2025 ICW Cruising Guide

For your coming adventure on the ICW, it’s good to know what’s ahead as you plan your trip, and I hope to lend you a hand in doing just that with this guide. After all, my motto is:

“I make all the mistakes first, so you don’t have to!” 

Paperback: 2025 ICW Cruising Guide at Amazon. 

Kindle Version: 2025 ICW Cruising Guide

Waterway Guide Digital Version, which will be released next week:
2025 ICW Cruising Guide WG Digital

What's New? 

• All 173 hazard charts have been updated to show the current MLLW of shallow areas of the ICW based on a dedicated group of Bob423 Surveyors that headed north in the spring of 2025. They have the same setup I do: Aqua Map interfaced with a WiFi gateway to a boat's NMEA instruments, allowing the depth to be embedded into an Aqua Map track. They sent me their tracks, which I converted to MLLW for 219 tracks through shallow areas, finding the least depth for each one. The MLLW depths calculated are dated in the Guide, so you know the currency of the depths being quoted. In most cases, the depths were taken in May and June of 2025. We are blessed to have such a dedicated group of boaters sharing their tracks to keep us all out of the mud. 
• Bob423 Red tracks vs Blue tracks, which one to take? What's the difference, and how do I find out which one to follow? The Bob 423 tracks for the ICW used to just be blue, but to get ahead of the shoaling, some shallow areas now have a red track to bypass developing shoals. Additionally, the Coast Guard will no longer relocate buoys to mark newly dredged channels in some areas. Find out how to safely navigate given these changes. 
  
• How to use the new Coast Guard graphical interface. Remember when the only way to keep current with the Coast Guard notices was to download a huge 100-page PDF file from each of the Coast Guard districts and pore through dense text to find what you wanted. Now it's much simpler. You pan and zoom in on the area of interest, and all Coast Guard notices are listed, but just for the area in view and just for the items you're interested in. It's a great timesaver. 
• Are you ready for a boat inspection in Florida? You would think that if you passed an inspection by the Coast Guard, you would be good to go, but not so for every item if you're inspected by the Florida Fish and  Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Find out what's different so there are no surprises. 
• The Coast Guard plans to eliminate 351 buoys in the northeast. Is the ICW next? There are no plans yet to expand the elimination effort beyond the northeast, but we all know that will probably not last. Find out how the Coast Guard is approaching this effort so you can be ready to make yourself heard when the cost-saving effort expands to the ICW. 

What's still needed?

• ICW Navigation Requires New Skills. You may have been around the world or cruised for 40 years, but if it’s your first time on the Atlantic ICW, you need to read the article in Chapter 10. All your experience still applies, of course, but there are nuances to navigating the ICW that apply more so here than anywhere else.
• How to Read Bridge Height Boards. Sure, most have tic marks, but what about the ones that don’t?
• Technology never sleeps. All recommendations are updated to reflect the current state of the art.
• Max Parker of Zimmerman Marine continues his article on How to ICW-Proof Your Engine. Max Parker, head of yard operations at Zimmerman Marine, gives insight from 25 years of servicing ICW cruisers on maintaining our engines for trouble-free operation.
• I cover the weather models most valuable to boaters and the apps that best display them. Two examples show the differences in predictions from weather fronts and during summer thunderstorms.
• Aqua Map Master should be your first navigation app investment. You will find a coupon in the guide for 25% off the initial purchase price of Aqua Map charts, so be sure to take advantage of the offer if you don’t already have Aqua Map
• And 16 other topics vital to making your ICW cruise as trouble free as possible.

The Guide has expanded to 312 pages in 8.5 x 11 inch paperback format. It is also available in Kindle and Waterway Guide digital editions. A local binder will be happy to convert your paperback to a spiral binding but the prices vary. In Florida, it costs $3, In New York, it's $5. 

To stay informed about current trouble spots, please follow the Waterway Guide Alerts and the ICW Cruising Guide Facebook page.