Best for
10	Elizabeth City	NC	Free dockage, small-town welcome
9	House of Refuge	FL	Shipwreck rescue history
8	Miami	FL	Art Deco + Wynwood (limited anchoring)
7	Dismal Swamp Canal	NC/VA	Historic transit (5 ft draft limit)
6	Kitty Hawk & Roanoke	NC	Wright Brothers, Lost Colony
5	Charleston	SC	Colonial architecture, Fort Sumter
4	St Augustine	FL	Oldest US city, Spanish fort
3	Ocracoke	NC	Pirate history, Portsmouth ghost town
2	Cumberland Island	GA	Carnegie mansions, feral horses
1	Kennedy Space Center	FL	Space history, shuttle tour

10. Elizabeth City

The welcoming nature of this small town is the main reason it made my top ten. Boaters are provided with free dockage along the waterfront and ambassadors greet each new boat with info and a rose. I enjoyed riding my bike around town and the Museum of the Albemarle is nice.

9. House of Refuge

Built in 1876 to help stranded sailors during a time when the east coast of Florida was fairly unpopulated. The House of Refuge at Gilbert’s Bar on Hutchinson Island just east of Stuart, Florida is the last remaining of a dozen shipwreck life-saving stations. It was operated by the United States Life-Saving Service, which is one of several agencies combined to form the United States Coast Guard. The museum is set up to show life at the house for the Keeper and rescuers along with a great display of life saving equipment over the years. There is also a boat house and a watch tower to explore.

8. Miami

As great as traveling by boat up and down the ICW is, in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area it is not very easy to find an acceptable anchorage. The problem stems from communities outlawing anchoring. With that said, I still enjoyed a few days anchored between the man-made islands of South Beach. My favorite activities were walking tours to see the Art Deco buildings and the Wynwood Art Walk to see some amazing graffiti art. While there, I consumed my share of Cubano and Medianoche sandwiches.

7. Dismal Swamp Canal

Despite the name, this shallow canal was the first man made operated one in the USA.  George Washington first suggested digging a canal to connect the Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound in 1763 and it was completed in 1805 after 12 years of work. The canal is 22 miles long and 5 feet deep, so not every boat can transit it. If your boat can, I suggest you do it and plan on spending one night tied to the visitor center dock where there is loads of information and some hiking trails. It is so cool to transit such a beautiful and historic waterway.

6. Roanoke & Kitty Hawk

Situated around the middle part of the Outer Banks, these two sites are vastly different, but within a few miles of each other. Roanoke is the location of the first English settlement attempt in 1585. The colony disappeared within 5 years with “CROATOAN” as the only clue to their fate. Today this is the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. While on the island make sure to watch The Lost Colony outdoor play that has been running for over 85 years. Down the road you will find the location of the Wright Brother’s first manned flight at Kill Devil Hill, although it was credited at Kitty Hawk. This national park is a must for air and space enthusiast. I enjoyed walking the path of all four first flights and found it interesting that the first flight was shorter than the wingspan of modern airliners. 

5. Charleston

Established in 1670, this southern city has all the charm you could want and lots of sights to see. Whether you want to do a walking tour of the old city to see the high concentration of historic colonial houses, jump on a ferry to Fort Sumner where the Civil War started, or cross the river to Patriot’s Point and board the USS Yorktown (aircraft carrier) and other historic naval ships, this city has it for you. Of course these are just some of my favorite highlights of Charleston. There are plenty of other things to do and explore and I am sure you will find it hard to pull yourself away from this historical town also.

4. St Augustine

Founded in 1565 by the Spanish Empire, this is the oldest European settlement in the US. The Spanish established St Augustine as a remote outpost to protect their claim of Florida and the treasure route back to Spain. The Castillo de San Marcos National Monument is the impressive fort that was built in 1672 to help this cause. The old town includes the country’s oldest house and school and you can visit the Spanish Quarter to see reenactments of life in the Spanish colony. Of course, no trip to St Augustine would be complete without a visit to the Fountain of Youth, the supposed location of the fabled spring that spawned Ponce de Leon’s discovery of Florida.

3. Ocracoke

We are now going back to the Outer Banks, but this time to the southern part which was the haunt and demise of Blackbeard the pirate. This small beach community of course offers a wonderful beach scene, but also is laced with pirate history and themed locations. Silver Lake offers complete protection for boaters and a ferry will take you to my favorite part across the inlet. Portsmouth is a ghost town that is administered by the NPS. This is not like ghost towns I am used to in the west. This one has all the buildings intact and furnished. It feels as if you are in a town after the rapture. It was so eerie and amazing.

2. Cumberland Island

Right at the Georgia-Florida border, Cumberland Island is one of the places that captured my heart when I discovered it. It is a must stop location I have now visited four different times taking different people to show it off. Besides the great beach and nearby camping, the highlight of the island are the four mansions the Carnegie Family built between 1884 and the early 1900’s. The main one was a 59-room castle named Dungeness that is in ruins and you can check out. You can also visit the Greyfield and Plum Orchard mansions. I recommend a bicycle to ride up and down this island and make sure you find the feral horses that live on the island.

1. Kennedy Space Center

For an air and space nerd like me there is no other choice for the number one spot on this list. The KSC will take you at least a full day to visit and if you take some of the extra tours it can take a couple days. The main visitor center and tour is awesome. You will get lots of history and science about the US space endeavors including seeing the launch pads, walking through a space shuttle, the rocket garden, and even some fun Star Trek stuff. My favorite tour was to all the Apollo sites including the location of the Apollo 1 disaster. In the launch control buildings, you will find rooms of computers used to put man on the moon and today our cell phones have multiple times more computing power. Amazing!

Shane McClellan has written for ALL AT SEA since 2016.