Monday, October 24, 2016

Tolers Marina - Really shallow water, really

Ann placed Fleetwing into a very tight space, boats in front and behind, she's good!
This looks very close from the helm!
Low tide today was at 10:30 so we left the dock at 7:30 am to catch as much of it as we could. The modest tide (1.1 ft) helped  out some through Minum Creek but then the tide continued to fall and when we reached McClellanville, the tide was at its lowest but still no lower than 0.5 ft above datum. Based on my route last spring where I found 6.1 MLW I didn't think I would have a problem (Wrong!)

Ocean Avenue bridge by Georgetown with a 1.7 ft tide
I ran the same route by following the magenta line on my Garmin chartplotter but instead of getting 6.1 MLW like in the spring, today I could only find 4.4 MLW as a minimum. There were long stretches of 5 MLW. Since I still had 0.5 ft over the MLW datum, I still cleared everything with a couple of inches to spare, we never touched bottom but came awfully close with my 4 ft 9 in keel. I documented everything in more detail in the associated Active Captain post I made today. My advice for those passing through McClellanville at low tide is to first take two aspirins.

I'm convinced we are seeing the last of the ICW. There is no funding for dredging and eventually McClellanville will just be a sandbank. Boaters don't seem to be in the pipeline for funding for the waterways, very sad actually.

We made it through okay and we're now in Tolers Marina for the next two days. We'll provision at Harris Teeter and do a laundry before moving on. The weather continues to be outstanding. I guess it felt guilty for all the bad press from the hurricane and compensated with good weather for awhile.

3 comments:

Shingebiss said...

Hi Bob and Ann, we met you at Utsch's this fall, were right next to you ... Until you moved due to the low water in the slips. Just wanted to thank you for all the post- Matthew tips. We are at Myrtle Beach today and will head down tomorrow. Read your AC directions for getting thru Shallots today and just now read the blog, looking for how much water you draw, 4'9", and some assurance that we will be okay with our 4' draft ... Sounds like if you can do it, so can we :). I'll be reading your comments while Steve drives for these next couple of legs. Thanks for your trailblazing ! Liz and Steve Kemper on Shingebiss, Roughwater 41.

Bob423 said...

Shingebliss, good to hear from you! We will continue our postings on Active Captain for every hazard. Glad you enjoy the blog.

Shingebiss said...

Hi Bob and Ann, we met you at Utsch's this fall, were right next to you ... Until you moved due to the low water in the slips. Just wanted to thank you for all the post- Matthew tips. We are at Myrtle Beach today and will head down tomorrow. Read your AC directions for getting thru Shallots today and just now read the blog, looking for how much water you draw, 4'9", and some assurance that we will be okay with our 4' draft ... Sounds like if you can do it, so can we :). I'll be reading your comments while Steve drives for these next couple of legs. Thanks for your trailblazing ! Liz and Steve Kemper on Shingebiss, Roughwater 41.