I watched a good presentation from NC Public TV about the Intercoastal Waterway. My question is: Are there any boat tours that follow the Intercoastal from the Virginia line to the Calabash end?

I can't answer your question, however I'm curious about the Intercoastal...I live in Tampa Bay and wonder: is the Intercoastal here the same one you're talking about? Where does it start and end? where does it cross over to the west coast of Florida? A quick google search shows it going from Virginia to Jacksonville - so what's that I'm seeing outside my house?

Wherever it's located, I believe the correct name is the:

Intracoastal

It starts at the Manasquan River in New Jersey and ends in Florida.

The ATLANTIC Intracoastal Waterway runs from Norfolk to Miami, but the GULF Intracoastal Waterway runs from Florida to Texas. FYI.

The Intercoastal Waterway is over 1,000 miles in length and stretches from Maine to Miami along the east coast. Some areas are protected and some go through ocean jetties.

Thanks for the explanations everyone!
This reminds me of an old thread re the Mason-Dixon line...everyone has a different opinion, with facts to back it up! I did another google search, this time with the intRA spelling, and got some more great info, much of it conflicting: different sources claim it begins in various places, some say it's 1000 miles long, others 3000! Dan's answer seems to be the most consistent one, though. Leo, do a search with the other spelling and you'll find some great marina guides for the IntRAcoastal. Oh, and the online dictionary gives the same definition to both inter- and intra- ...between or inside!

I don't know of any boat tours of the intracoastal but if you know of someone who takes their boat south for the winter - you might catch a ride.

We've taken the trip from the Chesapeake Bay (Annapolis) down to Albemarle Sound in NC. It was a great trip - very, very relaxing. There were portions of the trip where you could go no faster than 5 knots and it was just as if everything was being done in slooooow motion. The Dismal Swamp in Virginia was beautiful - we sae birds we never knew about, met such nice people as we would stop along the way for supplies, fuel, or for the night. The locks we went through were also so enlightening as we had never taken a boat through a set of locks before. If you have the opportunity to do this - I'd recommend it as it was probably the most relaxing week I've ever spent.

joan, I did a boat delivery years ago from Bimini to Maine and we ran the boat up the ditch from Miami to Boston and went outside to Kennebunkport. Going "inside" means you are boating in the ICW and going "outside" means you are in the ocean. Waterway, ICW, and Ditch are boating nicknames given to the Intracoastal Waterway.

There are hundreds of miles of the ditch that are very boring.

GoTravel, that sounds like a very cool adventure. What month did you take the trip, and how long did it take you? I'm thinking weeks! What were the best areas? Thanks.

Joan-Having done it before, it's not as cool as you think. After a while it gets mundane and boats and boats are not spacious. If you are really interested go to boatus.com messageboards or go to the newsgroup rec.boats.cruising.

Joan

Maybe the online dictionary gave you the same definition for "inter" and "intra" as "between and inside", but between and inside have two different meanings.

An "intER"-state highway travels "between" two or more states, like I-90 (E/W) or I-95 (N/S) - or any other with an I.

The "intRA"-state highway travels
"inside" the state like Rt.2.

And while the IntRAcoastal is an inland (inside) waterway, because it runs some 1,000 to 3,000 miles it is also an inland waterway that flows "between" many states.