North On The ICW

We went north on the ICW today. It's like motoring on a river but this river has tides. There were 5 bridges between us and our chosen destination. The first 3 bridges open at specific times. The Parker Bridge opens at quarter after and quarter to the hour, the PGA Bridge (pictured here) opens on the hour and half hour, and the Donald Ross Bridge also opens on the hour and half hour. So you radio the bridge operator when you are approaching the bridge on VHF 9 and give the type and name of your vessel. The bridge operator then tells you when the next opening is. When they open the bridge you pass through and radio back when you are clear of the bridge. The last two bridges open on demand so you call in and ask for a lift so you can pass and the operator decides when to lift for you. All went well while northbound until we passed under the Donald Ross Bridge. After that bridge we hit shoaling and went aground while still in the ICW. The ICW is suppose to be at least 12 ft deep at low tide but we hit bottom and were stuck. We hit reverse and powered back OK and then went over to the other side of the channel to get by. Then we started to run into more shoaling so decided to turn back. What we learned today is that we will need tide help to navigate the ICW in this area. Next time we go north it will have to be half before high tide to half after high tide which will limit our time to maybe 6 hours and therefore limit distance we can travel in a day. Going outside sounds better all the time because then we can sail, we won't have to wait for bridges, and we can stay in deep water.