Little Mud River has some shallow spots in the ICW channel.  Our track was established by the suggested deepest water shown on the Navionics Sonar Charts.  We steered the boat according to the deepest water seen on the Navionics chart.  Our course slalomed back and forth as we followed the suggested deeper water.  In the end, we found nothing less than 5’3” along our track.  A track right down the center or 30 feet either side of our track might have seen different and shallower water depth. My best guess is that a track straight down the middle would see ...

The very name of this short ¾ mile stretch of the ICW strikes fear into the hearts of many cruisers. It needn’t. While at 3’6” it is the shallowest section of the ICW we have seen, with 7 to 8 feet of tidal range, it is very easy to plan your transit with plenty of water.

Northbound we find that the anchorage at Duplin Creek is a nice place to stay, good shore access at a dinghy dock and miles of roads to hike.   It is 40 nautical miles south of Hell gate and is a good staging point for ...

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Little River SC, to Cape Lookout NC

Mason Inlet Crossing  STM 280

The coastline between Little River and Cape Lookout faces south and east.  Whether it is the prevailing southeasterly or stormy nor’easters, this coastline is a lee shore with big waves and surf.  The shallow grade of the beach creates a wave break which is much sought by surfers. These same conditions, create longshore sediment transport, and as the sand moves along the coast, propelled by the relentless wave action, at each break in the beach sand is pushed inland towards the ICW. Veteran ICW cruisers have watched ...

There is a 5 foot shallow spot in the ICW about 0.3 miles south of G117A near Sullivans Island . Heading south last November we found the shoal and marked it.  Coming north March 28, I was looking for it to get an update.  I was proceeding at about 4 knots because the state of the tide was 0.1 foot below dead low water, and we draw 4.5 feet. A sailboat from Maine was catching up to me.  I called him on the VHF to let him know there was a shoal ahead.  He said he was well aware of ...

The chart below covers this shallow stretch. It starts at G47 Awendaw Creek and ends at G35A Jeremy Creek, McClellanville. From G47 to R42 just stay in visual center to have depths of 8 to 20 feet MLLW.  Between R42 and G39 we saw several spots showing as little as 6.5 feet and we had +3.1 of help.  This means that these areas would have 3.5 feet MLLW. Through this stretch we attempted to follow the best available water as shown on the Sonar Charts. That seemed to bring us right down the visual center of the channel. We ...

Just before you get to the Savannah River, there is  new shoal building.  It was first noted in the fall of 2017.   As you pass G39  and R40  there are reports of shoaling  near the red. It is recommended that you stay on the green side if your draft is over 6 feet.  On our track  on the green side we saw 7.3 feet MLLW.

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Shallotte Inlet Crossing STM 330

First the good news.  There is a dredge on site.  Within a few weeks this section should be deep and easy to transit.  We passed through April 2. We were at near high tide, with +4 feet of tidal help The shallowest depth we saw as 8.8 feet between G81 and R80A. This would work out to 4.8 feet MLLW.  Our route through here was to follow the USCG marks and stay very close to them.  In all cases we passed within 20 to 30 feet of the marks.  Note, the track makes it look ...

#231. Tom Cunliffe is one of the great sailor/writers of the past 30 years. His old-school style in both the boats he chooses to sail and the way he tells his story is fascinating. Tom grew up in the UK and went to sea at a very young age on an actual merchant sailing vessel trading along the coast. His adventurous spirit goes beyond the high seas too – he and his wife motorcycled across the US, and he keeps a 1949 Bentley in his garage that he affectionately calls Reggie. After sailing classic, wooden gaff pilot cutters for most ...

Ben and I are excited to report that we’ve teamed up with Steve Mitchell from SailBits to co-present the Marine Electronics Forums.  Steve brings a wealth of knowledge to the forums and if you haven’t checked out SaillBits, I encourage you to do so.   Steve, Ben and I will all be regular participants in the forums, and we encourage all of our readers to join us there for conversations about marine electronics installs , use, and troubleshooting.

We’ve expanded the number of major forums to four with dedicated categories for networking and projects.

The forums will be hosted on ...

Holy cow!  I’ve never seen WiFi download speeds over 100 Mbps on land, let alone in a marina, and nevermind a dreaded marina well populated with liveaboards and northbound snowbirds. I measured the internet connectivity above while logged into New Bern Grand Marina‘s WiFi and was so dumbfounded that I tested the connection with multiple internet speed apps on both iOS and Android devices over four days. The amazing results were consistent — and, zounds, did those apps download fast — but there is much more to the story.

In last week’s feature titled Marine internet, a connected year ...