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

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 15:13:28 -0400, DSK wrote:

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



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


Doug,

It's all dependent on the weather for us. Rather than waiting 3 or 4
days for weather we'll go inside. However with more and more shoaling
I guess we'll be doing more and more waiting.

Rick
"Breathless"

x-no-archive:yes


(Rick Itenson) wrote:

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 15:13:28 -0400, DSK wrote:

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


We went aground today just south of Wrightsville Beach about mm 285.
In the channel on the red side. Pushed sideways a bit by wind and
incoming tide. When people waked us we would bounce but not high
enough to get off. Had to get TowBoatUS.

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


Doug,

It's all dependent on the weather for us. Rather than waiting 3 or 4
days for weather we'll go inside. However with more and more shoaling
I guess we'll be doing more and more waiting.

Rick
"Breathless"

Sometimes it isn't just 3-4 days. This winter people waited weeks for
a window to go to the Bahamas. OTOH this past week or two it has
been almost perfect for someone going north to go offshore. I find
offshore very tiring though, and although we are anxious to get home,
we decided not to go from Masonboro to Beaufort.

grandma Rosalie

x-no-archive:yes


(Rick Itenson) wrote:

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 15:13:28 -0400, DSK wrote:

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


We went aground today just south of Wrightsville Beach about mm 285.
In the channel on the red side. Pushed sideways a bit by wind and
incoming tide. When people waked us we would bounce but not high
enough to get off. Had to get TowBoatUS.

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


Doug,

It's all dependent on the weather for us. Rather than waiting 3 or 4
days for weather we'll go inside. However with more and more shoaling
I guess we'll be doing more and more waiting.

Rick
"Breathless"

Sometimes it isn't just 3-4 days. This winter people waited weeks for
a window to go to the Bahamas. OTOH this past week or two it has
been almost perfect for someone going north to go offshore. I find
offshore very tiring though, and although we are anxious to get home,
we decided not to go from Masonboro to Beaufort.

grandma Rosalie

Hey, Cap'n Doug,

Wounded boat was a late model Chris about 30', twin screws with glass
hull. Was surprised and pleased to see no hull damage.

And hey, Cap'n Rick,

Lovely s'westerly winds this weekend, but absolutely no water at low
tides. Worst I've seen since lunar new year. Waiting for the outside
sounds better all the time.

Good sailing to all,
muskrat

Hey, Cap'n Doug,

Wounded boat was a late model Chris about 30', twin screws with glass
hull. Was surprised and pleased to see no hull damage.

And hey, Cap'n Rick,

Lovely s'westerly winds this weekend, but absolutely no water at low
tides. Worst I've seen since lunar new year. Waiting for the outside
sounds better all the time.

Good sailing to all,
muskrat

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 15:13:28 -0400, DSK wrote:

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



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


Doug,

It's all dependent on the weather for us. Rather than waiting 3 or 4
days for weather we'll go inside. However with more and more shoaling
I guess we'll be doing more and more waiting.

Rick
"Breathless"

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