Observations on the ICW

We are from a river area that is similar to the ICW. Our delta contains thousands of miles of creeks and sloughs, and a dredged ship channel from San Francisco to Stockton, our hometown.

This wetland area probably looked a lot like the ICW two hundred years ago, but around 1930 peatland islands were reclaimed from the river by building levees. (Some say these "islands" should be called polders, and these "levees" should be called dikes, but that a whole 'nother discussion.)

This rich reclaimed soil was used for farmland with thousands of acres under cultivation in tomatoes, corn, sunflowers, and the Queen of our Delta, asparagus. By the way, there is no asparagus in the world that can compare with the asparagus grown in that peaty soil.

This is the California Delta 

From the age of eleven the Captain and his brother were let loose in this watery playground with their own boat. He knows how to navigate twisting channels, he knows a red marker from a green marker, he understands the concept of a dredged channel, but DARN IF WE DON'T FIND THE BOTTOM here on the ICW on a regular basis. We can both be watching the markers, watching the depth sounder, and watching the chartplotter, and still bump bottom!

Luckily we only draw 5' and always steer the proper direction to get back in the channel. We've kind of gotten used to it now and laughingly refer to ourselves as part of the "ICW depth confirmation team".

What do you think of the ICW?

This is the ICW.