Newbie question on anchorage and live aboards

We ran our watermaker at anchor from FL up to Maine and back. As long as you can adjust backpressure to match salinity and have sufficient pre filters it's not an issue.

90 days from Boston to the Caribbean is more than plenty.

If it was me I'd work it this way:

Anchoring on the Atlantic is not a good idea.

There's quite a few nice spots on the Long Island Sound, but then you'll have to deal with the East River. (Hells Kitchen). Off New Jersey there is not much, and the inside waters are 90% shallow, so from The Long Island Sound around Cape May would be a one leg run. You can find a spot once you're up the Delaware bay. Through the C&D Canal into the Chesapeake. Plan on spending time there. Tons of cute little towns and plenty of room to anchor and dinghy in. Make sure you visit St Michaels. Not sure you would fit through the Dismal Swamp, in which case you'll be negotiating Cape Hatteras. The next inlet your size would be Beaufort NC.

After that, there are limited numbers of inlets big enough to get you to the Intercoastal Waterway. Once inside, there are quite a few miles of the Ditch that will be restrictive for maneuvering space and depth. Then, the number of marinas that can handle you is limited. So first off you need to find the required number of properly spaced marinas, with access from outside. Then you need to puzzle the inside and outside part of your route together.

Lastly, for the inside parts of your route you just look at the charts and find something that's out of the channel and big and deep enough. Formal anchorages not so much. Most of them City or Town operated. Call up the harbor master and ask if he's got room for you. Other than that, you're going to be making your own anchorages. But again, out of the channel in enough water to swing around (remember there's tidal currents in the Intercoastal and 360's around the hook happen) and enough depth you can do mostly whatever you want.

Fort Lauderdale would be my jumping off point for the Southern part of your trip. Big inlet, plenty of marinas that handle things much larger than you are.

Start loading up on charts, coastal pilots, Intercoastal Waterway Cruising Guides and start planning. It could be a lot of fun, but it will be a lot of planning.

Lastly, "running an Atlantic inlet" is not a beginner's sport. Lauderdale is OK, so is Miami. West Palm, Jacksonville, Savannah, Charlston and a few others ok too. These are commercial ports. Many of the smaller inlets have sand banks, standing waves, especially when wind and tide oppose, and when it says on the chart "Local Knowledge Required" they are NOT kidding. When in doubt, stay out. And even in the bigger inlets, the pucker factor is a LOT less during daylight hours.



All that said, it could be a fun journey.

The vast majority of anchorages will not accommodate you, especially if in season and others there. Often you'd have to locate outside what is normally considered an anchorage by smaller boats. I'd say anchoring would be an issue in at least 2/3 of the areas you'd enter.

Clearly you can't do the Dismal Swamp but there are large areas of the ICW that you'll have to see only by tender. There are a lot of areas that 8.5' draft just doesn't fit. In most areas there is at least one marina that can handle you, but not in all areas. Still one would normally build such a trip around the marinas that could accommodate them. However, you're wanting anchorages all the way. What is more the norm is for smaller boats to anchor regularly and larger to use marinas. Then those even larger have to anchor further out or nearer a major inlet and have a large tender to go explore.

As to being restricted by anchorage laws, you won't have many issues if the boat is in good condition and you're not dumping into the water or otherwise causing problems. It's just finding a place for a boat your size.

Why anchoring? Do you enjoy it more? Such a large trawler. Is this a boat you own or are considering? I'm assuming you also intend to do some long range cruising, such as crossing oceans and that's why that boat? How large a crew?

You can't have confidence that any anchorage will ever be available regardless of size boat. You're talking a major area of boating and many others with ideas of anchoring as well and you're twice the size of most of them and in an anchorage need 2 1/2 to 3 times the space.

Now the one advantage you have is that they need a true anchorage with good protection from the wind and typically not very deep. You can anchor in areas they wouldn't.

What would be your starting date? Certain times of the year this route is heavily traveled..... South October, North April/May. Other times of the year, like right now, it would be all yours. I suspect you have a nice heater on there.

LI Sound to the Caribbean is a bucket list item for me. But we have successfully gunk holed from Oyster Bay to Mass. on a 50 Post - even with a little doggie, and at times children (now grown). In all of the anchorages we stayed, we saw your sized boat and it fit very comfortably.
To name a few prospects for you: Oyster Bay, Cold Spring Harbor: several harbors in Shelter island, Sag Harbor, 3 mile harbor, Fishers island, block island, Newport, the Vineyard. Nantucket, Boston Harbor - and plenty of other spots in between.

We have stayed in these places for 5 or so days at a time. Would love to have stayed longer, but my office schedule doesn't yet permit that.

Good luck and keep us posted on your travels.

As Beau pointed out, New England is generally not a problem in terms of anchoring the size boat you have. You're talking large harbors, sounds, and bays, not facing the issues you do on the ICW. Chesapeake Bay is another area that shouldn't be a problem.

Our boat spent nearly a month in Newport this year. We were only with it though for 10 days.