We’ve had a lot of questions about our boat trips since my husband, Rusty, posted on Facebook last year during our journey from Charleston, SC to St. Augustine, FL. In response, I figured I would do a series of blog posts to talk about our favorite trip of the year!

So, what started this tradition of ours? In Woolard Way fashion, a crazy idea to drive our boat from Greenville, NC to New Bern, NC in 2015. We were just dating and loved being on Rusty’s Sea Hunt Triton 207. We decided to make this 4 hour trip (only 45 minutes by car) and stay two nights in New Bern. This trip only had a short stint on the waterway but we were instantly hooked. The funniest part is that the little time we were on the waterway for this trip, there was really nothing to see. We just knew that this was a better way of traveling down the east coast than sitting in a car on I-95. This trip is actually what made us want to get married in New Bern. We both had passed through New Bern to go to the beach many times but had never really spent much time there.

We decided to continue this trip down the ICW in 2016. Since we had spent a lot of time around Beaufort, Morehead and Swansboro, we decided to start our trip further down in Surf City and travel to Southport. Now, we do a ICW trip every year for our anniversary (August).

Logistically, how does this all work? We trailer the boat to where we left off the previous year and start down the ICW. We do backtrack as we come back up to where the truck and trailer are but it’s a great opportunity to stop at places we couldn’t stop at on the way down. We bring along our bikes, try to run 3-5 hours (depending on where we want to stop), pick towns with a great waterfront scene and places to stay within biking distance.

What can you expect from this series of posts? Trip recaps, “On the Water” (resources we use), how we plan these trips, boat organization (needed when you’re living out of it for 4-12 days; yes, each trip gets longer lol), and trip necessities.

Drop a comment below if you’ll be following along and let me know if there is something you want to learn more about or any have questions.