x-no-archive:yes

We've gone offshore more this trip than at any time in the past. Of
course we were in the Hawk Channel going up the Keys, and we went from
Indian Key up to Miami in one shot (we are a very slow boat and it
took us 13 hours) and anchored after dark off Key Biscayne. We
usually take a couple of days to do this trip, but the weather was
going to be really nasty (and WAS really nasty) and it wouldn't have
made any difference going up the bay side - would still have been
nasty. The difference with the Hawk Channel side is there's no place
for us to go with 5' draft and 58.5' mast. We just have to anchor and
take it.

Then after we visited daughter SIL and grandchildren we went Miami to
Ft. Pierce, and again from the St. Mary's River to Charleston. This
took 27 hours and went OK but we arrived in dense fog.

After we visit son, DIL and grandchildren there, we went from
Charleston to the Cape Fear River. This avoids the Rockpile, and
Lockwood's Folly both plus the Sunset Beach bridge which is aground at
low tide. We were going to arrive at 3 am so we had to tack a bit to
slow down so that someone would be at the marina when we got there,
and this took us 23 hours.

We are considering offshore from Masonboro (where we are now - Saw 8.3
ft at Carolina Beach when the tide was almost high - 3.7 feet) to
Morehead City, but probably will not.


(muskrat) wrote:

Hi, Captain Rick,

Six feet on the ICW is always a risk, as you know, but I think you can
make it if you watch the tides.

Was last through Lockwoods in September while fleeing Hurricane
Isabelle and didn't have a problem. Granted I'm shallow draft, but I
don't recall any alarms going off. Shoaling there as well as at little
inlets from Sneads Ferry to Swansboro is definitely occurring, but the
tows and big shrimpers are passing by regularly and no doubt kicking
up the sand.

The secret will be to keep to the land side. In other words, go to
port at the first sign of trouble while heading north - especially
when traversing inlets - and even if this means getting uncomfortably
close to the west bank, and the coming spring tides should definitely
be an asset, as you already know.

The good news is that recent dredging projects just north of Camp
Lejeune, just south of Swansboro, and just south of Morehead have
removed problems there. My biggest worry would be, as always, the
stinking rock ledges between Barefoot Landing and Doc Holidays at
North Myrtle Beach.

Hope this helps, good sailing, and keep in touch.

Muskrat

grandma Rosalie

x-no-archive:yes

We've gone offshore more this trip than at any time in the past. Of
course we were in the Hawk Channel going up the Keys, and we went from
Indian Key up to Miami in one shot (we are a very slow boat and it
took us 13 hours) and anchored after dark off Key Biscayne. We
usually take a couple of days to do this trip, but the weather was
going to be really nasty (and WAS really nasty) and it wouldn't have
made any difference going up the bay side - would still have been
nasty. The difference with the Hawk Channel side is there's no place
for us to go with 5' draft and 58.5' mast. We just have to anchor and
take it.

Then after we visited daughter SIL and grandchildren we went Miami to
Ft. Pierce, and again from the St. Mary's River to Charleston. This
took 27 hours and went OK but we arrived in dense fog.

After we visit son, DIL and grandchildren there, we went from
Charleston to the Cape Fear River. This avoids the Rockpile, and
Lockwood's Folly both plus the Sunset Beach bridge which is aground at
low tide. We were going to arrive at 3 am so we had to tack a bit to
slow down so that someone would be at the marina when we got there,
and this took us 23 hours.

We are considering offshore from Masonboro (where we are now - Saw 8.3
ft at Carolina Beach when the tide was almost high - 3.7 feet) to
Morehead City, but probably will not.


(muskrat) wrote:

Hi, Captain Rick,

Six feet on the ICW is always a risk, as you know, but I think you can
make it if you watch the tides.

Was last through Lockwoods in September while fleeing Hurricane
Isabelle and didn't have a problem. Granted I'm shallow draft, but I
don't recall any alarms going off. Shoaling there as well as at little
inlets from Sneads Ferry to Swansboro is definitely occurring, but the
tows and big shrimpers are passing by regularly and no doubt kicking
up the sand.

The secret will be to keep to the land side. In other words, go to
port at the first sign of trouble while heading north - especially
when traversing inlets - and even if this means getting uncomfortably
close to the west bank, and the coming spring tides should definitely
be an asset, as you already know.

The good news is that recent dredging projects just north of Camp
Lejeune, just south of Swansboro, and just south of Morehead have
removed problems there. My biggest worry would be, as always, the
stinking rock ledges between Barefoot Landing and Doc Holidays at
North Myrtle Beach.

Hope this helps, good sailing, and keep in touch.

Muskrat

grandma Rosalie

Hi, Captain Rick,

Six feet on the ICW is always a risk, as you know, but I think you can
make it if you watch the tides.

Was last through Lockwoods in September while fleeing Hurricane
Isabelle and didn't have a problem. Granted I'm shallow draft, but I
don't recall any alarms going off. Shoaling there as well as at little
inlets from Sneads Ferry to Swansboro is definitely occurring, but the
tows and big shrimpers are passing by regularly and no doubt kicking
up the sand.

The secret will be to keep to the land side. In other words, go to
port at the first sign of trouble while heading north - especially
when traversing inlets - and even if this means getting uncomfortably
close to the west bank, and the coming spring tides should definitely
be an asset, as you already know.

The good news is that recent dredging projects just north of Camp
Lejeune, just south of Swansboro, and just south of Morehead have
removed problems there. My biggest worry would be, as always, the
stinking rock ledges between Barefoot Landing and Doc Holidays at
North Myrtle Beach.

Hope this helps, good sailing, and keep in touch.

Muskrat

Rick Itenson wrote:
What's the latest on Lockwood's Folly. Heading up that way soon and
Corps of Engineers says there's only five feet there.

We went through last week at low tide, and it was about 5 1/2'

Go on a higher tide, keep to landward (as Muskrat said) and watch the
current. The tide fall is not a lot, but this lulls many people into a
false sense of security... the current is swift and it will pull you out
of the channel if you let it.


... Also would
appreciate info on New River area,apparently shopaled up there too.

Yes IMHO this is worse than Lockwood's Folly. There's a bigger area to
guess where the channel is. We bumped something (a log?) underwater
nearer the red-bouy side on the north/east side of the inlet. On the way
back we kept more toward the green and were all right.


... I
need six feet.. Are there many boats going north through Lockwood's
Folly or are most of them going outside.

There was a LOT of traffic going inside last week.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

Hey, Captain Doug,

Thanks for confirming report of an unmarked nasty something lurking
around the intersection of New River and the ICW.

Last week another boater had a problem there - hit something which
ripped shaft from stuffing box and jammed prop into rudder. Nearly
sank and is still on the hill.

Will definitely be taking it slow through that area for quite a while
unless a marker magically appears. Fat chance!

May the wind be at your back,
muskrat

muskrat wrote:
Thanks for confirming report of an unmarked nasty something lurking
around the intersection of New River and the ICW.

Last week another boater had a problem there - hit something which
ripped shaft from stuffing box and jammed prop into rudder. Nearly
sank and is still on the hill.

Bummer. What kind of boat?

We've had pretty good luck (knock wood) in that department, we've hit
stuff where the water was theoritically deep enough, and nothing showed
on the surface, in places like the Trent, the Pasquotank (now there's a
beautiful river), Topsail channel, and now this New River channel
junction. We've got a full skeg but it still isn't bulletproof.


Will definitely be taking it slow through that area for quite a while
unless a marker magically appears. Fat chance!

It's a good place to be careful.

I'm glad to see some sensible discussion of going outside. Why do so
many people buy heavy displacement "offshore" cruisers and then
putt-putt up and down the ICW? When we get an autopilot, I'm planning to
take the tugboat outside for as much of the route as feasible.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

muskrat wrote:
Thanks for confirming report of an unmarked nasty something lurking
around the intersection of New River and the ICW.

Last week another boater had a problem there - hit something which
ripped shaft from stuffing box and jammed prop into rudder. Nearly
sank and is still on the hill.

Bummer. What kind of boat?

We've had pretty good luck (knock wood) in that department, we've hit
stuff where the water was theoritically deep enough, and nothing showed
on the surface, in places like the Trent, the Pasquotank (now there's a
beautiful river), Topsail channel, and now this New River channel
junction. We've got a full skeg but it still isn't bulletproof.


Will definitely be taking it slow through that area for quite a while
unless a marker magically appears. Fat chance!

It's a good place to be careful.

I'm glad to see some sensible discussion of going outside. Why do so
many people buy heavy displacement "offshore" cruisers and then
putt-putt up and down the ICW? When we get an autopilot, I'm planning to
take the tugboat outside for as much of the route as feasible.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King

x-no-archive:yes

(muskrat) wrote:

Hey, Captain Doug,

Thanks for confirming report of an unmarked nasty something lurking
around the intersection of New River and the ICW.

Last week another boater had a problem there - hit something which
ripped shaft from stuffing box and jammed prop into rudder. Nearly
sank and is still on the hill.

Will definitely be taking it slow through that area for quite a while
unless a marker magically appears. Fat chance!

May the wind be at your back,
muskrat

We got from Southport to Masonboro OK, and considered going outside
but did not. (We took a short day because of the long trip outside to
Southport which we still have not recovered from) We were basically
aground in Southport Marina at low tide, and so were the floating
docks. Bald Head apparently has no fuel at present.

On the way north the next day, right about MM 285 south of
Wrightsville Beach (opposite Shinn Creek) we ran hard aground in the
channel close to the red side. Had to get TowBoatUS to drag us off.
We got to Harbour Village Marina (another short day) without too much
other problems.

Today we did not run aground on the way to Swansboro. We transited
the New River area an near high tide (probably about 2.5 feet) and the
lowest depth we saw was 7 feet at the south red floater. Also 8 feet
at the south side of the inlet and 9 feet at the north red floater.
It was none-the-less stressful. Someone did come in to Swansboro
with a bent prop who had a draft of 3.5 feet (we draw 5 feet)

It was probably better that we not go outside though, as the marine
corp has been conducting live fire exercises off the coast 15 miles,
and today a warship had a fouled bore on one of the guns and was
having to tell sailboats to stay 15 nm away from him. We couldn't go
through the Onslow Beach bridge until noon, as has been the case each
of the last 3 days.

We are both quite tired and stressed, and will be glad to finally get
home.


grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id2.html

x-no-archive:yes

(muskrat) wrote:

Hey, Captain Doug,

Thanks for confirming report of an unmarked nasty something lurking
around the intersection of New River and the ICW.

Last week another boater had a problem there - hit something which
ripped shaft from stuffing box and jammed prop into rudder. Nearly
sank and is still on the hill.

Will definitely be taking it slow through that area for quite a while
unless a marker magically appears. Fat chance!

May the wind be at your back,
muskrat

We got from Southport to Masonboro OK, and considered going outside
but did not. (We took a short day because of the long trip outside to
Southport which we still have not recovered from) We were basically
aground in Southport Marina at low tide, and so were the floating
docks. Bald Head apparently has no fuel at present.

On the way north the next day, right about MM 285 south of
Wrightsville Beach (opposite Shinn Creek) we ran hard aground in the
channel close to the red side. Had to get TowBoatUS to drag us off.
We got to Harbour Village Marina (another short day) without too much
other problems.

Today we did not run aground on the way to Swansboro. We transited
the New River area an near high tide (probably about 2.5 feet) and the
lowest depth we saw was 7 feet at the south red floater. Also 8 feet
at the south side of the inlet and 9 feet at the north red floater.
It was none-the-less stressful. Someone did come in to Swansboro
with a bent prop who had a draft of 3.5 feet (we draw 5 feet)

It was probably better that we not go outside though, as the marine
corp has been conducting live fire exercises off the coast 15 miles,
and today a warship had a fouled bore on one of the guns and was
having to tell sailboats to stay 15 nm away from him. We couldn't go
through the Onslow Beach bridge until noon, as has been the case each
of the last 3 days.

We are both quite tired and stressed, and will be glad to finally get
home.


grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id2.html

Hey, Captain Doug,

Thanks for confirming report of an unmarked nasty something lurking
around the intersection of New River and the ICW.

Last week another boater had a problem there - hit something which
ripped shaft from stuffing box and jammed prop into rudder. Nearly
sank and is still on the hill.

Will definitely be taking it slow through that area for quite a while
unless a marker magically appears. Fat chance!

May the wind be at your back,
muskrat