Browsing: ICW

Cruising Life
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Great Dismal Swamp Canal Closed Indefinitely

The Army Corps of Engineers now has closed the Dismal Swamp Canal, which first opened in 1805, indefinitely so it can clear all the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew in October. The Canal, which is part of the ICW connecting the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia with Albermarle Sound in North Carolina, will be closed while the Corps removes trees and debris, completes dredging and checks for shoaling. Work on the Deep Creek Lock river gates alone will take 75 days, starting in early January. Meanwhile, if you’re heading south for the winter, use the Albermarle and Chesapeake Canal section of…

Cruising Life
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Nordic Tugs Head Down the Waterway to the Keys

Here’s a group of cruisers who are living the dream. So far, ten Nordic Tug owners have joined Ben Wilde’s “ICW Nordic Tugfest,” cruising down the Waterway together, heading for Marathon in the Florida Keys. Wilde, who runs Wilde Yacht Sales, the largest Nordic Tugs dealer in the world, started out on his personal Nordic Tug 54, Nordic Lady, from his office in Essex, Connecticut. The cruise officially got underway from his other office in Rock Hall, Maryland, on the Chesapeake. The picture above is of the group leaving Spring Cove Marina on Solomons Island on the Chesapeake. The Nordic Tug…

Boat Reviews
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Take Your Pick of 5 Great Cruising Boats

From 27 feet to 88 feet, here’s a good look at five popular cruising boats from major builders – the Ranger Tug 27, Beneteau 34 Swift Trawler (pictured here), Kadey-Krogen 48, Nordhavn 52, and Outer Reef 88. I’ve spent a good amount of time cruising on all of these boats (except the Outer Reef) and I can attest that they all offer comfortable and safe cruising over the waters for which they were designed. (The Nordhavn, for example, is a blue-water cruiser built to cross oceans, while the Ranger is a coastal cruiser appropriate for the ICW or the Inside…

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